It’s been a year and a half since I first shot the S&W Governor at SHOT Show 2011, and since then I’ve not really messed around with it too much. I shot one at the S&W Indoor Nationals earlier this year as part of a pick up stage, but that was it. Because our friends at West Coast Armory happened to have one in the rental case and I also happened to be in possession of some top of the line Winchester PDX .45 Colt ammo, I figured it was time to give it a whirl for real. Unfortunately, what I didn’t have with me was a good camera, so you’ll have to bear with the mediocre cell phone pictures.
So, the things you already probably know about the Smith & Wesson Governor: it has a scandium alloy frame, can fire 2.5 inch .410 shells, .45 Colt rounds, and .45 ACP using the supplied moonclips. It’s light, less than 30 ounces unloaded weight, and you feel that lightness, believe me. The front sight is a tritium night sight, and for rear sights it uses the old school revolver gutter sight that so many shooters are used to. So there’s the stuff you probably already know.
I shot the gun using Winchester PDX 225 grain bonded JHP .45 Colt, which are loaded to about 850 FPS at the muzzle according to Winchester. Out of a 625 Mountain Gun, a Ruger Redhawk, or a carbine these would be nothing to shoot all day long, but out of the S&W it gets unpleasant fast. Two issues: the first is the light weight of the gun, which means it’s really torque-happy in recoil. The second, and in fact worst issue comes from the grips on the gun, which are small and don’t offer a lot of purchase. They’re small because this is a carry gun, and to help keep the profile of the gun down the grips have an exposed backstrap. That means there’s no cushioning rubber in between your hand and the gun when it goes off, so you feel every ounce of the recoil. Because the gun is so torque happy, the trigger guard would also whack my middle knuckle in recoil. So to answer the question on whether or not the Governor is pleasant to shoot with proper defensive ammo, the answer is a resounding “no”.
The sights on the Governor are quite good however; unlike other gutter sights there is actually a decent amount of light coming in around the front sight. With the 225 grain Winchester rounds, point of impact was about 4 inches above point of aim at 25 yards and 2 inches to the left. The trigger…well, it has a trigger. The sample gun I shot was a rental gun, and the trigger was not up to the standards I’m used to on factory S&W revolvers. It was heavy and had a significant amount of creep making precision shooting at speed even more difficult. When you add up a poor DA trigger, unpleasant recoil and small grips, you get a gun that’s not fun to shoot or practice with.
We really like Smith & Wesson here at Gun Nuts. I especially love Smith & Wesson revolvers. I have to give the Governor credit, it is certainly the best .410 revolver on the market right now, but that’s damning by faint praise. I kept trying to find something to genuinely like about the gun when shooting it last night, and the best I could come up with was “It’s not a Judge.” If you’re looking for a serious defensive revolver that isn’t a J-Frame, JG Sales has used K-frames for less than $300.
Gun Nuts Bottom Line: The Governor is the best .410 revolver on the market. Take that for what it’s worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment