Handgun Hunting Afield

 

Enter the NEW 396 Night Guard. 

On April 21, 2026 announced the return of the 396 Night Guard. The new S&W 396 Night Guard is a Lipsey exclusive and after owning some Lipseys guns I will tell you that I have never been disappointed. The name “Night Guard” and the matt black finish conjure up images of the “film noir” period of Hollywood. Humphrie Bogart and James Cagney come to mind. It is the 4th .44 Special in the evolution of scandium frame L frames. As soon as I heard the 396 Night Guard was returning but without the internal lock, it caught my attention. The Night Guard name was retained since it was already a fixture in the S&W line. The return of the gun was a collaboration between S&W and Lipsey’s. It is largely a product from the fertile mind of Jason Cloessner. It didn’t just return. It returned with some real, tangible improvements from lessons learned on the first 396 Night Guard. Not that the first gun was bad. It was actually a pretty nice gun but was more of a single mission handgun. It was basically designed to be carried a lot and shot in moderation. This new iteration of the 396 Night Guard will still be an easy to carry package but new features add utility to the gun. I know that some of you reading this will wonder why not just buy a 329PD and shoot specials in it. The 396 is scaled to the job it is intended to do. It is smaller overall than the 329PD thus easier to conceal. It was intentionally built as an L frame. 

First look. 

Upon opening the box I immediately liked it.The Night Guard comes in one of the familiar blue S&W carry cases and includes a cable gun lock and a tool to remove the Hogue Bantam grip. There is a plastic safety disc between the cylinder and frame in place as shipped. It comes wrapped in the familiar brown VCI S&W paper to prevent corrosion during shipping and for initial storage. The finish looks good and the whole package looks complete. It is finished in matte black. When I picked it up it felt better than it looked. The Hogue Bantam grip allowed a good purchase on the gun as well as being perfectly proportioned. I tried the double action trigger pull. I was pleasantly surprised. I tried the single action pull as well. Once again I was pleasantly surprised. The trigger scale would tell the tale when I got it home. Now to dive into the rest of the gun. 

New features 

The most obvious change is the disappearance of the lock on the new 396. Politics don’t belong on guns. It’s nearly a shame, even for me, that the disappearance of the lock is the first thing I noticed because this is a fine gun. The new Night Guard features what is described as an “endurance package”. This includes the titanium pins, a titanium center pin bushing and titanium firing pin bushing. This protects the scandium frame from impact and friction damage. Other changes from the original 396 is a stainless steel cylinder in place of the original 396’s Titanium cylinder. The Stainless cylinder is slightly heavier but it actually improves the feel over the original 396. The forcing cone has been beefed up for added durability. There is a detent ball that locks the yoke in place that pays homage to the Triple-Lock guns from the early 1900s.

While the new Night Guard shares the scandium alloy frame with the old 396 Night Guard the new 396 Night Guard has a replaceable gas shield above the cylinder gap to protect the lightweight frame from being cut by gasses. Despite its lightweight, this is a strong gun. 

Details-details. 

The front sight is made by XS and features their high contrast front tritium sight with their “Ember” technology. The tritium center is encircled by a ring of high visibility material. XS describes this as 24/7 visibility. I already have this sight on another gun and I will vouch for the visibility.The adjustable rear sight is a S&W and features a .150” square notch. A reflex sight can be installed easily by removing the rear sight and installing a mounting plate. They are available from several manufacturers. Allchin Gun Parts makes a really good one. 

The matte black finish looks great.The scandium frame is anodized black and the stainless steel cylinder is PVD finished in matte black to match.The Night Guard’s barrel is 3” instead of 2 ½” like the original. That ½” doesn’t sound like much until you push the ejector and see the cases totally eject from the cylinder. The grips are Hogue Bantams. This is going to be a case of like them or hate them. I personally like them. They fit me well and allow me to securely hold the gun. As with any grip they don’t fit everyone. I understand that this was a call made in the planning stages of the gun. Most people will be happy with the Bantams. For those that are going to change grips anyway it is better to put a set of grips on the gun that can keep the cost down a little than to install a set of fancy wood grips that might get replaced. Since this is an L-Frame gun there are numerous aftermarket options. 

The trigger was a pleasant surprise. There is little creep or over travel as delivered.The single action breaks cleanly at average of 4.1 lbs. There was little creep and overtravel wasn’t bad. The double action is reasonably smooth out of the box and breaks at 10 lbs. 9 oz. It is fairly smooth though so it doesn’t seem that heavy. After a little break in, cleaning and lube it was very smooth. 

The stainless steel cylinder is chambered to hold 5 shots. The front of the cylinder features a chamfer to make the gun easier to holster and not as damaging to holsters. The chambers are chamfered to make cartridges easier to load. I checked the cylinder throats with minus pin gauges. Every single throat measured .430”. The individual chambers were nearly mirror smooth. I was impressed. The cylinder gap measures .004”. 

The barrel is stainless steel and is concealed in a scandium shroud. It is a 5 groove barrel with 1:20 RH twist. 

Ammunition for the 396 Night Guard. 

I couldn’t wait to hit the range with the new 396 Night Guard. I had already decided to test it with deffense ammunition, plinking ammo, shot shells and some hunting ammunition. The first defense ammunition was Hornady Critical defense. It features a 165 grain FTX bullet factory rated at 900 fps. Next up was the CCI Blazer 200 grain JHP factory rated at 920 fps. I also tried the Buffalo Bore 255 grain Outdoorsman load. In addition to factory ammunition I tried some handloads as well. One is loaded with the 200 grain XTP over Power Pistol. One load with the 200 grain Desperado bullet over Power Pistol and the last load was the well known Skeeter Load. It features the 250 Keith bullet over 7.5 grains of Unique.The shot shell load is a unique offering from Double Tap ammunition. Instead of just shot it features #9 shot over a 70 grain wadcutter bullet. The entire payload weighs 170 grains. This load is designed to prevent the donut shaped patterns of conventional handgun shot shells caused by a capsule engaging rifling. 

Shot shells. 

These were tested for snake defense. I decided on 6 feet for the snake target to be realistic. I was anxious to see how the Double Tap load performed with the wadcutter. At 6 feet the wadcutter impacted about 6” from the point of aim. The shot hit the snake target good enough to dispatch the snake. There were 20 pellets on my snake drawing which was curved and averaged 1.25” wide. Though the wadcutter wasn’t close to the center of the pattern, I do see its value if you were using this as a home defense load where limited penetration is needed. A close hit with this load would certainly make a home invader think twice about proceeding with their plans. If you were using this as a means of hunting food in a survival situation a conventional bullet load would be a much better option. 

Testing the ammo 

The Skeeter load. 250 grain Keith Bullet over 7.5 grains Unique. That load shoots great in most of my .44 Specials. This one is the exception. 25 yard groups from a rest averaged 6”. It is the second most powerful load I tested from the 396 reaching 855 fps. I just wasn’t happy with the accuracy. I will revisit this load with some changes but didn’t have time before I finished my review. 

CCI Blaser 200 grain. The velocity was well off from the advertised velocity of 920 fps. It averaged 744 fps. The accuracy wasn’t great with groups averaging 4” at 25 yards. It would be OK for a home defense load where distances would be much closer. 

Hornady Critical Defense 165 grain. It averaged 751 fps. It was the most accurate load tested with groups staying under 2 inches. This load was also well off from its advertised velocity of 900 fps.Once again this load would be OK for a defense gun. 

200 grain XTP handload was a published handload for the 396 produced years ago. It is currently listed on “Load Data’s “ web page. The load falls under 16,000 psi so it is safe in small frame guns. The powder charge was 8 grains of Power Pistol. In the 396 it produced an average of 815 fps. It was also accurate with groups staying right at 2”. 

200 grain Desperado Handload data comes from Alliant. They show a load range from 7.6 to 8.4 grains. I loaded 8.0 grains and it averaged 819 fps. It was also accurate shooting 2” groups at 25 yards. This bullet is pretty soft with a BH of about 10. The bullet is a RNFP design. The bullet is soft enough to give some expansion at this velocity. 

The Keith Bullet Charter Load. I own several Charter Arms .44 Specials. Because of that I have developed several low pressure loads to keep from beating up the small frame guns. Since the 396 didn’t like the Skeeter load I decided to try some of the Charter Arms loads. I load the 250 grain Keith bullet over 9.4 grains of Blue-Dot and crimp it over the driving band. It runs 865 from my 5” Target Bulldog. I shot these in the 396 and it shot groups right at 2.5” at 25 yards with a velocity of 813 fps. Best of all the pressure is below 16,000 psi. so it is pretty quiet. From experience I can tell you that 90% of the time that will shoot end to end through a deer. This would probably be my go to load for the 396. It is powerful enough to bust a black bear skull and would serve to take a grouse for the pot without a lot of meat damage. It would also take care of two legged threats but would possibly penetrate more than needed for home defense. 

 

Buffalo Bore 255 grain Outdoorsman load. 

This load was omitted from the picture because it hadn’t arrived yet. I was anxious to see what it actually chronographed from the 3” barrel. It is rated 1000 fps. on the label. Of course that was from a longer barrel. It chronographed an average of 901 fps. With an extreme spread of 22 fps. Shooting it in the lightweight gun wasn’t bad. Just a little snappy. Accuracy is 2.5” for 5 shots at 25 yards. I did shoot one group with it that was about 4” but that was on me. If I was using the 396 Night Guard as a hiking gun in black bear country this is the load I would carry. I have no doubt it would bust a bear skull. It would also handle whitetail deer hunting just fine. 

Parting Shots 

The first 396 Night Guard was made to be carried a lot and shot little. This new 396 is made to be carried a lot and shot as well. They made the gun more durable and more shootable. After shooting it I can tell you they simply nailed it. Easy to carry and pleasant to shoot. It is the first new gun I have picked up in a while that whispered “Buy Me!” 

I didn’t experience any issues with the gun. No failure to fires or any other issues for that matter. I do recommend cleaning the gun and lubing it with a product such as Tetra Gun. After cleaning and lubing the moving parts the gun was noticeably smoother. The cylinder rotation was slightly tight. After I removed the yoke and cylinder and lubed the yoke and ejector where they pass 

through the cylinder the whole gun had an improved feel. Of course this applies to many new guns. 

Would I do anything different? The front sight is perfectly matched to the intended duties of the gun. With that big round glowing front sight, I would prefer a V-notch rear sight. The square notch is certainly wide enough and will be fine for most shooters but I feel like I would have an easier time just dropping the big dot in a V. 

Buffalo Bore’s 255 grain Outdoorsman load was the most powerful load I tried. I actually know of a bear attack being stopped with this load. have shot a lot of Buffalo Bore ammo and it has all been top notch. The picture of the 2.5” group is pretty representative of what to expect at 25 yards. Some loads are slightly more accurate but for a 3” barreled oversized pocket pistol that isn’t bad. I am going to work with some more ammo and bullets to see what it can do but for this gun’s use I can live with 2-2.5 inches.

This gun’s purpose in life is to have a big bore, lightweight packing gun for personal protection, a law enforcement backup gun and a lightweight trail gun. It easily accomplishes all of those tasks. While it will never be a primary hunting gun, it will certainly be at home in the woods. 

Along with the introduction of the new 396 Night Guard Lipsey’s introduced its sibling the 386 Night Guard. The overall appearance and features are the same except that the 386 is chambered in .357 and holds 7 shots. For some Night Guard buyers that may fit the bill better. In my case I consider the .44 Special the best option. In the event that you do have to shoot it in a serious situation whether dealing with a two legged threat in the home or a four legged threat in the woods you won’t have time to put on hearing protection. In that case the .44 Special is much easier on the ears. 

You aren’t going to turn this into a brevet .44 Magnum. It isn’t scaled for that. What you can do is have a great packing pistol that will deal with a lot of situations and not beat you up in the process. Easy to carry and easy to shoot. Just a fun gun. You can’t ask for much more. 

Special thanks to Jason Cloessner and Lipseys. 

The MSRP for the Nightguard is $1269.00 

Contact Lipseys to find your nearest dealer. 

Stay safe and Happy Handgun Hunting!-RDY