What is this?

I

import-ant

New member
Recently picked up an old, very dirty .44 magnum revolver cheap. Assumed it was a model 29. Weeks of cleaning off years of neglect revealed a beautiful gun. Took to range to experience one of the most enjoyable shooting experiences I've ever had. Gun came with old ammo in funny looking old ammo boxes. Started with old .44 special. Moved to .44 magnum 180 grain, then went to 240 something grain. Amazing blast. Incredibly accurate. quite manageable. Someone seeing the gun started giving me creepy weird looks, asked if the ammo was flush with the cylinder. Said was a collectors item. Gun has no model number anywhere; just says smith and wesson on one side, and .44 magnum on the other side of barrel, has a nice blue finish, came in like a cedar wood box with imprints in felt for gun and cleaning tools. In comparing it to photos of a model 29 I'm not so sure it matches. What exactly do I have?
 
S&W built the "pre-Model 29" from 1955 to 1957 (after which everything was given a model number) and called it simply, the "44 Magnum". Can you put any pictures up?
 
It has the colored front sight insert, so it should have some numbers on the frame. When you open the cylinder, look at the flat area where the crane meets the frame. This area will not be machined or polished as smooth as the rest of the firearm. Tell us what numbers are there. Yes, it's a 29- but it could be a pre-29 with a new front sight or sight/job. Also, you can take off the grips and tell us what the serial number is (replace last two digits with "XX") and we can also tell you pretty close to when it was made.
 
Bummer

Darn. It says it's a mod 29-2 in the place you indicated. There are 4 sets of numbers.

N6036@@ (I omitted last two numerics)
mod 29-2
52@@x (I omitted numeric characters, last is letter x
c11

curiously, amongst other things, it says "marcas registradas" (trademark) on right side...
 
As far as I know, which is not all that much. All S&W revolvers had the "Marcas Registradas" on the frame.

Rodger
 
According to my handy dandy S&W book, it looks like a 1980 model to me Sir.
My humble opinion? Shoot it a lot and enjoy it even more.
 
I thank you sir. I want to do just that. From what I read, the 29 had some bad versions which can beat themselves to pieces. Hopefully, 1980 was a good year...
 
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