Current Production Model 29s?

[F2CMaDMaXX]

I have 3 Cabelas gift cards at least, shame it's not the best\cheapest place to get them.

Gotta keep picking one up when I see them for sale.

 

[Captain O]

Glad you caught a good one. Great guns are hard to find. When the break-in and shoot like a personal item that it is, it becomes an extension of your body. That is what makes a good gun great! Unfortunately, those are few, and far between.

Were I in your shoes, I would be handloading some nice 240-grain SWCHP loads of 99% pure lead with a 2-grain copper gas check (238 + 2 = 240 grains). My reasoning behind this is the original 240-grain RNL .44 S&W Special was/is a superbly accurate load. Slowly work up the load to the point where it just breaks 1000 fps. This develops approximately 533 foot-pounds of energy which is enough to handle nearly every "garden-variety" pest control, predator, (both human and animal). This load isn't abusive but beats the snot out of the .45 ACP and parallels the .357 S&W Magnum. (The load would come into the .44 S&W Special +p end of the spectrum).

What could be better than that?

 

[Captain O]

Glad you caught a good one. Great guns are hard to find. When the break-in and shoot like a personal item that it is, it becomes an extension of your body. That is what makes a good gun great! Unfortunately, those are few, and far between.

Were I in your shoes, I would be handloading some nice 240-grain SWCHP loads of 99% pure lead with a 2-grain copper gas check (238 + 2 = 240 grains). My reasoning behind this is the original 240-grain RNL .44 S&W Special was/is a superbly accurate load. Slowly work up the load to the point where it just breaks 1000 fps. This develops approximately 533 foot-pounds of energy which is enough to handle nearly every "garden-variety" pest control, predator, (both human and animal). This load isn't abusive but beats the snot out of the .45 ACP and parallels the .357 S&W Magnum. (The load would come into the .44 S&W Special +p end of the spectrum).

What could be better than that?

I'd like to add a recipe for the 238-grain SWCHPL + 2-grain gas check put that ahead of 10 grains of blue dot in a .44 Magnum case and you reach close to 1000 fps from your 6" S&W Model 29. This should dump any, and every, living thing in Southwestern Oregon on it's @$$.

 

[Certaindeaf]

The crazy thing about Blue Dot is Alliant says not to use it at all in any .41 Magnum loads and some .357.
For mid-range magnum loads, Unique is hard to beat.
Oh, and a gas check on anything but a varmint load out of any of the magnums is a waste of time and money.

 

[Iceberg]

I have a newer model 629 & it is a great revolver.

 

[CountryGent]

Nice looking wheelgun @Iceberg. Though I have only shot it a little, I really like the 29 thus far.

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

More pics!

 

[CountryGent]

More pics!

Not sure if that was directed to @Iceberg, yours-truly, or both. But, coming right up ...

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

Ohh, you know I want the 29, thanks for the pics
One of these days, i will have saved up enough Cabela's gift cards...

 

[Iceberg]

M629s go pretty cheaply, most around 7 bills, about the price of a starter 1911. I paid 7 bills for mine. Older collectible blued model 29s can be expensive. I have one of the new collectors series blued M29s, they go for around 8 to 9 bills.

 

[CLT65]

I love my old 29-2. I've had it for nearly three decades. I wish I'd taken better care of it.

I have a 29-8 I bought recently as well, and I like it a lot. The trigger on the newer one isn't quite as perfect as the old one, but it's still very nice.

M629s go pretty cheaply, most around 7 bills, about the price of a starter 1911.

Some of you guys play in a whole different sandbox than I do. The price of your toys starts past where my price range ends.

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

Same here on the price side, glad you have a nice example already!

 

[orygun]

The crazy thing about Blue Dot is Alliant says not to use it at all in any .41 Magnum loads and some .357.
For mid-range magnum loads, Unique is hard to beat.
Oh, and a gas check on anything but a varmint load out of any of the magnums is a waste of time and money.

Yup! At some point Blue Dot was reformulated and that's when it was declared unfit for the 41 Mag. Too bad, because before then it was a rockin powder for the 41. Not quite H110 or W296, but close. I used a lot of it.

@Captain O , I think you goofed on your load data. I looked in the Lyman manual and 10gr of Blue Dot won't get you close to 1000fps in a Special case, but it looks like 15gr or so will in a Mag. We're not too far off of what we want from the 44, though. I'm thinkin 1100fps with a good 240gr JHP bullet or 950-1000fps with a 300gr SWC. I shot and chronoed some HSM ammo at 1100fps and really liked it.

 

[Captain O]

Yup! At some point Blue Dot was reformulated and that's when it was declared unfit for the 41 Mag. Too bad, because before then it was a rockin powder for the 41. Not quite H110 or W296, but close. I used a lot of it.

@Captain O , I think you goofed on your load data. I looked in the Lyman manual and 10gr of Blue Dot won't get you close to 1000fps in a Special case, but it looks like 15gr or so will in a Mag. We're not too far off of what we want from the 44, though. I'm thinkin 1100fps with a good 240gr JHP bullet or 950-1000fps with a 300gr SWC. I shot and chronoed some HSM ammo at 1100fps and really liked it.

It should be in a magnum case. (You are correct, 15 grains should attain the goal). The .44 Magnum doesn't always have to be fired at fire-breathing, cylinder-bulging, blue whistler levels to make the round perform.

Trust me on this one, the lighter .44 Remington Magnum (a.k.a. .44 Magnum "light") is far more effective than heavier loads for most applications. That's why in the film Magnum Force he was quoted when asked what he shot in his revolver, he replied ".44 Magnum. Special loads."

 

[CountryGent]

That's why in the film Magnum Force he was quoted when asked what he shot in his revolver, he replied ".44 Magnum. Special loads."

Classic scene.

 

[Captain O]

Properly loaded, the "Light Magnum" (240-grain, 98% lead, 1% tin, 1% antimony hollow points, w/gas check @ 1000 fps) downright kicks bootie!

 

[kmk1012]

Not sure if that was directed to @Iceberg, yours-truly, or both. But, coming right up ...

View attachment 458403

View attachment 458404

I am curr3ntly in the market for a stainless 6 1/2" full underlug S&W and your pic just made the search get kicked up a notch or two! Great looking pistols Sir!

 

[CLT65]

I've heard people extol the virtues of the downloaded .44 mag before, some even going so far as to say there's really no use at all for full powered magnum loads.

I don't mean to challenge anyone but I am curious. What makes the lighter load better than the magnum load? What makes a 240gr bullet going 1000fps superior to a 240gr bullet going 1400fps?

If the answer is controlability when 1400fps isn't needed, then I get that. I download them myself for paper punching, though I do also like to punch paper with full power loads too, just because. One guy once told me it was foolish to shoot targets with heavy magnum loads because the paper didn't know the difference. I asked him why he shot with a .45 auto instead of a .22lr; after all, the paper can't tell the difference.

A friend of mine is in wildlife control, and shoots a lot of bears with his model 29. I can tell you one thing he doesn't use is light loads. On the other hand, I can see where 1000 to 1100 fps is probably plenty good enough for most other things.

 

[CLT65]

Classic scene.

You guys are trying to get me in trouble at work. I spent part of an afternoon at my desk watching youtube clips of old Clint Eastwood movies.

I have to wonder though, whether he (or his Hollywood script writer) intended to convey that he used "light specials" for controlability during regular target practice, or that he used them day to day on the street because they're better somehow, "like wadcutters in a .357".

 

[CLT65]

I remember a disappointing movie back in the '80s that featured a tough guy who packed the mighty .44 Magnum. It had Sam Elliott running around Australia packing a model 29 as I recall. I've always really liked Sam Elliott but the disappointing part was all he ever did with the revolver was aimlessly empty cylinders at the bad guys and never hit anything.

Further off topic- my most disappointing Sam Elliott role would have to be the cartoon where he was the voice of the bull with the udder. I know he's just an actor, but I also know he has land in the Eugene area; a friend once met and talked to him out there. Come on Sam, you have to know that bulls don't have udders! That's like a movie with John Wayne with boobs! (yes, I know it's just a cartoon, I am joking, mostly)