396 Mountain Lite

[John Brown]

A bit of a departure from my usual all steel Smith revolvers.

This is a Model 396 Mountain Lite Ti, in 44 Special. 5 shots, alloy frame, titanium cylinder.

Weighs a whopping 18 ounces, and is an L frame. Sweet action, and no lock. HiViz front sight.

Feels very strange to be so light for as large as it is. Weighs an ounce less than a steel J frame snubbie.

 

[Steve_NEPhila]

Here is the 386 model. In .357 Mag, 7 shot cylinder and tuned up for carry. It feels like very dense styrofoam... and carries great.

My every day carry piece...

 

[JCS&W]

I carry a 296ti and it took me weeks to get used to how lite it is. I believe you will find the recoil manageable and you will certainly enjoy carrying it. Nice find!

 

[John Brown]

A question.

What holds the grips on, and how do you take them off if you want to put something else on it?

 

[CWH44300]

Nice photos of a sweet gun

 

[1911bphil]

Both of those are very nice

 

[Nygma]

There can't be many of these prelock versions out there.
Here's mine that I bought NIB. I still haven't fired it.

 

[mc5aw]

I had a Mountain Lite a while back because I was fascinated with the lightweight potential of the .44 Special. The recoil was so fierce with the stock open backstrap grip that I had to put the gun down after five rounds, and I could barely lift my arm. The big aftermarket .500 grip made things much more manageable, but it was still a handful to shoot. There's always a trade off ... in this case, the minimal weight at 18/19oz leaves little absorption potential for recoil, but makes it an amazing big round revolver to carry. Also, it will not digest WWB (or any lead top ammo) with reliability. I could count on at least 2-3 jumped crimps per box. Lots of fun though if you can handle it. I scaled back and went with the L-frame 242 for carry. For a larger frame (larger than the usual carry Js) it is surprisingly invisible on a belt.

 

[s&wchad]

A question.

What holds the grips on, and how do you take them off if you want to put something else on it?

 

[John Brown]

Thanks, S&Wchad! I didn't think to check with Hogue. Pretty simple system once you know the trick.

 

[roundgunner]

Very nice find! No lock! I would have grabbed it up too!

 

[Jebus35745]

Found a 386 and carry it often. Shot it off hand and it seemed very manageable. Excellent gun, Larry

 

[John Brown]

I went to the range. She's a bit "snappy" for sure. But I have a shooting glove that I like to use for hard kicking handguns, and it really takes the sting out. I had no trouble hitting close to the center of the target at 25 feet, firing single action. the single action break is very crisp. Double action was a bit more of a spread, as it harder to keep the front sight on target during the pull. I really like the HiViz front sight. Its easy for my old eyes to see. Hornady 180 gr XTP was what I used.

It got quite a bit of attention from the crowd. Nobody had seen one before. Those that handled it were amazed at how light it is.

Now, I get to see how she cleans up. I'm a little worried about the cylinder, but at first glance it doesn't seem overly dirty, and I'm going to be gentle, and let it soak in G96 for a few hours before touching it.