Bodyguard 2.0 Upgrades: XS Sights & Citizen Response Beavertail

With attending the police academy, transitioning into a new job, and getting the book out, I fell out of the habit of weekly posts here. At times over the last 18 months I’ve felt completely task-saturated. Regardless of the reason, this was unfair to my readers. It also had the doubly negative effect that most the things I was excited to write about fell by the wayside. I was recently reminded of one such article when a reader asked about my Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0 and what changed my mind about it. Let’s talk about a couple upgrades that made this gun one of my absolute favorites.

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What was Wrong with the BG 2.0?

Before we get into that, let’s talk about my complaints with the Bodyguard 2.0. I didn’t have huge complaints, and I wanted to like the gun. I certainly saw the potential. First, this thing is reliable; I’ve shot 1,200 rounds through my BG 2.0 with no problems at all. Next, it holds 10+1 of .380 in a very compact package. The gun also handles like a much bigger gun. Somehow I can get my whole hand on the grip, and the controls make it feel like a “real” gun. And it’s a bit snappy, but is very easy to handle compared to something like a Ruger LCP. Like I said, a lot going for it.

A couple of factors held me back, though. First problem was the sights. The sighting setup on the Bodyguard 2.0 was very…loose. The front sight was high-visibility, and I could have worked with it. The rear sight, however, was absolutely massive. This made it impossible to be accurate much beyond about 10 yards. While many readers said that this gun is only intended as a “belly gun,” a “get off me gun” or a gun to be used at “bad breath distance,” I disagreed. I don’t carry this gun on days when I know I will only be in close range gunfights. How would I know such things, anyway? If I knew that, I’d just stay home that day.

My purpose for this gun is for carry when I will suffer life-altering consequences if discovered to be carrying. In these circumstances (which I will decline to describe here) my risk of being assaulted is massively higher than in my private life, but ironically I am prohibited from carrying a gun*. So, if I chose to carry, concealment would be paramount. Despite having to prioritize small size, I don’t want to also sacrifice accuracy. Again, I don’t imagine this gun for carry on “low risk days,” but rather for high risk days when concealment is of the utmost importance.

*I am absolutely NOT saying that I carry a gun when prohibited. Rather, I am merely exploring the considerations were I to make such a decision.

The other problem was slide bite. This thing absolutely wore my hand out. Just a couple of magazines and I would be bleeding. A bandaid over the web of my hand would protect me for a few dozen rounds, but it, too would get eaten up. The Bodyguard 2.0 was otherwise pretty pleasant to shoot, but the slide bite really took the fun out of it. I noticed I was starting to alter my grip when shooting this gun a lot. It wasn’t the end of the world, but also made me seriously reduce my practice time with the BG 2.0.

The Value of the Bodyguard 2.0

I’m sure other people have different issues, but those were my main problems with the BG 2.0. Overall they weren’t terrible, and if I couldn’t fix either of them I would probably still carry this gun as a backup on duty…and I did. I mean, it’s still pretty good! I saw a lot of potential value in this gun, though, and really wanted to make it work.

It’s smaller than a J-Frame revolver, while weighing the same (loaded) as the ultralight, titanium cylinder 432 Ultimate Carry. It costs a couple hundred less than most J-frames, about $300 less than the Ultimate Carry models, and about $600 less than the Airlight 340 PD. Ammo for .380 is cheaper than .38 Special or 32 H&R, too. At 10+1, it also holds over twice as much ammo as the .38 Special snubbies, and almost twice as much as the .32 H&R Mag snubbies. And, it is also far more reliable than any S&W revolver I’ve tested in the last couple of years. I wrung all this out in an article comparing the BG 2.0 and 432 UC almost a year ago.

Step 1: XS R3D Night Sights

I was ok turning this into a “carried a lot and shot a little gun” but I did want to fix the accuracy. I reached out to XS Sights and they very graciously sent me a set of XS R3D Night Sights. These sights feature a large, square front sight. The front sight contains a tritium tube and a huge, luminescent ring. I thought the factory sights were high-viz, but this one you truly can’t miss. It’s big, bright, and loud.

The rear sight is a square notch. That alone is an improvement over the BG 2.0’s U-notch, which I never warmed to. It also has two tritium dots, making it the old, familiar three-dot arrangement in low-light. More importantly, it is appropriately sized to the front sight and offers a traditional sight picture. Now, you’re not going to win any bullseye competitions with these sights, but I have been able to achieve far better accuracy with these sights than with the OEM sights. In fact, I’ve shot a 100% on my agency’s pistol qualification with this gun. The qual isn’t that difficult, but with 8 (of 30) shots fired at 25, shooting a perfect score would be a difficult feat with the factory sights.

The XS Sights are extremely robust. Everything about them is thick and chunky. They just look heavy-duty. I’ve had this gun on my ankle, every single shift, for a year now and these sights are little worse for wear. The right side of the rear sight is a tad banged up; that’s the most exposed part of the gun when I’m wearing it on my ankle. I’m sure that hits my car door jamb occasionally and things like that. I was initially worried it would wear a hole in my pants, but surprisingly the butt of the gun has been harder on my uniform pants than the fairly sharp rear sight.

The sights blend very well with the contours of the gun. They also have a nice, big ledge.

The XS R3D Night Sights have been a game-changer for the Bodyguard 2.0. I’m much more confident in its accuracy now. And that just makes me generally a lot more confident carrying this thing, both on duty as a cop, and off duty when concealment really matters. If you’re unhappy with the OEM sights, I strongly encourage you to take a look at the XS R3D sighting setup.

Step 2: The Citizen Response Beavertail

I was honestly pretty happy with the gun at this point. I could shoot it more accurately than I could before, and - to be honest - these sight just look better. But it was still just an ankle gun. The case of .380 I have started getting dusty. I would fire off the rounds in the magazine on a SWAT range day, just as a test fire and to replace ammo. Beyond that, though, I didn’t shoot this gun much. Until I discovered the Citizen Response Beavertail Backstrap.

The Citizen Response Beavertail Backstrap is a $20 piece of nylon that is worth its weight in gold. It fits over the backstrap of the BG 2.0. It is available for thumb-safety and non-thumb-safety versions. It snaps neatly into place, and is held in place by a pin that replaces one of the pins in that holds your gun together. The replacement pin is just slightly longer to account for the added thickness of the Beavertail itself.

Instead of replacing the pin, I wanted to test this out a bit first, I put it in place and wrapped some “Goon Tape” around it. Though I do intend to replace the pin eventually when I get around to it, I sort of forgot about it. Months later it’s doing just fine. The Citizen Response website also indicates that you can do a permanent install with a drop of super glue, and I may give this a shot because frankly, I don’t see myself taking the Citizen Response Beavertail Backstrap off the gun.

One More Thing: Goon Tape

Goon tape seems really popular with a lot of cops at my agency. A lot of them have their Glock grips wrapped up in the stuff. I think it’s fine, but I was also perfectly fine with the grip texture on the Bodyguard 2.0…for shooting at least. One thing I discovered after my first few weeks of carrying it was that same, rough texture absolutely wore my ankle raw on a 12-hour shift.

I ordered a roll of Goon Tape and it fixed that problem right up - I no longer even notice the gun on my ankle. Even better, there’s really no loss in my ability to hold onto the gun; it still provides plenty of purchase. Also, happily, it somewhat covers the transition between the Beavertail Backstrap and the rest of the grip…the one thing that could probably be a bit more refined about that product.

If you like your Bodyguard 2.0, but don’t love it, these modest upgrades might make a difference. They did for me…I just ordered another case of .380 ammo because I really enjoy shooting this gun again! I think this is one of the best backup/non-permissive environment handguns available today.