johnsonl
Member
The front sight has a ball detent that keeps it in one of four positions, one for each steel silhouette animal at a different range up to 100 yards. Easy, one click sight adjustments with no range guessing.
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Model 29-3 Silhouette Opinions Needed
- Thread starter husky390
- Start date
Well, that is an interesting thing. My favorite cast bullet load in my 29-3 Silhouette (for now) is a Leadheads 250 grain Keith SWC (.431) + 19.0/2400 + CCI LP. It chronographs 1247 fps, and at 25 yards I have put 9 in 1.9" (the one flyer opened it up to 2.5"...my fault, I'm sure).
In my 4" 629, the same load gets 1237 fps.
There are a lot of factors that go into velocity results, but I did not expect that. Regardless, it is a good load and does what I want to do.
I tried a Nosler 200 grain JHP with 23.0/2400. It chronographs 1486 fps and I have gotten 1.5" group at 25 yards with it. I may do a little deer/hog hunting with it this fall, and that is the load I'm going to use. The same 200 grain load is 1456 fps from the 4" 629 and accuracy was not good; again, very little velocity gain from so much extra barrel, at least in this case.
Like the cast load above, it is also accurate out to about 115 yards, which is the longest distance I have at the range I use the most. Anything the size of a softball that shows up well against the berm can be hit often enough from the bench to wow the average handgun plinking crowd but is really not that difficult. I have coached a few folks and got them pretty close to doing the same thing in a very short time.
Cylinder float is bothersome in the 29-3 with the 240/250 grain bullets in heavier loadings of 2400; it will occasionally happen even with the 19 grain load. I have never had it happen with the 200 grain JHP load. I may eventually go in and do a little careful polishing, etc., but am trying to avoid having to fool with it. A slightly stronger spring may also be in order.
Considering the gun's intended use, I am starting to think that good accuracy with most loads will be pretty easy to achieve. The narrow rear sight notch was annoying, so I opened it up slightly with a simple spark plug file. That has made a world of difference.
Even with it's quirks, I like it.
cjw3, thanks for the report. For insight into velocity variations, see the Speer article titled: "Why Ballistitions Get Gray" or something close to that. Many years ago, I did some load development and chronographing with an 8.375" model 29. This was before the silhouette model was available. It shot the best velocities and was most accurate with full loads of H110/Win 296. In my quest to get more speed, I had the local smith set the barrel back to reduce the .009" barrel/cylinder gap. We reset it just enough for the cylinder to turn. (2 or 3 thousandths, IIRC) After all that work, it made NO significant difference in velocity. It seems that variable dimensions in the cylinder chambers and the barrel make a lot of difference. I would guess either your silhouette gun is a slow gun, or your 4" is a fast gun, or both. I don't shoot much any more, but if I did, I think I'd want a silhouette model 29. Thanks much.
Bugs Bunny
Member
For what its worth I been using 629's 3in & 4in for last 3yrs in IDPA about every week, I have had the cylinder on one swing open during a scenario, the gun was a -3 3in however the stage required "weak hand" firing, I had to rerun the stage as live rounds fell out, both times, it was embarrassing. I blamed it on "shooter error" & sold the gun off.
The mild loads I use for IDPA should not be doing this, 250gr Keith home cast with a mild charge of 231, hardly near full power factory stuff. I have not had this happen on the -4 629s even using factory full power stuff at matches, I think we have about 5 or 6 629-4 3&4in guns I kept, none have ever swung open, it may have just been that one revolver had an issue or my hand hit the release during recoil, never know.
28-2 / 625-2 & -3 in 3&4in 45acp never had this issue, never owned a 41mag to say whether it happens to those or not.
Never owned any MIM guns to say on those either.
EDIT: nice 2008 deer pic, couple decent buck that would be trophy stuff around these parts.
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lscocoa
Member
How to adjust the front sight
I have one of these guns, 10 5/8" barrel; have owned it for 30 or so years now. Great gun, and quite accurate too!!!
Can anyone point me to a where I can download the complete manual about how to adjust the front sight? I found the basic page of instructions on how to adjust each of the four "settings" (1, 2, 3, and 4) that was posted early on in this thread. I don't know much about silhouette shooting though - does anyone know what the four distances are that the gun was to be pre-set for?
I have one of these guns, 10 5/8" barrel; have owned it for 30 or so years now. Great gun, and quite accurate too!!!
Can anyone point me to a where I can download the complete manual about how to adjust the front sight? I found the basic page of instructions on how to adjust each of the four "settings" (1, 2, 3, and 4) that was posted early on in this thread. I don't know much about silhouette shooting though - does anyone know what the four distances are that the gun was to be pre-set for?
Adjusting the front is easy. You need a 0.050" Allen wrench and a set of plastic dial calipers. The threads on the screws are the same but the distance to the pivot point is different, so the amount of turn needed for the front two screws is more than the rear. I just eyeball in the amount and verify with the calipers. Works surprisingly well, once you done it for a while! IHMSA shoots at either 25,50,75,100yds/m (Field Pistol) or50,100,150,200yds/m (Big Bore). The gun itself was not pre-set-up for anything from the factory, ASAIK.
You can also use the four positions for different bullet weights at the same range, etc.
Shot one in an IHMSA match just last weekend. Exceeded goal by a fair amount!
Thanks for the quick reply! Thanks - you just made everything make a lot more sense. So, you have four "settings" numbered 1 through 4, and each one can pre-set the sights for a different distance (or bullet type).
What would you use the calipers for? Just to check how much the adjustment for each set screw changes, as you adjust the set screw?
My indoor range has a maximum shooting distance of 15 yards. The outdoor range I go to has up to 25 for handguns, and much more for rifles, so maybe I could eventually end up with my gun set for 15, 25, 100, and 200?
Do you start out by adjusting the rear sight to zero in the gun for any one of the settings (let's say, leaving #1 as-is, and adjusting the rear sight for 15 yards), and then for #2, adjust ONLY the #2 set screw until that is right, and continue on for the other settings?
I never knew any of this until last night......
I use the calipers to check the height of the sight from the bottom of the barrel. (Arbitrary but convienent number.) Then either note the difference from the old setting of the number (i.e. 1-4) or compare to the other settings recorded on the other numbers as needed. Changes downrange are easily calculated.
The rear sight setting is a bit of a finagling business if you use up lots of travel in the front sight. More than once I've run out of travel on one or the other! But generally, I move the front setting for zero and leave the rear for temporary tweaking. That and windage, which is really more due to minor grip and trigger pull changes and sometime ammo. Rarely does wind have much to do with it...Whole 'nuther subject!
Use the front settings for whatever you want. But it might be a good idea to write it all down.
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There are a lot of interesting and new-to-me concepts in what you just wrote.
Writing things down - sounds like a very good idea, but none of that will be meaningful in the future, were I to make a change to the elevation setting in the rear sight.... Someplace I've got a pair of inexpensive plastic calipers, and I've also got an excellent digital caliper which is far more repeatable.
I guess I would start by doing this by eyeballing where the bullet holes are placed, but I've been doing a lot of data recording for CEP (Measuring A Firearm's Accuracy) which gives the mathematical center of any number of holes more accurately than I can doing it "by eye".
This past Monday, I took the gun for the first time in three decades to a range - my indoor range, where shooting distance is 15 yards max. Now that I've found where the numbers are on that front sight wheel, I see they're on #1. I've never touched any of those settings since i got the gun in the 1980's. I would say the center of my groupings was between 3.5" and 4" higher than where I was aiming.
(This is with a 6" Shoot-n-c" target, shooting it "lollipop" style, so all the holes were always in the black. When I tried to hold it centered as I prefer to do, the bullets were much too high. I decided I'd shoot the box of ammo anyway, to get used to the gun, and when i got home I'd try to figure out which sight to adjust......)
One last question - for as long as I can remember, I have shot all my guns single-action. I've been reading how I'll never get good trigger control unless I learn how to shoot double-action, and this gun has such a smooth trigger pull that it makes double action shooting effortless. For those who do the silhouette shooting, do they mostly use SA or DA?
Last question first: I reckon Jerry Miculek might could shoot IHMSA well DA, but probably nobody else would care for the results!
If the impacts are high just crank the front sight well up. There's a downward projection on the pivoting portion of the sight that allows for good results even after the flat part of the sight platform shows it's undersides. Pretty normal for my slow moving loads, actually!
ironhead7544
Member
IMR4227 and cast bullets seem to be easy on the M29. I have only seen one M29 that would pop open when fired. That one happened when a lady in a wheel chair that had a stroke would fire with her weak hand. Her strong hand arm was paralyzed. This M29 did not do this when her husband fired it. Elmers load was all he used in that M29.
Hi guys interesting thread...I got my silhouette new in case..but NICKLE! I was told there were only 5 made in Nickle..dont know if thats true..but here is the logic for rarity..why would a silhouette shooter want a bright shiny nickle of competition etc? Any comments?
Thanks
COL R
Thanks
COL R
As long as the sights aren't shiny, I don't reckon it much matters what the rest of the firearm's finish might be. Since we sometimes shoot in rainy weather, maybe the nickle finish was for worrywart types? Or could have been just old school bling for "show-off"folk?
