Originally Posted by chlinstructor
Originally Posted by hookeye
I shot a 329 PD w hardcast 255gr the owner said were pretty warm.

It was not bad. Jumpy, but not bad.

My concern w buying one is my screwed up wrist. Until doc finds out why its messed up, Im not shooting any .44 magnums. Proly a stress fracture from work.

Found a used 329pd for under a K. Sure is tempting, even w bum hand LOL

Had one when they first came out. Hated it.
And I’ve been shooting hard kicking max loads out of 4” & 5” barreled big bore handguns for most of my adult life.
Even with “medium loads” of a 260 gr WFN LBT Hard cast bullets at 1100 fps, “quick” follow up shots are next to impossible. Not to mention my hand feeling like a Fuqking mule kicked it after shooting and stinging and being numb for the rest of the day after extended range sessions.
ALSO, the loads were bad about “jumping the crimp” from the recoil, and binding up the cylinders.

My take on the 329 PD is you couldn’t give me another one. Even for FREE.

I’ll stick with my old Glock 20 loaded with 16 rounds of the Buffalo Boar Outdoorsman 220 gr hard cast loads any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
It’s Uber reliable and has never failed to feed or go bang after many thousands of rounds. And reasonably “fast” recovery for multiple hits on target or easy with practice.

If I didn’t have that, I’d definitely go with one of my 1911’s with a hard cast 250 gr WFN LBT bullet at 950 fps that I load which is very similar to the load Mackay Sagebrush sells and uses. And I wouldn’t fill the least bit “underarmed” with it in bear country as I know how well I can shoot with it and have seen the results on numerous large feral hogs I’ve shot with it at the Ranch. A couple which charged after sticking with an arrow while bow hunting at very close range.


I’m not in big bear country nor do I expect to be, but in that vein we do have the odd cougar roaming our Loess hills, river bottoms, and woodlots, strange as it may seem. So I don’t need a 44 mag.

However, I’m on my second S&W 329. I pounded myself pretty good with the first one, but since I’ve come to see it as a near perfect revolver for the 44 Special. If one hand loads, there are many possibilities. But even Buff Bore, Double Tap, Underwood, etc load a 240-255 gr hard casts at about a 1000 fps for the Special, which will probably be somewhere in the middle 900’s out of the 4+” barrel. These loads have been proven to be plenty (penetration) for deer, black bear, and others. Like the loads Sagebrush mentions.

Meanwhile there is Lightweight carry; light recoil, yet enough velocity for deep penetration for most purposes. Might even work on the big bears with the right person under the right circumstances which seems always true anyway regardless…