Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44 Magnum pic and discussion thread.

tex n cal,

Add "The Plug" and your 5 inch Model 29 becomes pristine again. One has to know where to look, and look pretty hard, to see where the lock USED to be on my 329PD.

Jim Hackwicz has and often carries a S&W Mountain gun in 44 MAgnum, and that is about the heaviest handgun of any kind that I could see myself packing around very much. And it is, to my mind, pretty shootable.

That 5 inch full lug barrel model is sure a looker, but I am afraid that if it were mine I would find too many excuses to NOT carry it "just this once" or "Just over to that little creek right there" etc. due to its weight.

I am SO glad we live in a time and place, though,where we HAVE so many great choices! Never before in the history of the world have there been so many capable guns and even handguns available to common men!

I like my lighter, leaner unlugged 5" M29's but my lugged 5" M29-2 is the most accurate 44 Mag I own and is pretty darn, well, pretty. Scoped I have shot many 3" groups with it at 100 yards.

Have to admit, that one is might beautiful. I would be proud to own such a piece. Gorgeous. And 3 inches at 100 yards, lots of carbine length rifles will barely do that! Pretty spectacular.

...ok...so I have a .44...one....

Bought this several years ago off GunBroker "used" and when it arrived it looked like it had never been fired. Called the Seller and asked him about it and he said that he had bought the gun new, fired SIX rounds of 240 grain real .44 Magnums through it and that was enough for him...

Since I have owned it one 20 round box of Speer 200 grain Gold Dot HP Short Barrel load and 24 rounds of a practice load of 10.0/231/200 Berry's plated have fired through it...50 rounds total...









Bob

I like.



Travis

That's about perfection right there.

Bob, shame on you for neglecting this fine revolver. Shoot more.

I agree with TJM,

That puppy needs shot a bunch!

Regardless of the caliber I think the Mountain Gun series is the best 4" N-Frame S&W ever produced.

The round butt frame can accommodate grips for everyone's hands and the tapered barrel just makes the balance perfect....

Bob

It should be "agin the law" to not shoot that pistola more.

It looks neglected, send it south and I will sling some lead through it like it was manufactured to do!.

The 5" Classic and Classic DX versions are becoming crazy in my opinion, price wise. That said, I think they are one of the finest .44s that Smith, or anyone else ever produced.

I have both a Classic, as well as the DX model and they are some of the very last arms I will part with. 5" N frames are pure Magic!

Congrats of your fine addition of a 5" 629. Hard to beat that one as a perfect all around outdoorsmans sidearm

Some good looking guns here. Does anyone have an opinion on S&Ws new M69 on the L frame?

Yep.

The DX's came with a few more accessories - grips and sight inserts, but in particular they were hand selected for accuracy, and factory test targets were included. The price on them won't be going down, anytime soon.

The 5" pre-lock 629 I just bought was slightly used, without a box, and was reasonable in price - not much more than the street price of a new one. I plan to shoot the heck out of it, so it's not a collector gun to me. The 5" blued Classics (not DX) seem to bring a little more money than the 629's

The 5" full lug 29/629 is an awfully well balanced gun. It is tolerable with full-power loads, reasonable to carry, and easy to shoot well. There are plenty of revos that have more power, but they are usually a lot bigger and heavier, or they are single actions

My opinion is you should buy one.



Travis

Model 69 -- yes, by all means buy one!

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Family Portrait - 629 Mtn Gun, M696, New M69:
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Mounted a 4x Leupold on the M69 to do some load development. It was windy, and even though I had a good rest, it was not perfectly stable.

Loads are marked on the targets. The 265 SWCGC crimped over the front drive band chronoed 1,142 fps and the 310gr Lee FPGC chronoed 1,141 fps (not a typo) seated and crimped in the top grove (short OAL). Both at 50 - 60 deg F and 5 long paces from the muzzle.

The 240gr/6.5gr HP38 is seated deep (1.502 OAL) and runs 883 fps on the chrono.

As most know and the targets show, it pays to test various loads to determine best potential accuracy.
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Stil have other stuff to test, but thought those following this thread would be interested in the accuracy potential of the M69.

FWIW,

Paul

Damn Paul! That thing is kickin' ass!



Travis

There's one new one in the house, so it was time to take a group photo...



top left, 5" 629-6 (current model with MIM and lock)
top right, 5" 629-4, pre-lock
bottom right 6.5" 629-3
bottom left 5" 610 no dash

There's also a 1950's pre-27 in the safe, but it needs grips and was embarrassed to come out

Thanks Paul, that's very useful information. I just wish they had made it as a 5".
Nice collection Tex, I like shooting just about anything, but N frames are my favorite.

Thanks. I have started loading Enforcer under hard cast, it will be interesting to see how it does in the .44.

Stayclean,

That pig has some massive hooves dude! Wowza!


Travis