Edge contours of the Stealth Hunter frame and cylinder are smoothly rounded to reduce finish wear.

The only thing I do not like about the Stealth Hunter is that the spacing of the crosscuts in the barrel rib make it difficult to install many popular makes and models of handgun scope sights without using extremely high rings to clear the front sight, and longer scopes will be positioned with their objective ends directly over the MagnaPort vents, where they are blasted by the venting propellant gases. That's not a personal drawback for me, since I prefer electronic sights such as the AimPoint on revolvers I use for whitetail hunting, and dot sights are shorter and will fit lower to the barrel behind the revolver's front sight blade. Hunters who prefer scopes will need to search to find a model with the right length and turret position to allow mounting on this gun.

How About A Little Less Recoil?
The Stealth Hunter is not the only new product from the Performance Center that fits into the new Stealth family. Handgun hunters who like the .357 Magnum for whitetail hunting (as I do) will also find the new Scandium-frame, eight-shot Model 327 M&P R8 to be an excellent addition to the family. Although labeled "M&P," this gun is also set up as a hunting tool and shares the same black finish, custom trigger/hammer configuration and grips as the 629 Stealth, with a white-dot, Patridge front blade and micro-adjustable black V-notch rear sight. It comes equipped with a detachable Picatinny rail for optics mounting and also a mounting rail under the muzzle for other accessories such as a laser hunting sight.

The revolver's muzzle is fully recessed for field protection and features MagnaPort recoil reduction and a highly visible front sight blade.

I've always found a .357 Magnum revolver loaded with 165- to 180-grain hunting loads to be an excellent gun for bowhunter-range whitetail hunting, particularly in areas where herd management requires harvesting a lot of does. I've taken more than 100 whitetail does over the past twenty-five years with a .357 with no more difficulty than with any other caliber. My 327 M&P R8 is set up with one of AimPoint's new Micro miniature electronic dot sights, which, combined with the light weight of this Model 327's Scandium-alloy frame, makes for an extremely handy, easy-to-carry hunting gun.

Serious handgun hunters with a fondness for conventional revolver calibers will find no better-performing guns on the market today than Smith & Wesson's Stealth Hunters.