The video above is a comparison I wish more people would watch before buying a carry gun. The shooter takes two revolvers that are functionally the same firearm, an all-stainless Smith & Wesson 696 and the new scandium-framed Night Guard, and answers a question I hear at my counter constantly: how much does weight actually matter?
Quick introduction if you’re new here. I’m Lance Rankin, owner and gunsmith at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas. The testing in this video is his, not mine, but I’ve handled both kinds of gun plenty, so I’ll add my two cents as we go.
The comparison
Both revolvers are five-shot .44 Specials with three-inch barrels. The 696 is a discontinued all-stainless L-frame from around the turn of the 2000s, a bit of a collector’s item now, and it weighs 35 ounces. That’s all-steel-1911 territory. The new Night Guard is the same configuration with a scandium alloy frame and a steel barrel and cylinder, and it comes in at 23 ounces, with adjustable sights the old 696 never had.
Same cartridge, same barrel length, same capacity. The bullet doesn’t know which gun it left. The only meaningful difference is 12 ounces.
Twelve ounces is a lot
Gun people will argue for an hour about the ounce and a half between a Glock 43X and a P365, and honestly, you can feel even that. Twelve ounces is a different category entirely. That’s the weight of an entire pocket pistol. His description matches what my customers tell me: the steel gun tugs at your belt all day and announces itself every time you move, while the lightweight one disappears like a phone in your pocket.
And here’s the pattern I’ve seen over and over in this business: the gun that’s comfortable gets carried, and the gun that isn’t stays home. A 35-ounce revolver in the safe protects nobody. This is the single best argument for lightweight carry guns, and it has nothing to do with ballistics.
The price you pay is recoil
There’s no free lunch. In the video, the lighter Night Guard kicks noticeably more and rises more at the muzzle, exactly as physics demands. He also found it printed a touch high at distance under recoil. But at 15 yards, defensive distance, he had equal confidence with both, and that tracks with my experience. For a five-shot .44 Special that exists to solve a sudden, close problem, the extra snap of a scandium frame is a fair trade for actually having the gun on you.
Where the trade tips the other way is practice volume. A featherweight magnum-frame revolver is not the gun you want to run 200 rounds through on a Saturday. If you go light, accept that practice sessions will be shorter, or do most of your volume with a heavier gun and confirm with the carry gun.
His verdict, and mine
His conclusion was that the 696 is only “too heavy” because the lighter alternative exists and gives up nothing that matters. I think that’s exactly right, and it applies well beyond revolvers. Carry comfort is a real feature, not vanity. If a lighter gun means you carry every day instead of when it’s convenient, the lighter gun wins.
If you’re in North Texas and sorting out your own carry setup, come see me. I keep a range of carry guns in stock at the shop, and if you’re new to carrying here, my guides on the Texas concealed carry permit and constitutional carry cover the legal side. Call 817-393-4000 with questions.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
