6 1/2" Mod 29-2 vs 629-4 Mountain Gun

[NE450No2]

For this deer season I thought I would get out my first S&W 44 Mag a 6 1/2", that I bought in the earlt 1970's. I have shot this gun quite a bit over the years, just not a lot in the last 15 or so. I used it for hunting and as a Duty gun in the mid 1970's.

So I took it and my Mountain gun to the range a couple of days ago.

My plan was to shoot a few deer and wild pigs with some different loads to include, my hard cast bullet over 21 gr of 2400, and some factory 240gr loads.
I also had some commercial cast 240gr bullets over 7.2gr of Unique and some over 8.4gr of Unique.

To make a long story short the 6 1/2" gun shot OK with the cast bullets, but wild as a March Hare with the factory jacketed bullets.
I was sjhooting at 25 yards.

So then I tried the same loads in the 4" Mountain Gun.

My hard cast loads shot into about an inch. I was shooting standing two hands no support, at 25 yards.
The other cast loads shot good as well and a few of the jacketed loads shot into an inch as well,[ the Remington 240SP and 240 SJHP, and the 240 Federal HP.

In short it would be hard to commit Suicide in a Phone Booth with the 6 1/2" revolver.

Now back in ther day this 6 1/2" was very accurate shooting into 2 1/2' at 50 yards with several loads.

Maybe be she is just tired. She has been shot a lot and had her internals rebuilt twice over the years...

Well I guess I will just shoot her with cast loads at the range. She should last as long as Me if I treat her gently...

So I guess I will just hunt with my Mountain Gun this year.
I should have no problems hitting deer and pigs to 50 yards or so.

The Remington factory 240 gr jacketed loads hit about an inch to an inch and a half above my hard cast bullets so I think I will try them.

A buddy and I are on a quest to find the ideal 240gr factory jacketed load to stockpile and in every test I have done I keep comming back to the Remington 240gr Scalloped Jacketed Hollow Point[I think they now label it the Semi Jacketed Hollow Point].

 

[cochise]

Look these two sites over, good stuff, I've used them both.
Buffalo Bore Ammunition | Strictly Big Bore - Strictly Business

Garrett Cartridges Inc. 44 mag .45-70 .44 ammo ammunition bullets african hunting cartridges

I mean no offense, but hollow points are not a good idea for pigs in my opinion. My friend shot a mule deer in the chest, with his M29, and had to follow it up for a couple of hours using hollow points. I handloaded for my .44 in the 70's and loaded the Hornandy 265 grn bullet designed for the Marlin .444 because all the bullets made for the .44 mag back then were not constructed tough for deep penetration. I know accuracy is king but I think you can do better with hard cast factory loads or good "heavy" jacketed bullets. Of course with reloading, you can tweak your loads to get them near perfect.

 

[NE450No2]

My first deer rifle was a Ruger Deerstalker in 44 Mag. I shot a bunch of deer with that rifle all with 240gr jacketede bullets, either factory or handloads.

I never recovered a single bullet. It kills deer as good as a 308 or a 30/06 out to a 100 yards or so. I have killed a few with a revolver as well, some with cast and some with 240gr Jacketed. I have only recovered one jacketed bullet a 240 Speer that I shot a deer with at 85 yards.

I like hard cast bullets for bigger game and for raking shots, but I think that the jacketed bullets kill deer a little quicker.

 

[batmann]

I have found that 240-255 grn Keith style HCSWC work well on thicker skinned animals such as pigs where deeper penatration is needed. (I buy mine from Double Tap) as { don't reload. For Deer, I use Georgia Arms 240 gr GDHP. I have found both to exceptional rounds for the putpose I use them for. The are both accurate out of my Smith MG and my Blackhawk, both in .44M.

 

[mrussell]

I had the same issue with accuracy using jacketed in my 629-3, 6 1/2" Classic. I had also shot lead and jacketed and thought I had the barrel clean. The accuracy was not good with the jacketed. I bought a Lewis Lead Remover and cleaned the forcing cone and barrel really good. Then it shot like new! 240 Speer JHP, 23.6 gr. H110, chronographed at 1340, grouped in 2" at 25 yards with 3 of 6 touching.

 

[Tom C]

One possible explanation for the lack of accuracy with jacketed bullets with your 6 ½” 29 is that the cylinder throats are tight. If you have access to pin gages or an inside mic you might want to check. I have had to ream two of my .44s, one of which is my 629 Mountain Gun, because the throats were too tight and they didn’t shoot jacketed bullets well at all.

 

[Jitterbug]

I had the same issue with accuracy using jacketed in my 629-3, 6 1/2" Classic. I had also shot lead and jacketed and thought I had the barrel clean. The accuracy was not good with the jacketed. I bought a Lewis Lead Remover and cleaned the forcing cone and barrel really good. Then it shot like new! 240 Speer JHP, 23.6 gr. H110, chronographed at 1340, grouped in 2" at 25 yards with 3 of 6 touching.

That's the first thing I thought of...you might have some lead build up.

After shooting 400 rounds or so of cast loads and giving my new 629-6 several "normal" cleanings in between, including a run through the bore with some chore boy a few times, I found some old "lead removal" cloth lying on the shelf and ran it through my now squeaky clean gun.

Result, was some really blackened lead removal cloth, I was quite shocked and used it all up, not quite getting all the lead out.

I've heard/read that one can put a coat of copper over the lead making it even more difficult to remove.

The Lewis lead removal tool is now on the buy list and I don't think I'll run any copper through it until I use the Lewis.

Tom: My understanding...and it's probably wrong, but.

I thought the older Smiths had the larger cylinder throats and as a result gave better accuracy with cast?

The newer Smiths have really tight cylinder throats and give better accuracy with jacketed? Or so I thought?

Mine is tight, I can't get a .429 bullet to go through the cylinder from either direction.

It's going back to S&W soon, the gun hangs up and sticks on two cylinders, I've had two different gunsmiths look at it, one says it's an out of round ejector hole at the end of the rod, the other thinks the ratchets are rough and need to be cleaned up.

Anyway, when it goes back, I'm going to ask Smith to open the cylinder throats up to as large as they will do and to make them all the same...please.

Don't know if that will help, but I figure it can't hurt to ask.

Currently I think my gun is running about 2.5" at 25 yards with cast loads.

I've considered sending the cylinder off to have it reamed out to .430-.4305", but figure I'll put another 500+ rounds through it before I do much fixing.

 

[SuperMan]

My first 29 was a -2 that was bought in 1973....except for the box of ammo that the dealer gave me when I bought the gun, I'm not sure if any more jacketed ammo went through the gun. It was almost all home cast Lyman/Thompson gas checked 215 grain bullets. After 10K rounds our friend Mr. Compton rebuilt the gun and it was actually tighter and smoother than new....and shortly thereafter (1980) was traded for the .38 Super Government Model I still have. Since then I have lived happily ever after with .41s....and Supers.

From what I have seen, I think your best bet for a jacketed .44 would be the Remington 240. It is one of the few that can be depended upon to actually expand at handgun velocities and have enough weight to penetrate deeply. Anything else can be accomplished with a good cast bullet. The other jacketed bullet that should expand is the Speer Gold Dot HP...the 210 .41s will expand down to under 900 fps and even when shot out of a .405 Winchester will turn inside out but still hold together...

Bob

 

[Tom C]

That's the first thing I thought of...you might have some lead build up.

After shooting 400 rounds or so of cast loads and giving my new 629-6 several "normal" cleanings in between, including a run through the bore with some chore boy a few times, I found some old "lead removal" cloth lying on the shelf and ran it through my now squeaky clean gun.

Result, was some really blackened lead removal cloth, I was quite shocked and used it all up, not quite getting all the lead out.

I've heard/read that one can put a coat of copper over the lead making it even more difficult to remove.

The Lewis lead removal tool is now on the buy list and I don't think I'll run any copper through it until I use the Lewis.

Tom: My understanding...and it's probably wrong, but.

I thought the older Smiths had the larger cylinder throats and as a result gave better accuracy with cast?

The newer Smiths have really tight cylinder throats and give better accuracy with jacketed? Or so I thought?

Mine is tight, I can't get a .429 bullet to go through the cylinder from either direction.

It's going back to S&W soon, the gun hangs up and sticks on two cylinders, I've had two different gunsmiths look at it, one says it's an out of round ejector hole at the end of the rod, the other thinks the ratchets are rough and need to be cleaned up.

Anyway, when it goes back, I'm going to ask Smith to open the cylinder throats up to as large as they will do and to make them all the same...please.

Don't know if that will help, but I figure it can't hurt to ask.

Currently I think my gun is running about 2.5" at 25 yards with cast loads.

I've considered sending the cylinder off to have it reamed out to .430-.4305", but figure I'll put another 500+ rounds through it before I do much fixing.

I think the oversize throats were predominately in .45. My 25-2 is .456” while my 625JM and 625PC are both .452”. All of them actually shoot very well.

My Dan Wesson 744 was something like .427” or .428” It shot 265 gr. Hornady well with the 8” barrel but didn’t shoot anything well with the 6” barrel. I opened the throats to .431” which may be a bit large, but is still smaller than my Ruger .44s. The Dan Wesson is now super accurate with the same loads it wouldn’t shoot very well before.

My 629 Mountain Gun was around .428” and I took a chance and opened it to .431”. The barrel is short enough that it is hard for me to tell if it is better or not, but it seems pretty good.

I once shot my .44 Redhawk with jacketed loads after shooting lead without cleaning. It was like pitching rocks. Just awful. After a good cleaning, it was fine.