I spent most of my life without owning a .44, just never saw one for sale. While living in FL in 2000 I happened across my first .44 Mag, a 629-1 just like you have. I really wanted a 29 but never came across a used one for sale. The gunsmith in the shop gave the 629-1 a good bill of health and told me in FL I'd be better off with stainless. So, after a 5 day wait it came home with me.

The only advice the gunsmith gave me was stay away from 300 gr bullets in that gun as it was designed for a 240 gr bullet. I have followed that advice since owning it.

While waiting for the 5 day waiting period to end I did a lot of reading and pressed friends that owned .44's for info. I also bought 100 rounds of .44 SPL 200 gr to shoot out of it, plus dies. For powder I selected 2400 as that seemed to be the powder of choice. The 629-1 shot the Spl rounds fine, accurate and very little recoil.

One friend who owned a model 28-2 converted to .44 Spl told me his favorite load was 15.0 gr of 2400 with a 240 gr bullet was always his best load from his gun. So, when it came time to reload those Spl cases I tried the 240 gr bullet and various charges of 2400 up to 16.0 gr. Darn if the sweet spot wasn't 15.0 gr just like his gun. So, that's what I kept shooting from my gun. At 15.0 gr it is starting to produce some serious recoil but was very manageable and didn't beat me up after 100 rounds. Thinking back velocity was 1050 fps. I liked that load so much that I shoot 15.4 gr of 2400 out of magnum cases for about the same velocity. That is all I've ever shot out of mine to date, I just don't have a need for a mag load in my shooting.

You bought a great gun and I'm sure you will enjoy it. And thanks for taking me back to when I got my first S&W .44 mag.

The story doesn't end there though as 2 weeks later while stopping in another LGS I used to frequent I found a beautiful 29-2 6" on consignment. I ended up buying that one too. I still have both of them.

Here's a photo of my 629-1.