The Night Guards come in (top to bottom) N (329NG), L (386NG) and K (315NG) frame sizes.

Readers familiar with my scribblings are aware that I am a proud member of an ever-shrinking fraternity: a revolver fan. While I own a large number of semiauto pistols and use them for competition, concealed carry and home defense, my true love has always been the wheelgun.

And when it comes to carry guns, I'm a firm believer that "light makes right" because any handgun that is carried for self-defense is going to be toted around a lot more than it is ever going to be fired. For these reasons, one of my regular carry guns is a 1960s vintage S&W Model 12 AirWeight--a K-frame alloy revolver that weighs a mere 18 ounces but holds six rounds of .38 Special ammunition.

Unfortunately, the Model 12 went out of production in 1986 and is not rated for +P ammo, and while there is no shortage of lightweight, alloy-frame revolvers on today's market, almost all of them are small-frames that hold only five rounds of ammunition.

ACCURACY RESULTS
CALIBER	BULLET WEIGHT (gr)	AVG VELOCITY(fps)	AVG GROUP (in.)
Model 315 NG
Cor-Bon DPX	110	992	2.3
Black Hills JHP + P	125	872	2.0
Remington LSWCHP + P	158	851	2.1
Model 386NG
Hornady XTP	125	1,196	2.5
Winchester Silvertip	145	1,187	2.8
Federal Nyclad	158	1,110	3.0
Model 329NG
PMC LSWC (.44 Spl)	240	805	2.8
Winchester Silvertip	210	1,039	2.5
PMV Starfire	240	1,022	2.8
CCI Blazer JHP	240	903	2.63

Recently, though, Smith & Wesson introduced a new line of revolvers that I feel are the natural descendents of my beloved Model 12, combining superior ergonomics, higher cartridge capacity and authoritative calibers: the Night Guards.

Night Guard revolvers will be available three frame sizes and five calibers. The Model 315NG is built on a K frame and chambered for the.38 Special. The Model 386NG (a seven-shot .357) and Model 396NG (a five-shot .44 Special) are both built on the L frame. Rounding out the line are three N-frame guns: the Model 386NG (eight-shot .357) and the models 329NG (.44 Magnum) and 325NG (.45 ACP), both of which have six-round cylinders.

All six revolvers feature 2.5-inch barrels, matte black finishes and Pachmayr Compac grips. In fact, when you lay them side by side, despite their different frame sizes, calibers and capacities, they look remarkably alike. Differentiating between them is made even more difficult by the fact that their weights are so similar--running from the Model 315's 24 ounces to 29.5 ounces for the big .44 Magnum.

Okay, I can already hear the gasps of disbelief from some of the readers, "What? A 29.5-ounce .44 Magnum revolver? Ouch!" Please reread what I said about concealed-carry guns: light makes right.

All Night Guard Revolvers are built around a frame constructed from an alloy containing a small amount of scandium. Scandium is a rare, extremely strong and expensive metal that has the ability to transmit a large amount of its strength and flexibility when small amounts of it are alloyed with other metals--aluminum, in this case. The discovery of this process has allowed S&W's engineers to construct ultra lightweight revolver frames that are capable of standing up to the operating pressures of magnum cartridges.

Other than the inclusion of scandium in their frames, the Night Guards differ from S&W's other alloy revolvers in that there is a replaceable blast shield made of thin, hardened steel above the cylinder/barrel gap so as to prevent the hot, powder gases from eroding the frame's top strap.

While it would have been possible to fit the Night Guard revolvers with titanium cylinders and reduce the weight even further, it was decided that this would increase recoil and might keep owners from practicing with the gun--not a good thing for a personal/home protection firearm.

For this reason they are fitted with heavier stainless steel cylinders with a high-tech Physical Vapor Deposit matte black finish that provides increased protection against salts, solvents, abrasion and just about anything that Ma Nature--or careless owners--might care to subject them to.