Took the wife shopping for a new activewear carry piece for her. After getting her hands on a Shield, G43, P239 (way too heavy, LOL), and we finally settled on a 380 Bodyguard. Pleasantly surprised to find there's a $50 rebate for the Bodyguard. 
We take it to the range along with a decent selection of other pistols, set up a target 15ft from the bench. 
Now, I am not the best shot in the world. I can expect 4-6" groups at that range with my G30SF during casual shooting. On good days I'll have 3" groups. 
I. Couldn't. Hit. The. Target. with the Bodyguard. Completely missing the paper. Standing, offhand shots. 
My wife didn't have this issue, she still managed to get holes into the paper but was having difficulty with the long trigger pull and making it work with her grip. That's something to improve on but at least she was hitting paper. 
My ego didn't allow it to be an operator error. Inspecting the pistol, the rear sights are slightly left of center, and the front sight is the same. Aha! Found my problem. Make adjustments in my sight picture. Right?
Nope. Still can't hit anything. 
By the end of the trip my wife was getting decent groups on target with the Bodyguard and I was still whiffing every shot. 
In the long run I suppose this doesn't matter because that's her pistol and she's the one that needs to shoot it well. I've just never had this happen. 

I've had trouble with those as well. They are not pleasant pistols to shoot by a long shot.

Were your problems consistent? I was going everywhere. 2 o'clock, 6, somewhere well past 11. 

If you are applying solid fundamentals at 15 feet your groups should be one ragged hole. Happy to hear it is working for your wife, but you need to practice dry fire and really focus on trigger control. Some guns are easier to shoot well compared to others ( with the current crop of striker fired poly pistols imo harder to deal with in this regard compared to single actions or some other designs)

I can shoot well enough with all other pistols I own, it is specifically the Bodyguard that was giving me troubles. It might just be too small for my hands.

I don't disagree though, there's a lot of room for improvement with my shooting.

The small size and trigger do make them difficult to shoot. I knew this already and still purchased one today. Just keep practicing and focus on trigger control and your groups should tighten up.

If you want to get her a easy to shoot .380 that size you should try the sig p238. My wife loves hers and I considered one for myself but I didn't want to spend $650 on it.

This!  I have the same issues with some pistols.  It's hard to do, but concentrate on the problem/platform at hand and dry fire.  Then go to the range and try again.

238 and 239s were the first pistols in her hand that day - beautiful yet too heavy.

This is a pistol intended to wear when jogging, etc.

I have a bodyguard non-laser and I really like it for a pocket/deep concealment type pistol. Yes the gun is small, and yes the trigger is heavy and long. I shot the BG along with the LCP when buying and there was no comparison between the two IMO.

I also disagree that the pistol is not pleasant to shoot, as some people say. I cant really describe how or why, but to me it shoots "like a larger gun" even though it still feels small in my hands. This is the only trigger I own that isn't striker fired, and I can still make headshots out to 7-10yds when I do my part. I try to train at least 50rds through it from concealment each time I go to the range. We have a reduced silhouette steel and I can make hits on it at 25 yds working the mechanics hard(granted, not at any type of high speed).

I will admit that after not shooting the BG for awhile, it does take a few mags worth of shooting to "dial it back in" compared to the rest of my handguns. So in that regard, it is a little harder to shoot accurately.

Wife had a bodyguard for a while, it was not fun to shoot, but I could get decent groups if I really took my time.
Traded her up to a Sig P238 Equinox and it was like night and day as far as recoil feel and accuracy.
Smoother, easier to rack, much easier to shoot accurately due to the single action trigger.

My Bodyguard (laser) is a tack driver.  If I do my part, I can shoot tiny groups with proper trigger control.

Being a small very lightweight .380 the recoil is significant and the double action trigger does take practice to learn...  Neither conductive to easy to learn shooting...

I was in the same boat when I first got mine. Once I got used to it and the trigger smoothed out, it was laser accurate like my 1911. Keep practicing.

I had briefly considered buying one a while back, not that I need one as I have a Glock 42 and an SW380. Once I found out it was DAO, I passed. I have not shot the Sig P238, but I have to say, shooting the G42 is very pleasant compared to all of the other .380's I have shot and owned in the past. One of the most unpleasant? Walther PPK.

OP, do you shoot DA revolvers?   It's just a whole different animal than Single action / Striker fired.  And if you own DA/SA guns and never practice that first DA pull, it's going to be all new.  

For a long time I avoided DA guns because I was like, why would anyone want to make it so hard to shoot?  But then when I started carrying a gun, I first found the DA pull to be comforting mentally for a few different reasons.    


I would imagine with practice and maybe studying up on how to shoot a DA gun better, you'll improve.  When I shoot my 6" model 19, all of a sudden I'm getting small groups and feeling like, wow, how is this possible with a double action pull.  Point being if you had a DA gun that was bigger to practice with, it might increase your confidence and then move to the smaller pistol while learning it.....


But no doubt about it, a DA gun is much more challenging to shoot well than a Single action or striker.  

I couldn't hit anything with my BG and I didn't expect my performance to get any better under stress.

So it sits in my safe, waiting for prices to rise again so I can get my $$ out of it.

You (I) have no business carrying a handgun for self protection if you can't quickly and reliably hit your target.

I have a couple, however if I'm shooting for practice I tend to do SA. This is a good point though. 

That's why I carry a Glock 

I have had a S&W BG 380 for about a year.  I don't shoot it very often but when I do I generally miss at anything smaller than 2 ft. x 2 ft. over 20 ft. away.  On the other hand, I bought it to shoot at the center of bodies that will likely be less than 10 ft. away, and probably will be coming towards me.

I do hope to get somewhat better accuracy when I get more practice time.