Did Someone Finally Make the Perfect Carry Revolver?

That's only the second cylinder that I put through this, and I would say that this gun is living up to its expectations. Hey everyone, James Reeves, TFB TV, coming at you live from the Neutral Ground Gun Company in New Orleans, come and see us. Today we're looking at Smith & Wesson's best carrier revolver, the best one they've ever made, arguably the best carrier revolver for the price in today's market, the resurrected Smith & Wesson Nightguard. Not the lightest, not the cheapest, not the highest capacity, or even the most powerful, but it's a well-rounded revolver that doesn't max out any one stat, just solid across the board. It's like the Glock 19 of revolvers. It weighs about the same as a Glock 19, in fact. If you like what we do here and you wanna support independent gun content, Smith & Wesson didn't sponsor this video or even ask us to do it, check us out on subscribestar.com slash TFB TV. We do thousands of dollars of monthly giveaways every month. We do AMAs behind the scenes. We even have a private Discord chat room. So think about giving us just a couple bucks a month to keep us independent. Before we get into why it's the best, let's talk about what it is. This gun's also made in .44 Special, but this review gun was a .357 Magnum. I'm focusing this video on this gun specifically. The Nightguard originally launched about 20 years ago. It was well-loved, but it wasn't nearly as refined as what we're looking at today. This new version, brought back to life by Louisiana distributor Lipsy's, the exclusive distributor for this gun, it's a revolver that holds seven rounds of .357 Magnum, three-inch barrel, it weighs 24.4 ounces. That probably doesn't mean anything to you, but let me explain why it's a big deal. And the best way to explain why it's a big deal is to compare it with other models in the line. And you'll see why my buddy Daryl of American Fighting Revolver called this the best revolver from the hoods to the woods. Let's take the first challenger, Smith & Wesson's legendary 686 Plus with a three-inch barrel. Closest thing to this gun. Two-dimensionally, almost the same thing. Almost the same gun, but so far away at the same time. Same barrel length, same frame, same size, same capacity, same caliber, same barrel. Three-quarters of a pound heavier. A full 50% heavier than this gun. It's a belt buster. The Night Guard wins this matchup on three main points. First, 50% lighter because of the scandium frame, which is lightweight but robust, used in many of Smith & Wesson's top-of-the-line revolvers. Not only that, but scandium doesn't rust. It comes in this beautiful all-black finish. And while stainless steel is rust-resistant, my home states of Louisiana and Florida literally eat stainless for breakfast. High humidity, salt water, sweat. They'll test all but the most corrosion-resistant metals. The 686, an all-stainless gun, which is nice. And even if you were willing to carry a two-and-a-half-pound revolver, which, yikes, rust is still a possible issue. The Night Guard uses a stainless barrel and cylinder, but they are PVD-coated, which is one of the most high-tech and corrosion-resistant finishes available on a firearm today. Number one, it's lighter. Number two, it's almost corrosion-proof. And number three, it comes a little bit more concealed carry-oriented out of the box. You get a fully adjustable rear sight, an excess yellow tritium front night sight, which makes a lot more sense on a defensive carry revolver. The Hogue Bantam grips on the Night Guard, also very carry-friendly, definitely better than the basic bitch plastic-y, rubbery grips that you see on most standard Smith & Wesson revolvers. These are concealable, yet they work really well. For about 200 bucks more than a comparable 3-inch 686+, the Night Guard saves almost three-quarters of a pound, gives you the scandium and PVD corrosion-resistance advantage, and it comes with a much more defensive carry-oriented package. Not a hard sell here, fellas. Next competitor, the Model 640. It's a compact .357 Magnum J frame. It's about the same weight as the Night Guard, but it's all stainless. However, it holds just five rounds versus seven in this gun. It has a barrel that is two inches versus three in this gun, and that three-inch barrel matters more than you think. Our buddies at Lucky Gunner tested .357 Magnum Velocity out of two-inch guns and three-inch guns. Depending on the load, the extra inch or so gets you an extra 50 to 125 more foot-pounds of energy, which is like 20 to 25% more power just by having an extra inch of barrel. Now, that's not nothing. The Night Guard gives you two extra rounds, better sights than the 640, a bigger and more shootable frame, and a pretty meaningful ballistic advantage while still being concealable. The 640's a great little gun, but the Night Guard playing a different game. Ooh, what about that new Model 19 Carry Comp? This gun looks cool as ----. It's like the Gunkata Grammaton Cleric Smith & Wesson. It's a K-frame, slightly smaller frame, hardly noticeable than the Night Guard. Also has a performance center-tuned action, but in this matchup, the Night Guard still wins pretty easily. With the Model 19 Carry Comp, you lose a round, you gain about 10 ounces of weight, you still get a shorter barrel, and it's still around 100 bucks more expensive. Oh, and there's the compensator. On a range gun, compensator, super awesome. It helps reduce recoil, reduce muzzle rise. On a concealed carry gun, it's debatable. People argue over this, but it's a trade-off. You get more muzzle flash, which can, I guess, allegedly hurt your night vision if you've got a big flash coming up from your gun. You've also got this little cut that can direct more unburned powder, more debris upwards, and depending on how the gun's fired, like cross-body or whatever, you have a risk of unburned powder going up straight in your face. Other than the trigger job, I think the Night Guard wins just across the board in this matchup as well. Another easy W. All right, let's make it a bit harder. I'm gonna go grab one of my most favorite Smith & Wessons of all time, known as the .340 PD. The .340 PD is a J-frame .357 Magnum that weighs about half as much as the Night Guard, but you're also limited to five rounds, and this thing is just a pocket nuke. You should get better accuracy from the better sights, the bigger grip, and the additional weight of the Night Guard, not to mention you get two extra rounds in this gun versus this gun, an extra 20 to 25% more energy from ammunition because of the longer barrel. I mean, let's call it what it is, guys. I love the .340 PD. This is one of my favorite pocket carry guns. It's so little, but this is almost an apples to oranges comparison, catering to a different style of carry, so it's almost not even fair to compare these guns, but gosh, both of them are really good. Speaking of really good, I'm gonna grab one more. Up until, say, last year, I would have said that this was Smith & Wesson's best carry revolver, the Smith & Wesson .327. Now we have a real matchup on our hands. The .327 holds a whopping, count them, eight rounds of .357 Magnum Performance Center Tuned Trigger. The cylinders cut for moon clips for faster loading and unloading, and it's even about an ounce lighter than the Night Guard, but when you look at the shortcomings, you can see why even this incredible high-tech revolver falls short of the Night Guard. First off, it's an N-frame. It's chunkier than the L-frame Night Guard, and it has to be because it has to accommodate eight rounds of .357 Magnum. Woo, I'm looking at that stubby little guy. Might not even be a two-inch. Might be like a one and seven-eighths. And this gun, the .327, costs $350 more than the Night Guard. The weight difference, negligible. Can't really tell the difference. You get one extra round of capacity in the .327, a better trigger, moon clip capability. Real advantages, but you also get a larger frame, a shorter barrel, less ballistic performance from the same ammo, a higher price. I love the .327. One of the coolest concealed carry revolvers Smith & Wesson's ever made. But because it's an N-frame with a short barrel, it's weirdly chunky and compact at the same time. It looks like the cartoon revolver from Who Framed Roger Rabbit that shoots the cowboy and Indian bullets. When you look at all this together, the Night Guard is just the more sophisticated, balanced gun from a pragmatic standpoint. Quick note on the .44 Special version. It's the connoisseur gun. It's cool. It's a more serious revolver, more powerful. I know Darrell from American Fighting Revolver said it was his pick, but for most people, the .357's the obvious answer. Seven rounds instead of five. Cheaper ammo, more common ammo. You can go anywhere from mild, cheap .38 all the way up to serious .357. All right, enough with the matchups. Let's talk about shooting this gun. .38 Special out of this is a pussycat. As you can see from this video, at seven yards, I was putting most rounds in the 10 ring and getting back on target pretty quickly. But I mean, hell, this was all double action. I mean, shot just as well with double action, reasonably rapid fire. The sights are good. Even when I would pick up the pace, it was still easy to dump a whole cylinder inside the eight ring at seven yards. That's great accuracy, especially with double action. On that note, the double action trigger here, more than serviceable. We had better accuracy shooting informally with the double action versus the single action. Double action, single action. It's a thing. Ryan and I, I think we noticed that for the first time shooting the Manorin revolver at Thunder Ranch. It's a thing. I don't know what it is, but for some of us, we can actually shoot double action better than single, which is good because if you're using this in a defensive situation, typically that's what's going to happen. You're not gonna fire, cock the hammer, fire, cock the hammer, fire, cock the hammer every single time. So I would rather that, but damn, I really fell apart on single action. It's easy to find a gun with a light, crisp, single action pull. Double action is where you make your money. That's what you're gonna be doing if you ever need to deploy a pistol rapidly in self-defense. The good news is that this revolver has a very good double action trigger. .357 Magnum, little bit more of a handful in this gun. We were firing soft point .357 Magnum hunting rounds through this gun and it was breathing fire. Wowza, I threw the last one because my hand is tired of being abused, but the first three, boom, boom, boom, 10 ring, two in the nine, one in the eight, one in the seven. So, I mean, you guys saw, could you see the flames coming out, Ryan? Could you see it? Like, that ---- is no joke, but for this being like a quasi-concealable, I mean, yeah, I would say this is a concealable and relatively lightweight .357 Magnum. I mean, it puts up numbers. Like, it's resultant. You should be able to shoot the same gun with the same accuracy with a slightly hotter round unless you're flinching like Tina Turner when someone drops a book every time you shoot. The difference is the speed of getting back on target. I'm not gonna lie to you, .357 Magnum, a little Kung Pao out of this revolver. Remember, the beauty about the Nightguard is the balance. Like my uncle Clint Smith says, when you're carrying them, none of them can be small enough. When you're shooting them, none of them can be big enough. This one splits the difference pretty well. It's not as small or as light as a J-frame, but it handles the recoil much better. And it's also not as pleasant to shoot as a 686, but much more pleasant to carry. And let's be honest, you're gonna be carrying this thing way more than you're gonna be shooting it. And guns that are too big or too heavy to carry often get left at home, defeating the purpose. I also forgot to mention that the Nightguard includes Smith & Wesson's upgraded endurance package. Smith & Wesson doesn't publish a detailed list of what exactly that is, but the implication is that the endurance package uses more robust internals for more durability. And for all those reasons, I think this is Smith & Wesson's best personal defense revolver ever made. If you had to force me to think of a way to improve it, maybe the performance center action, but I don't know how much more that would cost and if this gun even really needs it. I just can't think of what else it might need. It's not the lightest revolver. It's not the cheapest revolver. It's not the highest capacity. It's not the softest shooting, but it might be the best balanced defensive revolver that Smith & Wesson's ever made. Seven rounds of .357 Magnum, three-inch barrel, an L-frame that's big enough to shoot, small enough to carry, Scandium construction, PVD-coated stainless parts, good sights, good grips, no lock, durability package, configuration that actually makes sense from the hoods to the woods. Thanks for watching, guys. If you wanna support the channel directly, check us out, Subscribestar.com slash TFBTV. Supporter-only posts, monthly drawings, 5.11 swag, so on, so forth. We're just glad you're watching. Take care.