A nice load for an older S&W 29-2 .44mag?

BongoBob

BongoBob

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My new wife bought me a nice older (1970) S&W Model 29-2 .44 Mag (6.5" barrel) for my wedding present...(yes, she is AWESOME!!)...this wheel gun is in pristine condition, so I don't want to beat it apart. I've read that it's not a good idea to run full power loads through the older model 29s, (is there any truth to that?) so I'm open to suggestions for a load that shoots well in this gun, as I intend to shoot the hell out of it!!

I've not tried casting my own bullets yet, so I'm primarily looking for loads with jacketed bullets...but if you have a great cast bullet load I'll save the info for future reference.

Thanks,
Greg
 
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I will second Rod B's answer. A nice Keith style 240 grn or 200 grn bullet and unique at about 6-9 grains is nice to shoot and not hard on the weapon at all. I wouldn't run any warm/hot loadings thru them, I know Keith loved 2400 powder and 240 grns to the max but it beat the hell out of the revolvers. The recoil was so stiff that the cylinder would unlock and actually rotate backwards. This was a common problem with the 29-2 and especially the long barreled version that was loaded up to hit the rams at silhouette ranges. I have a long barrel version and if I load it with 20 grn of 2400 and a 240 bullet it will unlock and rotate backwards every single time. The 29's full story can be found here http://www.sixguns.com/range/SmithWesson44Mag.htm

I keep all my 29-2 revolvers loaded basically to 44 special loads and the revolver will last a long time. I have a super red hawk and a couple of blackhawks that I load up if I want a nice fire ball and lots of kick.
 
Bullet Barn in BC has nice 44 200 and 240 gr semi-wadcutters lead bullets. 7 to 12 gr of Unique make a nice bang and somewhere in there should be a load the groups well. Mine likes 9 gr and 13 gr. with a 215 gr. lead SWC.
 
From uncle "Elmer Keith's Recommendations" in the old Lyman Handbook of Cast Bullets, using a 250gr bullet of his design, # 429421;- Light gallery loads........ 5gr of Bullseye- Target loads............... 8.5gr Unique- *Heavy loads................ 22gr of 2400**This was a heavy load I used to use but it 'seems' to be now showing signs of being too heavy and indications of high preasure. Possibly todays 2400 is a little hotter?? Anyway, I've dropped the charge to 20gr and it appaers to be ok. When I finish off the remainder of 2400 that I have, I'm 'thinking' of changing to H110.
 
2400 is hotter today and I have found in my Blackhawk/Redhawk's that the old 22 grn is to hot, primers showing signs of excessive pressure. If you look at Alliants website they show 20 grn now as being max.
 
In my 1972 model 29-2,I load 5 grains of tightgroup behind a 240gr lead SWC.It chronos at 775 fps and is very accurate and a pleasure to shoot

Those old model 29's are too nice to hammer up with full loads.
 
I got a 78 model 29 in nickel. I also have some Hornady 240 and 300 JHP any loads for those are appreciated.

Also are newer smiths 629 5" in my case good for hot factory loads?

Sorry for the hi-jack.
 
sevoman said:
In my 1972 model 29-2,I load 5 grains of tightgroup behind a 240gr lead SWC.It chronos at 775 fps and is very accurate and a pleasure to shoot

Those old model 29's are too nice to hammer up with full loads.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly the load I go with most of the time in my Blackhawk. Makes it a joy to shoot all day and accuracy is excellent.
Should be a great load in any revolver that you want to go easy on or for more relaxed shooting.

Now just need to find some jacketed bullets to go with the Lil Gun I've got cuz ya gotta go MAGNUM once in a while! :evil:
 
hunter64 said:
2400 is hotter today and I have found in my Blackhawk/Redhawk's that the old 22 grn is to hot, primers showing signs of excessive pressure. If you look at Alliants website they show 20 grn now as being max.
Click to expand...

:)Good to see that I'm not the only one with that experience and coming to that conclusion. Being an Elmer Keith fan:cool:, I had stuck with that load for more than a few years and until a little while back it had performed well as a heavy load. Again, and as I use a fair amount of H110 in the 500 S&W, I may change to that in the 44 as well when my supply of 2400 runs out.:(
 
In lighter (slightly) loads I used 18 gr of 2400 a lot, also IMR 4227 a fair bit. I've also done up some light loads with 231 that worked ok, not stellar though. Regarding the 629 question, it will depend on the "dash" number. That will tell you if the gun has the updated lockworks or not. Dash 3 or newer on blued 29's, and dash 1 on the 629's if memory serves. Should check with the S&W gurus on the S&W forum just to make sure though. Even with the updates, the 29/629 just isn't a heavy revolver, and if you want it too last, you can't feed it stiff loads for very long before it's time for a rebuild. You want to shoot heavy loads all day? Get a Super Redhawk or Dan Wesson. FWIW - dan
 
Something to remember was that the old "Keith" load with 2400 used standard primers, not magnum primers. I never did have any success with it in any of my 44 mags--4227 and 296 always seemed to give better results in full house loads.

The 7.5 to 8.5 grains of unique has always worked well in them for plinking loads.

44Bore
 
I am using lil gun powder and 240 grains holopoints to show noobs the power of the 44 mag its got some wicked kick to it but not much a fireball.

Plinking is either unique or bullseye... bulleye is so week you can bang off round like an auto loader with little to no recoil. the unique got more kick to it and is a good middle ground between hot factory type loads and powder puff loads with bullseye
 
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