just picked up the first smith I've ever owned its a 29-2 blued 6.5" barrel .. can anyone date it for me ? I couldn't
find anything online ser # N442xxx

thanks plab

Plab: My copy of the "Standard Catalog Of Smith & Wesson" lists that serial number range "date of manufacture" at 1977 - 1978.
Enjoy that nifty revolver.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Apparently the 6.5" barrel brings a slight premium in price vs 6", even though more of dash twos were made with that length. In 1979 the 6.5" barrel was dropped completely, in favor of the 6" barrel. That must be why it brings a slight premium over the 6" barrel. I believe the gun used by Dirty Harry was a 6.5" barrel one.

Used to go to the city to look at model 29's, the only place to see one was a huge gun shop there. You could buy one for $500 plus tax, no haggling. Thinking a 29-1 retailed at $253.00 then. I was bringing home about $110 a week.
In '77 a co-worker ponied up a paid the 500. I kept an eye on him & sure enough, he got in a pinch & I bought it for about $300 or maybe a bit more. Not sure how I came up with that, but had been saving for an Oct. 78 Elk hunt in Colorado. Sure enough, after picking up some gear for the hunt I didn't have the cash for the trip. The 29 was sold again.

When I got back home I traded my Browning trap gun for the 29 & a bit of cash. And that's how hard it was to own a S&W 29 in the 70's for a young blue collar worker.


Just A silly story from a getting old shooter. But thought I'd pout some perspective of how scarce & expensive the gun was in the day.

Yep. They were hard to find, and higher priced than new Colt Pythons or new Colt SP-1 AR-15’s at a gun store I worked at in HS in 1978. A new Python was $399.
The new AR-15’s were $429.

I bought my first Model 29 in 81 for $500.
It was the first one I could get my hands on. It was used but like new with a 4” barrel.
I already owned a new Ruger Suoer BlackHawk in 44 mag, at the time. I think I payed around $269 for it.

thanks Varmintguy ..
so I've been poking around the web,, kind of hard identifying what version it is
but I 'm thinking a target model ? I'll get some pictures posted

plab

Nice find. Those earlier Smiths are sweet

My brother has a 29-2 8 3/8” Nickel. He’s killed a bunch of deer with it.

I'll try a few pictures .. I don't have this down right yet I guess I got it so I think think is a target ??

Sweet. Did you mention what you paid for it?

I got my first M29 in 1972 when I got out of the service. I bought it along with a 12 gun cabinet from Montgomery Wards. The gun cabinet had broken glass in it and was sent back twice. They finally got it correct and as it was a lay a way I made the final payment of $172 dollars for the Smith. The check cleared for $1.72! My final price for the M29 (which was a 6.5 inch Nickel in the presentation case) was $175. I still have it and a year or so ago added a 4 inch blued one for significantly more than the original one.

You got your first one about a year after Dirty Harry came out. I'm surprised you paid so little, because that movie made it almost impossible to lay your hands on one, let alone pay anything close to MSRP for it.

Very nice pickup, blab.

S&W 4" Nickel 29-2 I picked up a few years ago. It was trashed when I bought it. Could barely open the cylinder, it was so filthy. I paid a pretty good price for it but thought I could get it back to a pretty good state. Took it apart, cleaned it thoroughly and then polished it with Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish. Probably paid too much for it, but it came out pretty nice when done.

Looks like new, if that image is any measure.

No, you didn’t pay too much for it.

Thanks. I paid $1100 for it. Bought it at an LGS/pawnshop.

Hawkeye, I think somebody bought it, shot it and never cleaned it the whole time they owned it.

You did real good.

29's are nice!

I've had a couple over the years. My S&W 44 now is a 629. I much prefer blue and walnut. But this S&W is my nasty weather revolver and it'll do on nice days too. It's the only SS S&W, I own.

I would have offered $900 but would definitely go to $1100 (or maybe a little more) if necessary.

I have a 4 inch nickel M57 would like to find a 4 inch nickel M29 to go along with it. Someday the stars and bank account will line up and I'll find one.

Ain't that the truth, i.e., you have to have good luck in finding a nice one at exactly the moment you have spare money that's not designated for something else more important.

No I didn't... I really had no clue what the value was at the time .. now I do... lets just say ...I Stole IT
even a blind squirrel will find a nut now and again

plab

Plab: You are welcome and indeed your Model 29 does have the "target trigger, target hammer and target stocks (the "3 T's")" so it can be called "target model" if you wish.

Others: I heard from a "Hollywood type" that Clint Eastwood actually was "packin" a 41 Magnum during filming - that was declared to be a "44 Magnum revolver" in the movie.
The rumor was they could not readily obtain a 44 Magnum - IDK?
I look down the bore every time I watch the movie and I think I agree with that "rumor" though.
By the way the movie cost $4,000,000.00 (four million dollars) to make and initial theater release brought in $36,000,000.00 (thirty six million dollars) for the producers!
Thus some sequels.

I used to buy and sell S&W Model 29's VERY regularly!
Never was much for shooting them just seeking "profits".
I am down to just 5 Model 29's today some of which are new unfired in presentation boxes.
(2) Model 29-2's with 8 3/8" barrels
(1) Model 29-2 with 6 1/2" barrel (nickel plated)
(2) Model 29-6's with 6" barrels
Long live the pre-lock Smith & Wesson revolvers!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

This is for you, Plab:

Nice piece. My first handgun was a nickel 8 3/8" M29-2 that I bought in 1978 at age 17. I paid $360 for it NIB. The only shop around without a mark-up. Some years later I had the barrel cut to 5". Some years later (~1994) while cleaning it I noticed what appeared to be a small "chunk" missing about mid-way down the barrel. I called S&W and they asked me to send it in. A week or so later I received a call from one of their 'smiths advising that the barrel was defective and needed to be replaced but the only 5" barrels were the DX lugged ones. I advised that I was fine with that barrel. A few weeks later it arrived. Beautifully re-nickeled, interchangeable front sight with three blades. Just excellent service.

Too bad they ruined the .44 Magnum mystique associated with the Dirty Harry movies in Magnum Force, when a group of hotshot, Colt Python aficionado, rookies (turns out they were actually the bad guys in the movie) asked Harry, while shooting at the indoor police range, what load he carried in his revolver, and he told them "a light Special load for improved controllability."

Who's genius idea was that? Of course it makes perfect sense from a practical standpoint, but the mystique was kind of ruined for anyone who had any clue what he was saying.

PS. If I had to speculate, he (i.e., the writer for the Harry character) likely meant a 200 grain .429 caliber bullet in a .44 Special case, loaded to around 1,000 fps muzzle velocity.

PPS If you pay attention, you will notice that all the bad cops in that movie carried four inch blued Colt Pythons. Standard issue on the LAPD at the time was the .38 Special, S&W Combat Masterpiece.

Had one of these but gave it to my nephew for christmas.

My first 29-2 (and first Model 29) was a 6.5". I have put many thousands of rounds through that gun. For a long time it was my only centerfire revolver, so it filled a lot of roles.

After years of reading articles by Ross Seyfried, John Taffin, Elmer Keith, etc, I contemplated for considerable time on what would be my ideal "Perfect .44".

I finally decided to have it built.

My favorite 29-2 is my 5" that was built from an 8 & 3/8ths" gun. The barrel was cut back and set up with the same interchangeable front sight system as the Classic/DX revolvers. The wide serrated trigger was narrowed and polished.







From experience I found that the 5" was the sweet spot.

4" barrels were outstanding for a gun carried on the belt in a traditional holster. There was no reason to go shorter either as it did not gain you anything. With a 4" gun, with typical .44 Mag loads, recoil was still quite considerable. The sight radius was a disadvantage as compared to a 6.5" gun, but with practice you could still turn in some good accuracy.

The 6.5" guns, without question were the tops (for me) for hunting. Bear in mind that this is all in the pre-red dot sight days. As far as iron sight shooting, the 6.5" barreled Model 29 was perfect for getting optimal accuracy, especially at any decent distance. The downside was that it was not great for a belt carried gun, and getting into and out of a pickup truck on a regular basis. Great for hunting, but not great for a daily carry type gun.

The 5" gun was the ideal spot between. It was short enough, that when paired with a high quality holster like a 55BN from Milt Sparks, it was comfortable to carry all day on the belt, and was not a hinderance getting into and out of vehicles. The sight radius was such that I definitely shot it better than a 4" gun. As far as recoil goes. That extra 1" of barrel was notable. The 5" barrel really is the ideal barrel length for N Frames for me. It may not be for others, for various reasons such as height, or build or other reasons, but for me, it is perfect.

Ted, makes you wonder why S&W didn't produce more of them with 5" barrels

True.

However, they tend to just go with market demand, versus what aficionados want. Popularity, and optimal can be two quite different things.

Think about this in reference to concealed carry handguns;

The hardest part of a handgun to conceal is generally the grip/frame, as the slide is usually carried inside the waistband (IWB).

Logically you would want a compact grip that was large enough to fit just about everyone, combined with a longer slide/longer sight radius, since the slide is going to be concealed inside the waistband anyways.

In a Glock, that would be a Glock 19, with a Glock 17 slide.

So what does Glock do?

The exact opposite.

They bring out the 19X.

A Glock 17 frame, which is the hardest to part to conceal, combined with a Glock 19 slide (with its shorter sight radius).

It was an instant success and sells like crazy! People love it.


Popularity vs practical from a logical standpoint sometimes take very different paths.

Nice mods, and nice gun. Seems pretty ideal.

I've been making precisely that argument for years.

Bought my first model 29 in 1967 for $125 used when new ones were $165 in the presentation box. Took me 3 months to pay it off working for uncle Sam & a part time job in Texas. Since that time I've owned & traded lots of them but a 5" gun has always eluded me. In the mid 70's I had a 4 digit Ruger #1 in 45/70 & Jed Wilson, sheriff of Lemhi county, Idaho wanted it really bad & said he might be willing to trade his factory 5" S&W 44 for it.
I drove to Salmon a few days later, spent part of the day with Elmer Keith out in his trophy room & bought another book then drove over to Jed's place & he opened a huge foot locker/safe he had in a back bedroom & pulled out an ivory stocked 5" model 29. These were special order guns, I think from some hardware store in Ohio, might be wrong on the store.
Anyway at that time ivory wasn't bringing the crazy prices it is now but still it added quite a bit to the gun & after quite a bit of back & forth Jed decided he might be better off keeping the 44. I wanted it really bad but he made the right choice. About a year later that gun & many others were stolen & his son, who was a Salmon cop got in a shoot out with the bad guy, maybe a story for a later time. Even Elmer got involved a bit.

Dick

Mackay: Popularity vs practical from AN EXPERIENCE standpoint sometimes take very different paths. Fixed it for you.

Two guns were built and used for the movie Dirty Harry.

One was a 6.5" and the other is an 8 3/8". Which is used throughout the film was dependent on the director and how he wanted the shot to look.

Nice gun.

Congrats.

Dick, please tell the rest of the story about the shootout with the bad guy.

I have been after Dick to write a book, if even a compilation of all his short stories for at least 10 years. Probably more like 15 years now. He is a wealth of knowledge and has been doing what so many only talk about, handgun hunting on public lands, and doing so successfully. Stories like the one above are only icing on the cake!

Very cool. Would love to see that too, MacKay.

I would agree that I prefer my unlugged 5" M29 to the lugged one mentioned above.

target trigger. target hammer and grips ? I cant 'tell it apart from other 29's I've looked at what am I missing

plab

The widest hammer and trigger are referred to as “target” widths and the stocks that enclose the area behind the trigger guard and the front of the grip frame are targets. I believe the hammer and trigger widths were .500”.

At the time your gun was produced I believe the only stocks S&W was marketing were the Magna, the smaller stocks that follow the outline of the grip frame, and the Targets. Targets we’re standard on M29s

I bought my Model 29 6 inch new early 80,s very accurate and have shot it a lot have not shot it in years carry a 10mm with 220 grain cast bullets for bears. Shot the 29 with hard casts and the 10 mm side by side and found I could shoot it faster and with a lot more accuracy than my old favorite the model 29. Plus I can go out the door faster with the 10mm. Going for a boat ride or WE trip
its easier to grab the 10 and 3 loaded mags. Than round up the revolver and right ammo, could be a factor of too many birthdays also!

Plab asked " target trigger, target hammer & grips I can't tell them apart from others I've seen"

Because apparently you've not seen the standard model. They didn't even come in the mahogany box. Sort of rare after "The movie" & everybody wanted a Dirty Harry gun which was full optioned. So, S&W shipped most with a full set of options, at extra cost of course, & those options so common that they became pretty much standard. Sort of like pickups these days, the plain standard model rarely seen.

I've been shooting Model 29s for most of my adult life and I had no idea that a factory non-3T version existed. Can you point me to pics?

Genuinely curious, not busting your chops.

Thanks,


Okie John

No, just seeing them in person in the mid 70's at the huge gun shop & police supply that we used to visit to dream of such things. Their police supply department may have been the source there.

But... before the gun control act of `68, & somewhat past that, S&W's could be had various ways, or special order. Much like American made vehicles of the day. Find one on the lot or not uncommon was to sit down & check of a list of offered options & wait a month or 2 longer & get exactly what you wanted.

I have a 1975 Outdoor Sports Headquarters master catalog that was a giant distributor in the day that used to list some of the more popular options of Smiths & others, seems the blue book of gun values would list the value of a gun & have adders for certain options. But by '75, Smiths were so scarce they stopped doing that. A dealer took what they could get & options weren't asked for, just a bonus if a gun came with some. For instance, a dealer might have to buy 10 model 10's to get a model 19, or the like.

Googling might find old S&W catalogs or option list. I didn't have much luck, but know they existed.

Gun Digest also listed much of the kind.

I bought my first M/29-2 6.5" in 1976, it was used and I paid $240.00. Over the years I have owned several M/29's, I have had two shortened to 5" by Jim Stroh of Alpha Precision. One was an 8 3/8" M/29-2 and the other was a pre-29 4" that came with a correct vintage 6.5" barrel. I sold that S & W a couple of years ago for $2,500. Skeeter Skelton was my inspiration for creating the 5" M/29's, he knew what h was talking about they balance just right. My current S & W .44 Magnum is a pre-dash M/629 4", the second of these that I've owned. It would be that last S &W that I'd ever sell.

One of mine had a Patridge front sight. I sold it to Travis.

Very true, a neighbor of my folks owned a small 5 and 10 in northeast Ga. He had the most S&W’s I’d ever seen. I mean dozens and dozens back in the early 70’s. He told me he had to buy a truck load of S&W shotgun shells (maybe Alcan) to get N frames like a 29 and 57. They were boxed and were $500 each. Model 60’s we’re the same $500.

I was able to buy a 3 1/2” nickel Model 27 from another dealer for $168 which was list price at the time.

I have a 1970 catalog that lists a bunch of options.

I still got it!

Need to snap some new pics of my .44's.

I got one for each kid but some days these new prices are tempting. LOL

[/quote

I have a 1970 catalog that lists a bunch of options.[/quote]

I've seen it, but would love to see it again, not to mention the younger guy could see how neat Smiths were in the day.

Any chance of a few photo's of that catalog?

I’ll get a few photos, I looked for quite a few years to find one in good condition. Looking through it brought a tear or two….K-32 Masterpieces were still listed.

The only stainless listed was the Model 60. There were no autos other than the 39, 41, 52, and 61….those were the days.

url=https://flic.kr/p/2oNjPWf][/url]