Anyone know why the Night Guard 327 and 386 were discontinued?

I'm on GunBroker and there are two USED 327 Night Guard's, and they are $1,195 and $1,395 respectively. What's with the bigger than new pricing?

Thanks

Simple return on Investment.

Few people were buying the Night Guard revovlers and the factory decided to use their funds to manufacture and put in the supply chain firearms that were moving quicker.

I really think it's a shame that the Night Guard line was discontinued given that some of them filled a niche that no current production revolvers really do.

The one that caught my eye the most was the 315, which hit a lot of the right buttons for me in my search for a carry gun: snub, 6 shots of .38 special +P rather than 5, scandium frame for an empty weight of only 20 oz, infinitely better sights than what's found on most snubs, and a durable black finish. It's basically the 21st century version of a Colt Detective Special; what's not to love (except for the lock)?

I can only hope that Smith and Wesson decides to reboot or revisit the concept at some point in the future so that I actually have a chance to buy one.

They are the perfect defense CCW revolver IMO. S&W Glock revolver if you will.

Perhaps an aside, but -

How hard are these things to make if they want to? I've recently become enamored of 32 caliber guns, but officially S&W stopped making them a long time ago. Still, the 432PD does show up occasionally - I bought 2 in the last year, one from Bud's that was defective, sent back to S&W for repair and condemned by them as unrepairable. I bought another one on Gunbroker to replace the bad one (S&W could not supply ANY 32 as a replacement). Both of them had been manufactured within the last 15 months or se, according to a thread somewhere on this forum, but never appeared in the catalog as far as anybody can tell.

So - is it possible that the 327 and/or 386 might just show up on an intermittent basis in the future, as small batches are produced from time to time and just supplied to distributors without hitting the catalog as officially available?

Now the 432 is just (IMHO) a 442 with 6 smaller holes in the cylinder and a smaller diameter barrel insert, and I assume it's no big deal for S&W to reset their CNC machines to handle these small variations on blanks/billets that otherwise would get 0.357" holes in 'em. Would either the 327 or 386 be (relatively) easy to cut from parts that otherwise would go into other, more popular models? If so, maybe they too will show up from time to time, but in ways you have to keep an eye out for rather than being able to order like any other model.

People want what they can't have, or easily acquire. Think OD green Glocks a few years back.

Following the Taurus Judge craze the Smith&Wesson Governor appears.

l feel that ''one size fits all'' idea of the Governor killed the Night Guards.

Pity, NGs are/were nice very nice guns..

The 2009 S&W catalog MSRP for most of the Night Guards was $1153.

Adjust for inflation accordingly.

S&W Handgun Catalog 2009 - Night Guard models.pdf

.

__________________
Waiting for the break of day

Early release of the Nightguard series, were prone to light primer strikes / misfires. S&W offered a free fix, replacing the floating firing pin, that was too short.

That's still a problem on their current production revolvers too. I know, I just replaced the F/Ps on two brand new ones. LOL, none of my NGs had that problem.

.

__________________
Waiting for the break of day

I do wish I had of picked up a 41 mag.nightguard

__________________
SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

Yeah, don't seem to see them very often.

.

Night Guards: 325-329-357-396


.

__________________
Waiting for the break of day

I recently purchased a 386 PD for the ability to have a 7 shot .357
CCW. This gun appeared to have been carried a lot and shot very seldom. I like everything about the gun however I did have a problem when firing Buffalo Bore Tactical Short Barrel Lower Recoil Low Flash 125 grain .357 ammo. Twice the cylinder froze up after firing a round and upon opening the cylinder a light half moon gouge was observed on the recoil shield and the rear of the ejector star had some light scraping on the star lugs. I contacted S&W and was sent a prepaid shipping label so the gun is on the way to them. I am hoping this is something minor that can be taken care of as I want to be able to rely on this gun for CCW. I have a 342 that will be my BUG for the 386.
It should be noted that the gun functioned flawlessly with standard velocity and +p .38 special ammo before developing problems with the .357 ammo.

Attached Images

FullSizeRender.jpg (211.6 KB, 104 views)