Imissedagain;
Way back when, during the "Dirty Harry" days when Model 29's were selling for retail plus "half-again" and were nearly unobtainable, I had a good friend who knew a distributor in a neighboring state. He told me I would receive a call and most any time or day, I had to immediately say yes or no and take it. I opted to ask for a 6.5" or an 8 3/8" barrel whichever became available first. Deer hunting law in Ohio had just changed to allowing handguns and I was eager to go!
I received a call a Saturday afternoon, that a new 8 3/8" revolver had just been received. I got in the car, and headed to the Distributor. I took delivery of my new handgun at Distributor Cost (it pays to have friends)...
The new Model 29 was before Smith started drilling and tapping their revolvers for scope mounts. I was formally trained as a precision machinist but I was no longer in that profession and had no equipment. However, another good friend put me in touch with a precision machine shop. He and another friend, asked me to design a scope mount system.
I not only wanted a scope but I wanted it to be uber functional and attractive. I had run tests and since this was a hunting handgun, it had to be useable in all field positions. Shooting offhand, I MUCH preferred nothing of more magnification than two power. Gil Hebard Guns marketed an exclusive Burris two power long eye relief scope with a Big Dot reticle.
That was my choice. I wanted the mount to look good and the old Kimber Co., of rifle fame, had a very attractive set of steel rings. They had 12" blank rails for those mounts. I bought several of the scope mount sets, and met with the Precision Machine Shop ( a local operation). The explained EXACTLY what I wanted. I even furnished the drills and taps (gun screws are uncommon sizes). I knew that I did NOT want 6/48 screws as they are too weak. I chose 8/40 screws. I wanted the scope mounted between the sights, so in bad weather I could easily remove the scope in the field and use the iron sights already zeroed. We had a limited season and I had to hunt when both the season was in and I was available. If it was snowing or raining, I still planned to hunt, regardless of the weather.
I took all three of the revolvers to the machine shop and in a week they were done absolutely to my specs. The charges were quite low due to "who you know" and, again, it pays to have friends.
The mount rail was mounted to the barrel, I think it looks great and it actually worked even better than I anticipated. I took several deer with the combination and that big dot seemed like magnet when placed on a deer while hunting. It just drew me and the gun to the correct spot regardless of where the deer was facing. My shots were under 100 yards but one stepped of to be 75 long steps and one other turned out to be a running shot, then a finish shot standing at 85 yards. The running shot was placed just behind the shoulder but when the deer stopped behind a tree and put a safety shot in the neck at eighty five long steps. No damaged meat and clean kill. A beautiful six point buck.
I also killed another deer from a tree stand, at ten yards. The scope worked perfect at all distances that I needed.
Here is my deer hunting gun, as described:
FWIW
Dale53
Revolver Sights
Linear Mode
