Lipsey’s has done it again! For over 70 years, the famed firearms distributor has continued to live up to their motto: Aim Higher! Lipsey’s has become the mecca distributor for keen-eyed gun owners who anxiously await their exclusive releases each year.
Lipsey’s staff are gun folks. They know and listen to their customers. This commonsense approach and perceptiveness to business brings us some of the best of the best guns offered in the world of firearms. They continued to knock it out of the park this year by teaming up with Smith & Wesson to resurrect and improve on the S&W Night Guard Series revolvers with another Lipsey’s Exclusive that’s sure to be a success.
I recently visited with Lipsey’s Senior Vice President, Jason Cloessner at Gunsite Academy, where we broke in the new Night Guards. Jason is a gun guy who leads the special make-up firearms division.
Shooting alongside him for a few days in Arizona revealed another fact. He can shoot! His knowledge of firearms and his ability to liaise with manufacturers to bring desirable guns to the market is unsurpassed. The Lipsey’s Team knows what folks want, and each year we continue to see several top-shelf exclusives born from their desire to provide shooters with the firearms of their dreams.
Lipsey’s Exclusive: S&W Night Guard Series Revolvers
Students of the wheel gun will certainly be pleased with the release of Lipsey’s Exclusive S&W Night Guard Series. These guns are lightweight, handy, and accurate. They are built on the L-Frame and are offered in two classic cartridges: a seven-shot Model 386-2 in .357 Magnum and a five-shot Model 396-2 in .44 Special.
We tested some of the first guns to come off the assembly line, and each performed spectacularly. By the end of the first range session, we had a large trash bin full of empty ammo boxes from Double Tap Ammunition and High Desert Cartridge Company, with nary a hiccup from the revolvers.
These guns feature scandium frames, no internal lock, three-inch stainless-steel barrels encased in an aluminum barrel sleeve, titanium frame pins, a stainless-steel blast shield, and ball detent lockup. The cylinders are stainless steel and coated in a highly durable black Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) finish.
These guns sport a matte black anodized, no-nonsense finish on the frame and barrel sleeve that matches up nicely with the PVD-coated cylinder. The good sights are comprised of a .130” wide XS Sights Green Ring Night Sight front sight with square tops, and a .150” wide square notch black adjustable rear sight.
The revolvers are fitted with narrow hammers and smooth-faced triggers, each coated in a black oxide finish. The cylinder is nicely beveled, and the chambers are chamfered to aid in loading the guns, even with wadcutters.
The revolvers come with Hogue Bantam stocks that are easy to grip and add to the rugged, compact nature of the gun. Their single action triggers break crisp, and the double action stroke is smooth on each gun. Each of these revolvers I have on hand exhibit good actions, so good that I see no need to have them tuned further.
Each gun had several hundred rounds fired through it at Gunsite. Having said that, I suggest that if the trigger pull on a brand new one feels a little stiff, you might consider running a couple of hundred rounds through it before spending the money on an action job. These guns felt fine out of the box, and they are even smoother now after having been shot a bit.
Have Lipsey’s and S&W Provided the Perfect Carry Revolver?
Revolver aficionados like to theorize on attributes of what comprise the best wheel gun choice for everyday carry. After Lipsey’s and S&W released the Ultimate Carry (UC) snub-nosed revolvers a couple of years ago, many of us dreamed of an even larger gun for daily carry that shared many of the UC’s qualities. For a lot of us, our envisaged revolver came to light with these Night Guards.
The L-Frame-sized revolver is considered by many to be the perfect packing platform in a double action revolver. It offers more gun than the J-Framed snub and less bulk than the N-Frame, yet it is still easily concealable.
The three-inch barrel is the best of both worlds, still providing a small enough profile for discrete carry with the advantage of an enhanced sight radius. The scandium frame and aluminum barrel sleeve reduce weight to just 24 ounces in the M386 and 23 ounces for the M396.
The Night Guard Series checks a lot of boxes, and many will find that these revolvers will fill the bill of a perfect revolver for everyday carry.
Range Time in The High Desert
The green-ring front sight is fast to pick up with the eye and provides an added advantage in low light. For precision shooting, I simply treat the dot as I would a ramp or Patridge sight and focus on the top edge of the front sight. With this sight, we have a thin piece of metal on top of the dot that enhances precise aiming.
Accuracy groups were fired on the bench at 12 yards with some of the best factory ammunition available today. I fired five-shot groups for uniformity and rested each gun in my Ransom Multi Cal Steady Rest. Being a typical day in west Texas, the wind was blowing steadily with gusts up to 20 mph, but this rest helped quite a bit to keep the sights steady. Velocities were measured with my handy Athlon Rangecraft Velocity Pro Radar Chronograph.
As you see from the chart, these guns are plenty accurate. Some groups contain nice clusters, but I inadvertently pulled a shot or two, widening the score. Two flyers were obviously the fault of this shooter, so I omitted them from the groups.
You’ll also notice I did not run a bunch of hot stuff through the Night Guards. A few of the spicier loads that were fired will definitely let you know you’re alive! These guns are lightweight, so recoil will be significantly more noticeable should you decide to stoke them with hard-kicking ammunition.
Stretching the guns out on steel to 50 yards is not a problem. The smooth double action pulls on the guns allow for rapid and accurate shots on target when shooting offhand.
Decisions, Decisions
After amassing a pile of empty brass, Cloessner proposed the obvious question. “Well, which one do you like most?” A quick calculation and comparisons of each gun streamed through my head.
The .44 Special is a classic, the coveted cartridge of many a revolver connoisseur. Good ammunition allows it to be a substantial personal defense round, and just about anything can be taken with hunting loads. The five-round capacity of the cylinder is ample for any occasion, and I just like calibers starting with the number four. So, the M396 had to be the one for me.
But then there’s the M386 in .357 Magnum. A multitude of fight-stopping cartridges are available for this gun, and little is lost with a good .38 Special load that is easier to handle in the recoil department.
While older notions say the .357 Magnum is on the lower end of the spectrum as a handgun hunting cartridge, my experience has been that it works just fine with properly chosen ammo. This revolver holds seven rounds in the cylinder, and while the five-round capacity of the .44 Special doesn’t bother me at all, seven is more!
The Final Verdict
My answer was simple. “Both of’em!”
These S&W Night Guards have found a welcome home and will become some of my daily packing companions. Their lightweight and compact size ensures I will always be armed with an accurate wheel gun chambered in proven and capable cartridges. They are equally at home in the remote country I routinely trapes around in, as well as those urban environments that are occasionally forced upon me.
It’s hard to make any money at the writing game when you buy the guns you review, but these two revolvers are an investment in my personal protection and that of my family. It’s impossible to put a price on that.
The Night Guard Series have an MSRP of $1,269. I’ll gladly pay less than $3.50 a day for the first year to have a quality wheel gun on my hip. Heck, I’m happy to pay $7.00 a day so I can have them both!
