I have a literal pile of firearms to choose from and there are some guns that haven't really been getting the light of day. Well, I aim to rectify the situation.

My poor once ignored Colt Anaconda and S&W Model 29-3 are now getting new attention due to a new stud being introduced to the stable; a S&W Model 29-9 Performance Center.





Yes, I took off the nice Altamont stocks and replaced them with a pair of Hogues. Why? Because wood is pretty, but rubber meets the road.

Now, why am I putting these beauties to work as home defense guns? Here's the reason. I primarily carry a mid-70's vintage Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special and I have a good supply of Space Coast Bullets 225gr SWC .44 Russian of all things along with a box or two of PMC 180gr SJHP .44 Special.

I find both to be very viable self-defense loads. The .44 Russian is a softer shooting cartridge out of the Bulldog and out of Big Blue's N-Frame and the Rampant Pony's MM-Frame, both .44 Special and .44 Russian are powder-puffs.

Yeah, I have a pile of full-throttle .44 Remington Magnum for the guns, but I think for self-defense purposes, a .44 Special 180gr SJHP is more than adequate for the intended tasks needed.

All three are six-inch guns and I'm not going to conceal them. They're intended as home-defense pieces. For carrying, the Charter Arms does the job.

With this current set-up, I'm sharing one cartridge between all the guns. And, my poor shuttered .44s get some fresh air and get to stretch their legs at the range.

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GOA FL Dir. & Nat. Spokesman

I have been carrying my 629-6 Deluxe 3" bbl.as my CCW lately and it is next to me as I write. My Ruger Alaskan in 44 Mag. is next to my bed. Both are loaded with Sig 200gr.JHP 44 Spl.I think 44 Spl. is a great defense round and I really like revolvers.

I like it. Take them out for a walk and some fresh air. Now you’ll have an excuse to go shooting to reacquaint yourself with them. If 44 spl doesn’t do the trick you can knock’em over the head with it.

I have often wondered why the large bore DA revolver went out of fashion.
My 4" M-57 is part of my rotating roster.

My 629 Mt. Gun with 44 Special Buffalo Bore 200 gr hard cast wadcutter bullets by my bedside help provide me with a restful night sleep.

I love the look of a good forty-four. If I could get a nice 4" 29 or 629, sans lock, I figure it would be a good defensive handgun. Especially with Specials.

I noticed that Charter Arms continues to make the Bulldog in several variations. I just wonder how their quality and reliability compares to Colt, Smith, or Ruger. I know the old Charters were considered to be pretty good, but Charter Arms has gone through many different iterations over the years.

I think the big-bore N-frames began to lose popularity when S&W started chambering their K-frames in 357 Magnum. Lots of energy in a smaller, lighter weight firearm.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

Weight, bulk combined with a six round capacity. I love my two 29-2 4" .44 magnum revolvers. But I can carry a much lighter and easier to conceal 9 mm or even .380 with more rounds on tap. A .44 mag is ok for open carry in the outdoors but a bit much for concealment.

CA has never been a match to a S&W. CA started business in 1964 and since day #1 they had a bad reputation.

Charter Arms - Wikipedia

One of my Home Defense firearms is a .45LC Revolver.



I've had this Taurus Judge Magnum at my bedside since 2017, loaded with Barnes VOR-TX 200gr SCHPs and Federal .410 Handgun 000 Buckshot.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

It depends on where you live.

When I lived on a Horse Ranch I carried a S&W 29. You can easily empty the cylinder of your self defense rounds and load a "shotshell". Around horses plenty of pests mostly rodents.

I'm a reloader and a 44 Magnum 240 grain LSWC at 950 fps is a great all around load.

.45 Colt is a very viable option for self-defense.

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GOA FL Dir. & Nat. Spokesman

As the saying goes, a 9mm might expand to a .45 caliber, but a .45 won't shrink to a .38 caliber. As much as I like the 9x19, it is true that a bigger bullet will not shrink.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

About a month ago I picked up a Charter Arms Bulldog 14420.
So far I've shot 150 rds of the HSM 44S-5-N Cowboy Action
(200gr LFP) and 100 rds of Lee 200gr LFP powder coat over 5
grains of Herco, That load chronographed in the mid 730's out
of the 2 1/2" barrel.

It's not a Smith but it does have a MUCH better trigger. And it's
about the size of a K frame. In the pocket it feels good and I've
been calling it "the big J frame" since it's a 5 shot. I'm going to
get a Mika pocket holster for it. I "think" if I use just CAS level
velocities and the 200 grain bullets it will perform better than
the 36 or 442. And I only paid $367.00 for it,$20.00 more than
the 442 cost in 2005.

I might get a 74410 which looks like a nickel Model 49 or the
Model 74421 which looks like a DAO 64. They aren't model 69s'
but they will do for me.

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never get out of the boat

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

For a good number of years the night stand gun was 44 mag Mt Gun. Knowing a custom loader, had him make up some 180 sjhp's at 1250 fps from 4" barrel. At the time, one of the rationalized advantages was the deliberate effort to pull the trigger.

Also, if the .45 does expand, it will expand to a greater diameter than 9mm, so basically, .45 is always better than 9mm.

Meanwhile, 10mm Auto and its younger sibling .40 S&W are laughing in the background, surrounded by their harem of .30 Super Carry.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Long ago I removed "caliber" from my vocabulary. I don't give a deep-fried, double-battered damn about diameter. When the astronomically rare instance arrives that I have to use lethal force to defend myself I am only interested in punching holes in the appropriate places.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

.41 Magnum laughs at all three.

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GOA FL Dir. & Nat. Spokesman

While 44 Special is just sitting back and saying"I have been here the whole time and ignored". It can and will do anything needed.

If you can control the platform you like and it is loaded with ballistically sound ammo (no round nose, no FMJ), call it good. The odds of needing it are small, and even smaller if you make your home an unattractive place for the uninvited. A fence, lighting, locked doors and a couple of big loud protective dogs will mostly eliminate all but the most hardcore, who would probably need to have a grudge to make it worthwhile.

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NHI, 10-8.

29-2: 6 shots, 3# loaded.

CZ P07: 17 shots 2# loaded.

29 looks better though. Joe

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Behavior Creates Destiny

As much as my better half prefers auto shotguns to other types, she does very well with revolvers.

I have a 5" 629 that is loaded with Underwood .44 specials that she absolutely loves. Heavy gun, low recoil.

I would NOT want to be on the wrong end of that....

Having at least 2 44Mags makes a great New York Reload. Be Safe,

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I BACK OUR BLUE

I got a Mika pocket holster for my Colt Detective Special and one for my Seecamp 32 ACP. Mr. Mika is quite a gentleman.

I don't buy that argument. If I need to shoot a bad guy, I want the maximum power I can deliver. For me, that's 240gr full-spec Underwood .44mag.

I conceal-carry my 5" 629 Classic .44mag, from pajamas-off until pajamas-on, every day. In a homemade, under-the-shirt vertical cloth shoulder holster rig. Very well concealed and very comfortable.

I am a big fan of the 4" N-frame: .357 M, .41 M, .44 S, .44 M and .45 C. They are true "working revolvers" and all business. I admit that I prefer the SB over the RB by a wide margin in this size of platform with barrels 4" and longer.

What does SB and RB mean?

Square and round butt grip frames.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Many Thanks.

Not with me, it didn't. I bought a Bulldog when it first came out and had NO problems with the gun. The grips didn't fit perfectly and were shimmed with a glued-in matchstick so that they did, but they handled recoil very well and allowed secure "Mexican carry," better than any other gun except perhaps a 1911. Factory ammunition (246gr RNL) backed out of the case after four rounds, but handloads and a heavy crimp took care of that.

The gun shot well, carried well, and never gave me a problem. I wish I still had it.

The link is interesting, but says nothing about a bad reputation.

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Formerly Model520Fan

I bought a 44 Bulldog a few years ago for a truck gun. Now if I'm not traveling it's my desk gun.

Those 44 Special Gold Dots would leave a mark!

Now THAT’s a hollow point👍

This is definitely true, at least on 21st century Smittys. Bulldogs are also dead solid reliable, relatively light, surprisingly accurate, and fire a potent cartridge.

Cost, I think, is perhaps their single best quality. You can crack some malefactor in the teeth with a bulldog as many times as you want and as hard as you want. If it falls apart or the barrel bends, so what? Kick it into the nearest storm drain and go buy a new one.

I’ve spent a lot of nights camping with my model 69 close at hand. 5 rounds of .44 Mag should suffice for things that go bump in the night. At home it backs up a 12 gauge.

I also used to carry one. It's a great gun, but it didn't like my extremely relaxed type of shooting ... the recoil would cause the cylinder stop to unlock during the firing of the second-to-last round, and the cylinder would rotate the last round to the firing position. When the hammer was then cocked, that last live round would be rotated away from the barrel, and the first fired round would be rotated into place. So I would only have 4 shots, not 5.

It could be fixed by using titanium for the cylinder stop, but no one makes them, as far as I know.

So I had to switch to a 5" N-Frame 629 for my EDC ... it's enough heavier that the cylinder unlocking doesn't occur.

I'm a big fan of N-frame revolvers, including .44 Magnums. But the intent of this Thread was "for home defense". Although the .44 Magnum round is certainly a manstopper, you need to consider the standard concerns for home defense: family members in the house, design of your house, and its proximity to neighbors. Even the milder .44 Magnum HP rounds have a lot of penetration power...wood, drywall, stucco, etc. If you and the wife live alone on an isolated piece of property, then there's probably no issue with a large caliber handgun (or rifle, for that matter). But if you have other family members in the house and/or neighbors' houses are very close...you need to think about where those rounds could go. And then with a large revolver there's the limited number of rounds (usually 6) and no way to mount a white light. Just sayin'. Personally, I keep a S&W M&P 10mm 2.0 (15 + 1 SIG V crown HPs) with weapon light and red dot in the night stand. There's also a 12 ga. semi-auto shotgun with 00 Buck and weapon light standing by. My wife and I live alone and neighbors' houses are far enough away so I think we're good.

Never seen a nickel 29-9. That is one spiffy revolver! I'm thinkin' Imma need on sometime....

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Even older, even crankier....