I recently purchased a 329NG for woods carry and backpacking in the Rockies. The gun's ample power and light weight seemed to be the perfect fit for my needs.

Fit and finish: The gun arrived NIB and the initial inspection revealed excellent fit and finish. Trigger pull was a bit stiff (I do not have a gauge but I estimate its 11-12lbs). While stiff, the pull is crisp and smooth.

Tweaks: I am not a huge fan of the stock internal firing pins so I immediately replaced it APEX Tactical's XP spring and pin. The sight had one screw which was not snug and I tightened it. Off to the ranch for some testing!

My primary carry ammo for 2 legged predators will be Speer's short barrel gold dot 200g load. These bullets shot very well from the gun and were very controllable. They chrono'd at 1015 fps with a stdev of 39.4 fps. Plenty of power for everything but the biggest critters!

For those occasions where the big 4 legged predators are a concern I brought my 300g Cast Performance hard cast bullets with gas checks for testing. These bullets were loaded over 19g and 20g of H110 with Fed150 primers for testing. Recoil for these was a bit strong but the Night Guard's excellent grips did their job. The 300g loads chrono'd at 1002fps and 1038fps respectively with 15fps stdev in the NG. For grins I ran these through my 7.5" Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter and they delivered 1219 and 1278fps respectively with a stdev of 9fps. I could add one more grain of H110 in the Ruger but for the NG I will stick with the 19g load.

I also tested Winchester 240g JSP White Box load in both guns. The Ruger demonstrated 1475fps with this load and the NG 1112fps. This load is not one I would shoot regularly in the NG because it is "snappy" but it would be an excellent critter getter through the Blackhawk.

For plinking purposes I brought along some 240g LSWC by Oregon Trail loaded over 8.5 grains of Unique with Fed150 primers. This is a very accurate load and tested at 802 fps with a stdev of 3fps in the NG and 958fps with a stdev of 41 in the Ruger.

I spent the remainder of the session breaking rocks with these bullets and both guns performed flawlessly.

I am pleased with the new Night Guard and I look forward to putting some more rounds downrange and thoroughly wringing out its accuracy potential. I didn't have time this session to put bullets to paper but the guns combat accuracy was more than adequate as some of the local limestone rocks bore witness.

Pics to follow!

sounds like you are all set I'm curious about changing the firing pin

I like tinkering with my guns and will typically tweak them to my needs.

The stock pin is known to create ignition failures. S&W is more concerned with passing CA drop tests than 100% reliable ignition. Since this gun will eventually be a carry piece I didn't even bother testing it with the stock pin in place.

The APEX pin is not longer but allows the pin to travel further when struck. Furthermore, the spring is a little bit "softer". It is made to specifically address the problems I have already mentioned.

Furthermore, a quick search of this forum will show several reports of ignition problems on Night Guards. The internal pin is not quite as hated as the internal lock but ranks up there with many purists.

I am still undecided about the lock. I have never had one fail but I admit I do not like the extra opportunity for Murphy to do his work.

I purchased a 325NG several months ago, and my only complaint has been the heavy trigger pull. I rented Jerry Miculek's Trigger Job DVD from smartflix and that worked wonders on the trigger. I found a lot of rough and high spots all through the action, which now feels like butter.

Hope you don't mind the correction, but our pin is actually longer than most of the factory pins, by just a few thousandths of an inch. The rest of your statement is correct about it being designed to penetrate deeper.

I bought mine last year and besides replacing the firing pin with the APEX firing pin I also removed the lock and replaced it with the PLUG. Another improvement was removing the rear sight and replaced it with a Hamilton Bowen Rough Country V-notch / white post rear sight and a lanyard ring for my X-frame S&W after market grips.

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

No problem. I eyeballed it next to the SW and could see the notch was cut to allow more travel but did not take a caliper to the length.

BTW, fast shipping and service! I had the pin three days after ordering it. I have put about 150rnds through the gun now and there have been no FTF.

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