To add a little perspective, I have to post a picture of my Model 29 "no dash", purchased long before a movie made them cool. I've owned it for all of its 50 years.
As a college sophomore in mid-December 1960, I saw and handled my first then-rare Model 29, a 4"er owned by big time Luger collector Robert Bretherton in Toledo, Ohio. I had to have one, as in right now, but they were not in gun stores.
Our stocking dealer was Gross Photo Mart, long out of business like Toledo in general. Augie ordered my 6.5" blued 29 no dash, noting on the receipt "will wire factory today", which is how it was done then.
It came a couple weeks later, in time for Christmas. Full retail price was $140. I bought a Lyman 310 reloading set and a $19 Pacific single stage press at the same time, according to my receipt.
A few days later, testing it at the New York Central Sportsmen's Club range with a couple friends, I learned that you never ever shoot one of these without ear protection. After less than 10 rounds, I was deaf in one ear and could hardly hear in the other. It really slowed me down in Russian language class.
That lasted about a week.
I have a lot of guns and a bunch of Smiths, but this one is special. It will be with me as long as I am around. And the idea of a 4" 29 has tickled my fancy, even if I may have to pay more than $140 this time.
One reason I like the gun and cartridge so much is that it seems I can load it up or down, and with different bullet weights, and it shoots to about the same point of impact. I don't have to adjust the sights. And I wasn't expecting it to be such a tack driver. How I love this thing. I still remember how impressive it was to explode my first concrete block at 50 feet. No need for any more power than this, no matter what the S&W marketeers and gun writers suggest we may need.
Back then, the wood box came from Smith in this pasteboard outer box, which I still have, and which was numbered to the gun. Somebody bobbled one digit and corrected it. I'm betting very few of you have one of these, or even know about them. But alas, I didn't save the brown paper around the cardboard box.
