I am new to wheelguns and totally in love with them! I have been looking for and found a Model 29-2 and will pay $499 for it by the time I get it out of layaway.

Its not a new gun, its been around the block a few times and shows signs of wear on the finish from being holstered and fired. Being on layaway, I wanted to ask what I should be looking for. I knew to check the forcing cone and it looks good. Is there anything else?

I intend for this to be a working gun. The one I carry during the colder months and the one that rides on the holster while hunting and fishing here in Michigan. I will probably end up putting .44 Specials through it, but also full power Magnum loads. Is there anything I need to be careful of?

Serial number is: N7724XX

As I stated, the finish is worn and actually slightly ugly. There are no signs of rust with only slight pitting in one spot on the cylinder. I want to have it refinished. I know some don't care for that, but again, this is intended to be a workhorse, not a showpiece (I hope to get one for show after my next deployment). Do any of you have a recommendation on where to send it for a re-blue, OR do any of you suggest going with a different finish than bluing.

Again, I am a complete novice, so please forgive my lack of knowledge here.

Thank you!

Welcome to the Model 29 fraternity!
You will find much knowledge here. Reloading will really unlock the 29's versatility.
I also have a 44 Special, but have always loaded specifically for the 29.
Mostly "mid range (~1000-1100 fps with 240 grain cast bullets). Saved the max loads for 200 yard rams in silhouette loads.

Check the cylinder play.

1) With the gun UNLOADED (check for yourself!), close the action.

2) Thumb the hammer back, and while pulling the trigger, gently lower the hammer all the way down while keeping the trigger back - and KEEP holding the trigger once the hammer is down. (You've now put the gun in "full lockup" - keep it there for this and most other tests.)

3) With the trigger still back all the way, check for cylinder wiggle. Front/back is particularly undesirable; a bit of side to side is OK but it's a bad thing if you can wiggle it one way, let go, and then spin it the other way a fraction of an inch and it stays there too. At the very least, it should "want" to stop in just one place (later, we'll see if that place is any good). The ultimate is a "welded to the frame" feeling.

Check the cylinder gap.

4) Still holding the trigger at full lockup, look sideways through the barrel/cylinder gap. If you can get a credit card in there, that ain't good...velocity drops rapidly as the gap increases. Too tight isn't good either, because burnt powder crud will "fill the gap" and start making the cylinder spin funky. My personal .38snubbie is set at .002, usually considered the minimum...after about 40 shots at the range, I have to give the front of the cylinder a quick wipe so it spins free again. I consider that a reasonable tradeoff for the increased velocity because in a real fight, I ain't gonna crank 40 rounds out of a 5-shot snub .

If you're eyeballing it, you'll have to hold it up sideways against an overhead light source.

Checking the timing.

5) You really, REALLY want an unloaded gun for this one. This is where the light comes in. With the gun STILL held in full lockup, trigger back after lowering the hammer by thumb, you want to shine a light right into the area at the rear of the cylinder near the firing pin. You then look down the barrel . You're looking to make sure the cylinder bore lines up with the barrel. Check every cylinder - that means putting the gun in full lockup for each cylinder before lighting it up.

You're looking for the cylinder and barrel holes to line up perfectly, it's easy to eyeball if there's even a faint light source at the very rear of both bores. And with no rounds present, it's generally easy to get some light in past where the rims would be.

Checking the bore.

(We're finally done with that "full lockup" so rest your trigger finger. )

6) Swing the cylinder open, or with most SAs pull the cylinder. Use the small flashlight to scope the bore out. This part's easy - you want to avoid pitting, worn-out rifling, bulges of any sort. You want more light on the subject than just what creeps in from the rear of the cylinder on the timing check.

You also want to check each cylinder bore, in this case with the light coming in from the FRONT of each hole, you looking in from the back where the primers would be. You're looking for wear at the "restrictions" at the front of each cylinder bore. That's the "forcing cone" area and it can wear rapidly with some Magnum loads. (Special thanks to Salvo below for this bit!)

Checking the trigger.

7) To test a trigger without dry-firing it, use a plastic pen in front of the hammer to "catch" it with the off hand, especially if it's a "firing pin on the hammer" type. Or see if the seller has any snap-caps, that's the best solution. Flat-faced hammers as found in transfer-bar guns (Ruger, etc) can be caught with the off-hand without too much pain .

SA triggers (or of course a DA with the hammer cocked) should feel "like a glass rod breaking". A tiny amount of take-up slack is tolerable, and is common on anything with a transfer bar or hammerblock safety.

DA triggers are subjective. Some people like a dead-smooth feel from beginning of stroke to the end, with no "warning" that it's about to fire. Others (myself included) actually prefer a slight "hitch" right at the end, so we know when it's about to go. With that sort of trigger, you can actually "hold it" right at the "about to fire" point and do a short light stroke from there that rivals an SA shot for accuracy. Takes a lot of practice though. Either way, you don't want "grinding" through the length of the stroke, and the final stack-up at the end (if any) shouldn't be overly pronounced.

Detecting Bad Gunsmithing:

8) OK, so it's got a rock-solid cylinder, a .002" or .003" gap, and the trigger feels great. Odds are vastly in favor of it being tuned after leaving the factory.

So was the gunsmith any good?

First, cock it, then grab the hammer and "wiggle it around" a bit. Not too hard, don't bang on it, but give it a bit of up/down, left/right and circular action with finger off trigger and WATCH your muzzle direction.

You don't want that hammer slipping off an overly polished sear. You REALLY don't want that It can be fixed by installing factory parts but that'll take modest money (more for installation than hardware costs) and it'll be bigtime unsafe until you do.

The other thing that commonly goes wrong is somebody will trim the spring, especially coil springs. You can spot that if you pull the grip panels, see if the spring was trimmed with wire cutters. If they get too wild with it, you'll get ignition failures on harder primers. But the good news is, replacement factory or Wolf springs are cheap both to buy and have installed.

In perspective:

Timing (test #5) is very critical...if that's off, the gun may not even be safe to test-fire. And naturally, a ****** barrel means a relatively pricey fix.

Cylinder gap is particularly critical on short-barreled and/or marginal caliber guns. If you need every possible ounce of energy, a tight gap helps. Some factory gaps will run as high as .006"; Taurus considers .007" "still in spec" (sigh). You'll be hard-pressed to find any new pieces under .004" - probably because the makers realize some people don't clean 'em often (or very well) and might complain about the cylinder binding up if they sell 'em at .002".

WOW! Great stuff. If I find any of those things lacking, is there a fix?

Also, I took a look at the bore and it appeared new, i.e. smooth and without rust or pitting. The cylinder gap was almost imperceptible. I hope to have it out of the store within the next two weeks.

Thanks for the intel, and please keep it coming!

One other test to add is as follows: Check for timing and cylinder bolt lock-up. Again, make certain the gun is not loaded. The idea here is to cycle the action with a drag on the cylinder to see if the cylinder bolt will drop into each notch. This takes a little coordination. Use an off-hand thumb or finger to put a little drag on the cylinder as it rotates and see if the cylinder bolt (metal piece protruding from bottom of frame under the cylinder) drops into each notch as the cylinder rotates into position. Ideally this should occur simultaneous to or just before the hammer reaches full cocked position, or the hammer drops off the sear in double action cycling. Usually when the bolt does not drop it is because the hand, which rotates the cylinder, may be slightly shortened and the cylinder does not rotate fully to the next position, even by the smallest fraction. Sometimes only one or two cylinder positions exhibit the problem and it may not be evident when there is no drag on the cylinder. And, a loaded cylinder rotating with momentum in double action shooting may not exhibit the problem, while it may occur when shooting deliberate slow fire double action. Its is a relatively easy fix by installing an over-sized hand and evidence of this problem should not necessarily kill the deal unless it is grossly out of time on all cylinder positions.

__________________
Tony

Jack, before you get too carried away with the idea of refinishing, shoot the gun some and make sure it is what you want to spend more money on. As to a refinish, I would send it to S&W and stick with the original finish. I suppose they would nickel it for you, but I would stay with blue, unless you just have a particular fondness for shiney things.

If you are not knowledgeable about revolvers, before you shoot it, it would probably be best to have a gunsmith have a look at it, if you have any doubts. It is not likely you have bought one, but I have seen a couple 29s that I would not want to fire without some repairs. The good thing is, the repairs generally are not too expensive - but they are best done by the factory.

Most of the people on here, me included, really don't like to see a gun like your 29-2 refinished. It definitely hurts collector value and just somehow takes away a bit of it's history. If you're looking for a gun to use in inclement weather and rough environments, why not a stainless 629? Lots of them out there and they take quite a beating and still look and work o.k. It's your money and your gun, but it might be worth considering. Anyway, whatever you choose, welcome to the forum. I'm glad you're here.