Any of you guys have any experience with a smith model 69? I've been thinking about getting one.

There’s another thread here on them. If you do a little searching, it should be easy to find.

Great little “lightweight” 44 mags.

I shot mostly 250 gr WFN LBT Hard Cast bullets out of mine loaded with 10 grains of Unique. Great little hog killer.
Plenty accurate and reliable.
And lighter to holster carry than a 629.

Here it is. It just got bumped to the second page.
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/16369413/s-w-69-2-75#Post16369413

I've owned two. The only reason I still don't own one is it overlapped with my Mountain Gun and somewhat with my Flattop Blackhawk.

Both of mine were the longer barreled versions. IMO they don't recoil bad with factory powered 240 grains. I'm sure with anything more, recoil would get stiff quickly. They are excellent with Cowboy-type loads.

I've had a 629 Mtn. Gun since they were introduced.

I like my 69 more better.

I like mine , but I've only shot Winchester Cowboy loads through mine so far.

I shoot mostly 44 Special +P to low end 44 Mag loads. I like it a lot; accurate and easy to shoot well.

I have the 4.25' version. Like it a LOT.

Hoping mine will become a 45 colt in 3 weeks or so

Ummmm, you can do that? I knew the bolt notches were between chambers, but I didn’t think there’d be enough meat on the outside of the cylinder. Who’s doing the work for you?

I would spend the money for that…..

Serious question: why would you want to convert a .44 Magnum to a .45 Colt? I have a S&W M-69 4.25" barrel. My go-to "anti-personnel +P" rounds are .44 Special 240 gr lead SWC loaded over 7.7 gr of Universal. This is almost identical to the famous "Skeeter" Skelton load of 7.5 gr of Unique under a 240-250 gr lead SWC. While I do not own a .45 Colt, I do hand load .45 Colt for a good friend who does. His load is a max charge of 7.6 gr of Universal under a 250 gr lead RNFP bullet. The results are that my hot loaded ".44 Spl +P" load is darn near identical to his max load .45 Colt cartridge. He has 10 grains of more lead than I do and I have 1/10 of a grain more powder than he does. My load is well below the magnum rating of my gun and I have done no modifications to convert it to another caliber. I'm not knocking the .45 Colt cartridge, but what is gained by doing this other than to have a unique gun? I guess you maybe could hot load the .45 Colt, but then you can already surpass the Colt cartridge with the .44 Mag that you already have. What am I missing here?

It’s a largely hypothetical delight, but, if you’re a .45 fan (Colt or ACP)it will lighten the gun somewhat by making the holes bigger.
Also, I’m a big fan the the RCBS 270SAA cast bullet. That gem coming out at 900fps plus out of that handy little package is a big turn on for me.
No flies on the platform as is. Have never even shot that much meat with a pistol, but I’m just a .45 guy.

And it’s been proven that you can handload 45colt past 44mag performance.
https://www.johnlinebaughcustomsixguns.com/writings

That may be so, but will the M-69 platform that was designed for .44 Magnum be sufficiently strong enough for a .45 Colt that is loaded to well over .44 Magnum maximum specs, especially after it has been modified? I don't know the answer to that question, but I would carefully consider this before doing so. That's just me, YMMV. Just a thought, if one really wants a .454 Linebaugh, why not just buy one that is built for it to start with? I would think that would be more cost effective and certainly safer than buying then modifying a .44 Magnum. You can always shoot .45 Colt spec cartridges in the .454 Linebaugh. Again, just my thoughts.

I was curious about this. I suspect more people fire 44 Spl than 44 Mag. It’s probably the reason 44 Spls went away and a lightweight 44 Magnum Model 69 was born.

What bullets do you shoot the most? I just got a 153 gr. NOE mold, and have several thousand cast 200 bullets made up. They are for my CA 44 spl.

For both my .44 Mag and .44 Spl loads, I usually use the same 240 grain coated lead SWC bullets. I like 10.2 grains of Universal in the .44 Mag for 1132 FPS (4.25"barrel) and 7.7 grains of Universal in the .44 Spl for 961 FPS (4.25" barrel). I refer to my .44 Spl load as ".44 Spl +P". There is no such official SAMI designation (but it should be) and it is above the rather anemic .44 Spl specs. It SHOULD NOT be used in older 1920s-1940s vintage pistols nor those of light duty construction. This is perfectly safe used in a .44 Magnum gun and well below magnum pressures.

Good thing I stumbled across this thread cause I too am wanting a S&W M 69 .44 mag.

Any update on this?

I picked up one of the short barrel 69's recently. Haven't had a chance to shoot it yet. Figuring on mostly shooting 44 specials. I've got a couple of other guns if I need to shoot 44 mag. I've also got a 3" GP100 in 44 special. Not sure which one I'm going to like better.

Got the barrel done and chopped the throats of the cylinder
Got caught up in building a pair of 500s and converting a 329 to 45
Checking out gripframe casting and I got none of them finished.
Talked to Dave Manson on a reamer for the titanium cylinder of the 329.
Priorities you know

I shoot 45 colt......don’t shoot 44 Mag. That is reason enough.
Why do folks shoot a 44 Mag?
They want to
If the cylinder will take 44,000 of the 44 Mag......it will handle 45 colt.
And it’s what I like.
John Linebaugh wanted a 69 in 45 colt but S&W said no.
Soooooo.........mine is getting done then John will probably do his.
He was wondering about the propriety tool for the 2 piece barrel.
Turned out to be no problem.......
He showed me a trick on the extractor.........we’ll get them done.

When I moved to MT I picked up a Smith 329 as a backcountry bear gun - It was so light heavy loads were painful. I switched to the 4 inch 69 and found the L frame action much easier to smooth up the recoil easier to handle - gave up one round but the smaller package carries better. Ended up keeping the 69 and selling the 329.

I sold my 329 PD also. It was a great .44 Special, but I literally fractured a wrist bone firing six full house Magnums through it. Admittedly, they were heavy bear loads, but any full Magnum load in it was too much.

I mostly use Hornady and Speer 240 swaged bullets along with the Speer 210 Gold Dot. I’ve also loaded some Rimrock gas checked hollow points but haven’t fired them yet. I use 44 Mag cases.
With the Hornady and Speer swaged bullets, I roll them in a little Lee liquid alox to add to the factory applied lube.

Since I wouldn't shoot full house loads in it anyway, I stuck to my 4" 624. 250 @ 950 is enough for anything I'm likely to see in the People's Republic of IL.

I bought one a couple years ago. I have a 329 PD that I use for backpacking. I was hoping to reduce the recoil a bit via the extra 10 ounces or so. However, with my handloads I couldn't detect any difference between the two for recoil. Both suck. My 69 was the 2-3/4" barreled version. Maybe the additional weight was offset by increased muzzle flip from the shorter barrel, dunno. In any event, since it was not an improvement, I decided to keep the lighter 329PD with 1 more cartridge and sell the short 69.

Tom