Today my LGS owner pulls out this beautiful 29-3 with an 8 3/8" barrel. He new I liked 29's so he asked me to check the yoke out. It has a detent ball on top but there is no notch under the barrel to lock in. The gun is marked -3 only , there is no "E" stamp next to the 3 . Are we misinterpreting how the detent is being used ? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Pics would be helpful. Perhaps someone was worried about the cylinder flying open under recoil.

My 629-1, which as far as I know has the same mechanical changes as the -3, doesn’t have any kind of detent of any sort on the yoke or frame. Don’t know if that’s helpful or not.

The ball detent is after-market. Apparently whoever installed it either didn't know there had to be a recess in the frame, wasn't confident enough to locate the recess, or had a short attention span and forgot. Or maybe it is a bubba gun and the yoke from a gun that had the ball detent was used as a replacement. Your guess is as good as anybody's, but these are the only explanations I can think of.

Only the 29-2E, for "Endurance Package", are marked with the E. All 29-3 guns are after the transition period and have the endurance package features, so there is no need or reason to stamp the E on them.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

I agree, a ball detent crane on a 29-3 is not original to that revolver.

I believe it was the 29-3 series that saw the introduction of the endurance package, so there are model 29-3E stamped revolvers. The 29-2 was the last version of the pinned barrels and recessed chambers versions.

You're right! It was the 629-2, that introduced the endurance package on that model, and 29-3. All the absence of the "E" on OPs gun is it was before introduction of the endurance package which fell somewhere in the middle of the -3 series in 1987.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

I thought that ALL 29-3 revolvers are pre-endurance package.
In fact, it was issues with the 29-3 that helped lead to the introduction of the endurance package.

Maybe you're thinking of the 629-3?

I only have one model 66 with a detent ball I had replaced the 2.5 barrel with a 681 barrel that I fit to it (rethread to k size) and when you close the crane you can see where to locate the 1/8" ball nosed endmill dimple hole they work very well. Had to do it as the L frame barrel cylinder lock was farther off than the K lock. Jeff

The endurance package did not include a ball detent yoke lock so whether or not the owner's 29-3 has endurance package features is moot. The first revolvers to leave S&W with ball detent yoke locks were 1990s Performance Center models.

The endurance package part that was added to keep the cylinder from flying open under recoil is not visible with the side plate on. It slides up and down in a trough in the frame blocking the bolt's rearward movement during recoil. The bolt is the part the cylinder release thumb piece is attached to.

Since every exception gets pointed out here, the first N frame model, the New Century or Triple Lock, introduce in 1904, had a ball detent to lock the yoke open.

Back in the time the 29-3 was in production , there were a handful of gun smith that would offer that lock up package with the ball bearing.This was in an era where the revolver was still the king of defense guns. Magnaported , action tuned , hard satin chrome finishes and strength enhancements actually added value to a gun. Sounds like someone started but didn't finish his own job.