Recommendations for .44 Magnum Revolver

I go with style.

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629-1 .44 magnum.

Deaf
 
No photos - sorry. I've got a 629 w/ 8 3/8ths barrel. Awesome! I've taken it deer hunting but never got a shot. I also have a Ruger Original Vaquero .44 mag. Big & heavy but nice and accurate. Neither gets shot vey often, but if I had to recommend one it would be the S&W 629.
 
Don't expect an older 29(the "Dirty Harry" revolver) to hold up to true magnums like a Ruger or the newer Smiths do. Learned the hard way when my 29-3 frame stretched(so much for "they don't make them like they used to").
Click to expand...

Just curious, but what do you consider "true magnums" and how much of what did you shoot through your 29-3 before the problem happened???

We hear all the time how the older 29s "won't hold up" but almost never hear what it actually took to "break" one.

A friend had a 629 (made in the "banger puta") years, one made after they stopped pinning the barrel. The barrel unscrewed. Very noticeable tilt, that wasn't there when the gun was bought, showed up a few hundred rounds later... He sent the gun back, and it came back with the barrel straight, and S&W saying "nothing wrong". He then sold it.

This was obviously a QC issue, not something caused by too heavy loads, or extreme use wearing it out.

The old 29s aren't tanks, by today's standards, but they aren't eggshells, either.

So, what did you DO to your 29-3 to stretch the frame??? Inquiring minds want to know..;)
 
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This is my S&W 629 Performance Center with an Aimpoint. It is resting on my S&W 500 Magnum with a Primary Arms Advanced Microdot.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
@44AMP

That 29-3 saw less than 1000 180gr and 240gr factory-spec loads. I certainly wasn't pushing the envelope in loads. I bought it used, since it was manufactured around the time I was born. In sure it saw plenty of rounds before I bought it(but the bluing was at least 80%)

I've had bad luck with older Smiths. I used to love Smiths until their ages started to show. Maybe I am somehow rougher on them than most but my Rugers never seemed to notice. I'd bet that newer Smiths are tougher than their predecessors too.

I will say that those old Smiths were very accurate and had wonderful actions. Their ability as target pistols was phenomenal.
 
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