Shoot Local

My experience with a gun made in my hometown of Maryville, Tennessee by Smith & Wesson

Eat local. Drink local. Buy local. Now . . . shoot local?

I don’t know if that’s going to become a trend anytime soon, but it’s what I’ve been doing. I recently upgraded from a Ruger LCP .380 to a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0, also in .380. I liked the Ruger pretty well when I bought it, but it’s not an especially refined gun and over time I’ve gotten a bit dissatisfied. When I noticed that I was finding reasons not to practice with it, I decided it was time to move up.

I usually carry a bigger gun, typically a Sig Sauer P365, occasionally a baby Glock in an ankle holster. (Some people laugh at these, but when you’re in a car it’s easier to reach the ankle holster than to draw from the waist.) I have on occasion carried a full-sized P226, and it’s absolutely possible to conceal those if you’re a guy as big as me, but it’s work. It’s awkward in a concealable holster, and a fanny pack, to me, just screams “I’m carrying a gun” to the point that it’s practically open carry anyway.

But when you want to be extra discreet, or extra light, there’s a lot to be said for a gun that will fit in your front pocket, or in a suit jacket pocket, with a sticky holster. And, I confess, part of the Smith’s appeal is that it’s made a few miles from where I live now, in my former hometown of Maryville, Tennessee, where Smith recently moved to avoid blue-state harassment.

It's a big improvement over the LCP. My thumbs are often sore from lifting weights, and the recoil from the LCP hit them painfully. For some reason of geometry, the Bodyguard 2.0 doesn’t do that. Pretty much the same size and weight, firing the same ammo, but the grip angle or something is just different enough that it’s comfortable. It shoots pretty well, too.