So I finally got my first .44 Mag a couple of nights ago, a 10 5/8" 29-3 Silhouette. At this point I'm not sure if it's a rifle or a handgun but for the price I wasn't arguing.
Anyway, the SA trigger is SWEET--it breaks so cleanly that before putting it on the scale it seemed to be about 2 lbs. Officially it's 3 3/4 to 4 lbs, but it's not a problem because it feels so good. The DA trigger, however, feels excessively heavy to me. Is this typical on this model? Should I mess with replacing the springs or leave it as-is? I honestly shoot more in SA mode than DA, but an improvement would still be nice.

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That gun was intended for single action shooting, so I'd not bother wasting any time or money on adjusting the double action. That should be one heck of a shooter, and I'd be out on the range at 100 yards now seeing just what it would do. If you don't reload yet, try some Hornady with the lever revolution tips. They are superbly accurate.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Keep it as is. It's a precision target revolver.

Don't fix what ain't broken.

Thanks for listening to my 2-cents worth.

God bless,
Birdgun

Thanks, guys, that's why I was asking and I normally shoot in SA mode anyway. Out of curiousity, though, is the heavy DA typical for the Silhouettes in particular (considering their intended use) or were you simply recommending that I not worry about the DA weight because of it's intended use? I may use it someday for deer hunting, but for now it'll mainly be caressed and ogled and used for punching big holes in paper in the back yard. Honestly, my preference would have been a 6" or even an 8 3/8" barrel, but for $600 I simply couldn't pass this one up. It doesn't appear to have been shot much at all with just a faint turn line, and the cylinder locks up WAY more tightly than ANY of my other wheelguns--Smith or Ruger. The feel of the DA just seemed noticeably heavy compared to all my others, that's all.

Yes, I already reload for other calibers but this is my first .44 and I don't yet have any .429-.430 bullets on hand. The good news is that I recently finally acquired the rest of the necessary items needed to start casting my own (including a 4-cavity Lyman 429421) but just haven't yet gotten a chance to pour any. Not sure if the .44 is a good choice to learn casting; perhaps 38/357 would be better for getting my feet wet.

It has probably never been shot (much) in DA, hence the heavy feel. Don't touch, just shoot in both modes.

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

You can get a quality spring kit for around $20. Change out the springs, see how you like it. It's a simple matter to go back to stock if you want to.

I bought a Silhouette several years ago , and love it as is. Rarely shoot D/A and have no intention of doing any trigger work. Once dialed in site wise, the gun is a great shooter.

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I've thought about it and am curious which is better, Wolf or Wilson. At this time I'm not going to worry about it for the reasons everyone gave above, but maybe someday...
We have a 20-25mph wind today but hope to have the time to take it outside to try it anyway.

Wolff and Wilson are the top 2. Either will be fine.

If you start lightening springs on a 29-3 you may run into other issues. When shooting mine sometimes the cylinder will unlock counter rotate. I went in to change the cylinder stop spring and figured why not lighten the other springs too. The problem got worse when I changed the springs out for lighter ones.

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-Matt

Yeah, I'm not too worried about it and don't plan to change anything right now.
Are you shooting pretty heavy loads when you experience the unlocking issue?

It will do it with regular full house 240gr loads. My 29-3 is a 6" barrel though, the extra weight of your 10" barrel will probably dampen the recoil enough that this will never happen. My 29-4 classic hunter does not have this problem.

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-Matt

BTW, Dieseltech56, do you happen to have a copy of the instructions that explain how to adjust/use the silhouette front sight? I can't seem to find that information anywhere.

Sorry I do not have any idea how the silhouette front sight works.

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-Matt

When I first started shooting IHMSA Silhouette (back in the 80's), I mainly shot 44 Mag with a 10" TC. I shot a lot of cast (gas check) bullets in the 225 gr. weight and with somewhere around 12 gr. HS6 would take down the 55 Lb Ram at 200 Meters (if hit high up on the back). I don't recall the velocity but it wasn't max load at all.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I'm shooting Sil. with an 8-3/8" M629 with a scope. I worked out a load that shoots about 6" groups at 200 M. The load is 300 gr. Hornady XTP over 18 gr. H4227 or IMR4227 with CCI LPM primer in Starline .44 MAG brass. The muzzle velocity is around 1050, just under sonic. My ballistic chart says it's still doing 900 at 200 yards. The recoil is very mild, like an easy .44 Special. I have shot 120 of those in one day with no discomfort either during or afterwards. You may need to drop the powder charge a bit for a 10" barrel, you want to stay under 1100 fps.

The front sight has 4 setscrews numbered 1 - 4. Set the rear sight a turn or so off the bottom, or an easy to remember number of clicks. Set the wheel so you can see the number 1 on the left side, and adjust the elevation of the #1 setscrew to where it hits where you want at the closest distance. This would be 50 meter Chickens in Met. Sil. Then set the wheel to #2 and adjust the #2 setscrew to hit the next furthest target, 100 meter pigs, and so on. Once you have all 4 set, you just turn the wheel to the number you want. It's a good idea to take out the setscrews and clean them and the holes with solvent, let dry, and apply blue Loctite to the screws and holes and clean off the excess before you start shooting. You can make minor elevation adjustments with the rear sight if you are shooting high or low that day. That effectively adjusts all 4 front sight settings together without having to redo them all.

Thank you, Toolguy, that's some really good information! So are the four sight elevations intended to represent 50, 100, 150 and 200 yard distances?

IMHO---YOU SHOULD LEAVE THE REVOLVER AS IS......

A SILHOUETTE REVOLVER IS INTENDED FOR SLOW AND DELIBERATE, SA FIRE AT A DISTANT STATIONARY TARGET......

WHY MESS WITH A GUN TO INCREASE ITS EASE OF DOING SOMETHING IT WASN'T DESIGNED TO DO ? ? ?

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

Congrats on your catch. You are correct about the four sight settings. One setting for each bank of the steel critters. I found the attached describing how to adjust the sight.

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Don't You Ever Wash That Thing

They were originally made for that, but you can set them for anything you want them to be. For example, if you wanted to shoot Field Pistol instead of Big Bore, you could set them for 25, 50, 75 and 100. Or any other distances you want.

Awesome, thanks for the pic! I wasn't sure how to turn the knob.

Thank you, I was assuming you could adjust them for any distances but am not familiar with silhouette shooting and wasn't sure what distances were involved. Pretty impressive!