Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Strength of early model S&W 29

I am looking at buying a very early model 29 (made in the late 1950s). I am concerned about its strength as far as modern 44 mag loads are concerned. I do not have any firearms that I do not shoot so it will get plenty use.

Any input on this matter??

I've shot a couple 29s lose. That won't happen to a 27.

I've shot a couple loose enough to require factory service, back in the '80s. One a no dash and the other a 29-1.
One had to be replaced. Go easy on the earlier 29s. I own a 629-4, which has the full endurance package - but still wouldn'r feed it what I would a Redhawk or SRH. Beautiful revolvers though and I'll always own at least one.

The early ones did have a tendency to "shoot loose" They added the endurance kit to later models for a reason. That being said unless you want full house loads on a consistent basis they will hold up to more than most will shoot in a life time. Do the normal checks as it is used, End shake being a big one.

I consider early 29s to be .44 Specials that can occasionally handle full Magnum for special purposes, such as big game or bear defense.

This is my very nice 29-2. When I got it, it looked very little used (still does). I've only put like 50 rounds of full magnums through it.

If you're asking, you might want to get a -4 or later. IMO though, guns like you describe are fine with 240 grain loads at say 1400 fps, IOW normal old-school, 44 Mags. If you're shooting these fire-breathing 300 grainers, you probably want something different. Of course if your gun has already been shot a lot, then all bets are off.

Thank you guys. In your opinion when did the model 29 loose the smoothness of the original models???? After the pinned and recessed were gone????

That would be dash 3. The dash 3 (1983) changes (getting rid of pinned barrels and recessed chambers) were largely for cheapening production costs, but some of the changes were legitimately for increasing durability with heavy loads.

If you have a pre-83 Model 29, do most of your shooting with lead .44 "Magnum" light loads, or .44 Special lead loads, and it will last several lifetimes. Save the full power jacketed heavy Magnums for big game hunting or bear defense.

Stick with 10 grains of Unique and a 240 grain cast SWC type load or the equivalent and you will be G2G for many thousands of rounds.

This old -2 has had many thousands of rounds, and it still is fine. When it was my only .44 I ran heavy loads through it, but they were maybe 3 to 5% of the rounds fired overall. The N Frames are not nearly as "delicate" as internet and gunshop myth has made them out to be. No, they will not take many thousands of full house 300+ grain loads, but the very vast majority of owners are never going to shoot that many hot loads in their lifetime anyways.



Stick with standard 240 grain loads for 95% of your shooting and use the heavy loads sparingly and you will most likely never have a problem. Even then, correcting some endshake is not too tough, and it is an extremely rare gun that has been shot to the point of being not repairable.

Yep, Hickok45 says that his old Model 29 has been repaired a couple of times since he bought it in the 1970s. He used to compete with it in, I believe, steel silhouette matches.

Mackay, I'm not seeing a barrel pin on your -2. Is that just due to lack of detail in the picture?

noticed that also

Nice Herrett Troopers.

I have no experience with the newest guns, but IMO most of them are pretty smooth. The Bangor Punta models were widely decried as inferior but...I dunno. Most of the ones I've owned were fine. I've owned a bunch of them too including old ones, Bangor's, etc. I'd say finding a smooth one is a crap shoot because I'm guessing the one you're looking at has been shot and even if they were a little burry, they smooth up.

One of the ones I REALLY wish I had back was a 4" nickel which a gunstore employee just sat there and dry-fired over and over and over. It was the smoothest one I've ever owned. Dang, now if I win the lottery I'll have to get a couple more 29's and I don't need them at all.

Nice gun; I'm envious.

MM

Thanks. I bought it about twenty years ago. It was pre owned, but obviously not much used.

IHMSA shooters I knew had them get loose.

Smith told me back in the day to keep my 240gr loads in the 1250 fps neighborhood and the revolver would be A-OKAY.

I had a M29-2 6 1/2" I bought in 1978 lasted a year and a half before the barrel needed replacing and the firing pin. 10.0grains of Unique and a 225 gr RCBS semi wadcutter mold with gas check. The barrel face burned out and it was spitting burning powder bad. Smith replaced the barrel and pitted fire pin. Took about 11,000 rds as I recall, summer of 79 I competed at the Second Chance National street Combat match (bowling pins). Most guys used semi autos but that big Smith and I were good friends. Bought a 8 3/8" M629 in January of 81, second year of production,it's never been the gun that old M29 was. Over the years selling that M29 has been 1 of my greatest regrets. 5-6 years back I picked up a blued M29-3 6" it's okay but it ain't the gun the 29-2 was either. Now days I use a 250 gr Keith SWC 429421 and 9 gr of Unique or big dose of 2400. Some will argue the point but I feel if you want to shoot full throttle jacketed bullet loads go buy a Redhawk because they are heavier made for that, those loads will beat a SW to death and you won't be happy about it. I've had to learn more than a few things in life the hard way, but I never had to learn any of them twice. Magnum Bob