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I went out and fired my new to me S&W 386 Night Guard .357 Magnum 7 shot revolver. This is the Scandium frame L frame with 2.5 inch barrel and Tritium front sight. I also put Crimson Trace lasergrips on it although the stock Pachmyr grips provide more cushioning for recoil. Unfortunately I have short fingers and bigger grips make the trigger pull awkward. Also the wife likes the lasergrips. For home defense use I expect to load .38 +P.
Initial impressions are that recoil is stout and stings a bit. Here is a vid of the first two rounds that I fired. These were Remington 125 gr JSP .357 Magnum loads. Very hot round. Kind of like a worst case scenario.
I then fired off a full cylinder of seven rounds and things got painful. The Crimson Trace lasergrips expose the backstrap of the frame. Well after a cylinder full there was a nice little callous on the web of my right thumb. Another cylinder full and the callous had separated and I was bleeding. Not particularly fun but I kept shooting and wished I had brought some gloves. I switched to cheap Blazer 158 gr JHP .357 Magnum figuring I would try the heavier load since I'm already bleeding, how much worse could I make it?
Well, the Blazer loads aren't loaded as hot as the Remingtons. These were somewhat more comfortable or less painful depending on how you look at it. Here is a second vid of me just shooting 6 rounds slow fire of the Blazer ammo.
Overall, its a bit painful to shoot full magnum loads through it. Not uncontrollable or intolerable, but bare handed it will bite. I will try out some .38 +P as soon as I can. I think those will be very manageable for practice and save the .357 for occasional practice with a glove. I am also going to try different Magnum loads like Corbon DPX or the lighter 110 gr JHP loads that are out there. I took the vids to show recoil in this lightweight Scandium/Aluminum framed revolvers. I will keep this revolver for a while to play around with loads and decide if this will be a carry gun or just another that passes through my collection and then goes on to someone else...
Initial impressions are that recoil is stout and stings a bit. Here is a vid of the first two rounds that I fired. These were Remington 125 gr JSP .357 Magnum loads. Very hot round. Kind of like a worst case scenario.
I then fired off a full cylinder of seven rounds and things got painful. The Crimson Trace lasergrips expose the backstrap of the frame. Well after a cylinder full there was a nice little callous on the web of my right thumb. Another cylinder full and the callous had separated and I was bleeding. Not particularly fun but I kept shooting and wished I had brought some gloves. I switched to cheap Blazer 158 gr JHP .357 Magnum figuring I would try the heavier load since I'm already bleeding, how much worse could I make it?
Well, the Blazer loads aren't loaded as hot as the Remingtons. These were somewhat more comfortable or less painful depending on how you look at it. Here is a second vid of me just shooting 6 rounds slow fire of the Blazer ammo.Overall, its a bit painful to shoot full magnum loads through it. Not uncontrollable or intolerable, but bare handed it will bite. I will try out some .38 +P as soon as I can. I think those will be very manageable for practice and save the .357 for occasional practice with a glove. I am also going to try different Magnum loads like Corbon DPX or the lighter 110 gr JHP loads that are out there. I took the vids to show recoil in this lightweight Scandium/Aluminum framed revolvers. I will keep this revolver for a while to play around with loads and decide if this will be a carry gun or just another that passes through my collection and then goes on to someone else...
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