[scaatylobo]

I am about to buy one and I was hoping to pick the brains of any that have owned and actually shot this ultra light weight 44 mag.

I plan on shooting a good deal of .44 Specials as that would be a carry load in populated areas,including my house.

But I would expect to carry full house .44 mag's in the woods as hunting load ,backup for bear country,and hog hunting [ mostly backup ].

Thanks for any input.

YES,I am sure it will kick with full house.

[MachIVshooter]

Never owned one, would buy if the price was right.

They are brutal with full house loads. As in have the potential to truly damage your hand and wrist. Know how to manage recoil, and wear a cushioned glove if you intend to shoot very many rounds in a sitting. Nothing manly about disregarding PPE and suffering nerve and joint damage.

[Thursday45]

I own the Taurus 444 ultralight which is the same concept. With 44 spl it is a very easy shooter. I have not shot any full house loads however Buffalo Bore has a 255gr, "lower recoil" round that was made specifically for these scandium guns and it still packs a punch. Maybe not the ballistics that you see from these ruger only loads but still 44 mag worthy. The recoil feels on par with off the shelf 240 gr ammo in my 629. Not bad.

[splithoof]

I have used one for some club events on steel 8" round plates from 5-30 yards, using .44 Special loads. It is amazing at how easy it comes from the holster and naturally points, and using light loads feels as good as my favorite 625. HOWEVER, firing several cylinders of .44 Magnum (240 JSP's) was a very different experience indeed! I would use it for a back-up gun when hunting large game animals, a situation where the light weight comes into it's own, especially after that twelve mile hike in high altitude saps your strength. Home defense? I will go with the specials any day. I would say you are right on track with your plans. BTW, after about 2K rounds with mixed loads, the timing and lock-up are still very good.

[scaatylobo]

read all replies so far and FULLY understand all the posters.

I have heard about the Buffalo Bore special load made for the ultra light .44 mag's,will look for a few boxes IF ammo supplies loosen up.

I have shot a few .44 specials and LOVE that round,so if I decided to use nothing but that in this lightweight - I will still be happy.

I will be wearing a glove and expect brutal recoil with full house .44 mag's.

I already own a 360 snub in .357 and a scandium 386 in .357 [ 7 round L frame ].

So I have a slight idea how the .44 will feel [ OUCH ].

I expect to 'try' the hot stuff just so it wont be a total shock or find it dont work,then stay with 'specials' for the majority of practice.

[buck460XVR]

Never owned one, would buy if the price was right.

They are brutal with full house loads. As in have the potential to truly damage your hand and wrist. Know how to manage recoil, and wear a cushioned glove if you intend to shoot very many rounds in a sitting. Nothing manly about disregarding PPE and suffering nerve and joint damage.

Yep. My oldest son has one. He bought it for backup in bear country when Elk hunting. While it's fun to shoot with .44 specials(I actually just download .44 mag cases to .44 special velocities) with factory or hand loaded legitimate magnum rounds, you best be hangin' on and hopefully wearin' a glove.

[wgp]

.44 Sp are easy and pleasant. .44mags, by the third or fourth round it hurts. I also noticed that my mag handloads were not sufficiently crimped and the bullets were backing out of the cases under recoil.

This is a special purpose gun and excellent for that purpose, namely to be carried a lot and not fired a lot with magnum rounds. I have carried one all day and barely noticed it, when I had left my model 29 at home due to weight. I always figured if something with teeth was after me I'd not notice the recoil -- but you need to practice with full power loads enough to be able to shoot them well.

[bikemutt]

The Buffalo Bore ammo for this revolver moves the game from difficult to control to darn near impossible. And practice at selling price for said ammo is a rich man's game.

I found a great deal of POI variance with .44 special versus .44 magnum off the shelf rounds.

I could not attain my confidence goal with the 329 and thus sold it. Not a reflection on the gun by any means.

[scaatylobo]

I hope to shoot her in the 'near' future.

Just recovering from shoulder replacement [ left & I am a righty ] so a few more weeks will be shooting her and report back.

Sorry about the delay,gotta heal !.

[Gordon]

You must be nutz wanting a 329after shoulder surgery! You will stand a excellent chance of problems with most any load init for a year or so.:banghead:
Yes I had one since they came out. Gave it to my 36 YO Geophycist son to take with him in big bear country when he occasionally road trips to take samples from springs of various sort.He is strong and started shooting at 6 or so and .44mags since about 15.He loads his 329 withWinchester Partition Gold, as I doin my Mountain Revolver, when in large bear country They hit close enough to my 900 fps 240 hand loads so he practiced with 50 of those, which kicked about like the 240 grain factory .44 spl do in a 296 which is a little too much to enjoy. :uhoh: and then ran 5 of the 6 shot cylinder of full onPartition Gold .44 Mag into a 15yard target double action . He held 6" groups out of the 5 and did not want to fire the 6th.:eek: It has a nasty palm slap and if you hold the gun correctly for fast DA work the recoil goes straight to your strong side shoulder and your support side elbow. FWIW.
Stick with a medium .38 if you want to shoot fora year after shoulder surgery, all though similar to trying to tell me not to ride my Road King after knee surgery!:neener:

[MrPink]

I own one. Shooting full power 240s is like shooting FP 158s from my 340, times about 3x. My analogy is hold you hand out, palm forward and let somebody wap you hand with a baseball bat. That firing FP loads in a 340.

For woods backup, I much prefer a 3" 629. Tanker carry and you don't notice the weight.

[Backpacker33]

I bought my first 329PD in '04. I was and am a backpacker, going almost every summer to the Colorado Rockies. Until 2005 I also went into the Idaho Backcountry, flying into Forest Service airstrips and spending a week to 10 days packing into the mountains.
Due to advancing age, dammit, my doc advised reducing my trail weight. In Idaho I carried a Marlin .45-70 and one of several steel .44s. My favorite was an Anaconda, but I also had S&W 629 Mountain guns, among others. I had to shed some steel.
My last trip to Idaho was '05. After that my back country buddy got married for the first time at age 65. Threw me over for a woman, go figure.
I carried Garrett and Buffalo Bore ammo, 300+ grain bullets. The idea was to be able to hammer a brown bear. Yeah, I know all the jokes about filing down the front sight.
In 2001 I had a Ruger Redhawk modified by Hamilton Bowen to .500 Linebaugh. Yes, that WILL hammer a brown bear. He cut the barrel to 5" and installed a 5-shot unfluted cylinder.
That is a gun that will damage you if you don't know how to handle it. First, I put Pachmayr Grippers on it. It has the Ashley Outdoors Big Dot tritium front sight, and Express rear. The last handling mod was Mag-Na-Port trapezoids. They do make a difference in such a powerful gun/ammo combo. My ammo was Buffalo Bore, but I also bought the dies to make my own.
I fired three rounds a year before heading to the mountains to check the sights, and that was it!
The third year I owned it, while checking the sights, I did injure my forearm, which took three months to heal. I considered dumping the gun until I read an article by John Taffin on handling big bore guns. GET IT! READ IT! I was military trained and that comprised a lot of my background. We were taught to firmly grasp and control the gun. Taffin says let a big bore gun roll. I haven't been hurt since.

So, first time I fired the 329 with 300-gr bullets it felt like the .500 Linebaugh.
I put Crimson Trace Hog Hunters on it, the Ashley Big Dot tritium front sight and tritium Extreme Duty rear. Finally, again to Mag-na-Port for 4 trapezoid ports, and like the Linebaugh, they do help.
It went to Cylinder & Slide for new sights in 2010. They said the lockwork showed a lot of damage, and sent it to S&W for repair. I was charged a reasonable fee for repairs. Once I learned to shoot it without injury I settled on LeverEvolution and CorBon ammo for it. I also loaded my own, from S&W.44 Special and Cowboy black powder loads, to 300-gr hammers. I was shooting about 200 rounds a year through it.

I had one serious problem and one on-going problem. About the third or fourth time I took it to the range the crane broke. Cracked through and broke OFF! Back to S&W for warranty repair. Then, shells stick in the chambers, requiring use of a brass rod to extract them, pushing from the front. Pain in the ass. The titanium chambers cannot be polished. My resized reloads do not stick as much.
I bought a second one to play with but one of our sons stole it. He's active duty military and is always using a weird selection of guns. Had the first FN-SCAR I ever saw, before I had even HEARD OF them.
So, I bought a third. Got it super cheap from a guy who included, at no extra charge, the box of cartridges, missing 6! The shells do not stick in those chambers, so S&W must have changed something, for the good.
I recommend: Crimson Trace or other rubber grips that are not so soft the gun gets a running start at your hand. Porting of some kind. I know that's often controversial, but I could let you fire my one with ports side-by-side with my unported one and you would feel the difference.
S&W has been selling the 329 with a 5” barrel, and I think I’d get that.
Then read up on firing hard-recoiling guns.
Big Dot front and Express rear sights help me in practicing "Repel the Cougar" drills, so I recommend them or something similar. I want to be able to find those sights inside my dark tent without a flashlight. Trust me, you don't need and couldn't use target sight accuracy when a toothy critter is bearing (no pun intended) down on you.
I put lanyard rings on the Linebaugh and the 329 because back in Idaho one year I took the short cut down the mountain, ending up in the Selway River where I discovered what I intuitively knew, that my backpack would float but my S&W would sink.
182613

182614

[Gordon]

Very kewl and enlightening post, thank you!:)

[Oro]

I have shot a fair amount of ammo, both .44 Spcl and .44Mag through (and owned):

1) 3" S&W 629
2) 4" S&W 29
3) 4" S&W 329

I still own 1) and 2); 3) got sold off without regrets.

My main use is carrying in mountains both on foot and on horseback. For both purposes and with all guns considered, the hands-down winner is the 3" 629. I don't consider them to be the end-all of guns, and sometimes I carry a 4" 686, other times a 3.5" 27. Sometimes when I feel like living dangerously and I trust in FMJ, and my horses' innate sense of avoiding danger, I carry a Colt .45. Color me risky. ;)

I have never come back from a day, or even a few days, in the woods and felt the thing that was really aching me was the extra few ounces of a gun's frame. It was always my calves, my thighs, my hips, my this/or that. Nothing about my body screamed at me that the few ounces of gun was the thing that ruined the day or added unacceptable strain and stress. A few ounces hear or there can be made up with by a few less Mars Bars the weeks before. And a good holster negates all that entirely.

Back on point, I find the 3" really makes carrying easier, belt or shoulder. And it doesn't compromise shootability much at all vs. a 4", steel vs. steel. With quality leather and a full cylinder, the few ounces saved on the frame are really nothing - until you go to shoot them and then the counter-weight of the gun matters a great deal.

[ArchAngelCD]

If you wanted something light for SD on the streets I could see buying a very light revolver but for hunting backup, do you really need an ultralight revolver? With all that other equipment do you really think 1 lb will make a huge difference? I think not... If it were me I would buy an all Steel .44 Magnum so as not to worry about shooting full power ammo.

I would buy a 3" or 4" M629 and save a few hundred dollars and my hand/wrist.

[scaatylobo]

Thanks for all that input.

I am 65 and retired LEO so I was a 'gun nut' and shot anything and everything I could get my hands on.

I used to EDC a 4" S&W 29,and it was a pleasure to shoot [ at 30 years of age ] now I really FEEL the extra weight even when doing a day hunt.

2 Knee replacements and now a shoulder replaced [ LOD crap ] so I want light weight,and I will deal with practice using a glove and I will look for that info on shooting heavy recoiling guns.

I still own and shoot a 6 1/2" S&W 29,as well as a Ruger SBH that has a 4 3/4" barrel and a blackhawk lower frame,it recoils as you state = cowboy roll and it gtg with even heavy loads [ Buffalo Bore 305 grainers ].

I 'almost' look forward to shooting this :banghead:.

[Backpacker33]

scaatylobo:
Glad to help. I'm 67, and two years ago I was on the Great Divide Trail in Hancock Pass, CO. I paused before going over a saddle that sits around 12,000 feet - just to catch my breath, you understand - when a couple came up the trail behind me and paused to talk before going over the saddle themselves. They were 74 yrs old. I set myself a new goal!

My trail weight, pack, gun, etc., runs 62 lbs. I've tried to get it lower (75-lbs until I was 55), but just can't be warm in lighter stuff any more.

I think you'll find the CorBon and Hornady 240-gr rounds acceptable with proper shooting technique. To be even more realistic, you might consider the S&W 327 M&P or TRR8. This is another one I had to buy three of. Our youngest son is a LEO in the state capitol city and he stole the first one, and the professional military brat stole the second one. He subsequently GAVE me a SOCOM II, so I have forgiven him.
The 327 is an 8-shot .357 Magnum N-frame of scandium/aluminum so it's light-weight with a 5" barrel. Very light, maneuverable size, lots of booletts, and plenty of punch for black bears or cougars. It fits in N-frame holsters but you may have to allow for the rails, depending on just which model you get. I use open-toed holsters ever since that, ahem, short cut down the mountain. Lets the water and crud just run out.
I load it with CorBon 200-gr HC Hunter ammo. So far, my friends have carried it more than I have. Seems they don't like the 329 . . ..
BTW, as a trail and packing backup I have a S&W scandium/aluminum L-frame 386NG 7-shooter with 2.5" barrel. I had Cylinder & Slide fit the XS Sight Systems tritium front sight and tritium Extreme Duty rear sight. It has Pachmayr grips and I bought a titanium cylinder for it. I load it with Hornady LeverEvolution ammo. It's small, light-weight, and has lots of punch.
For general use in the 329 I load the Laser Cast 240-gr RNFP bullet over a bees wax wad and just enough Winchester 231 to yield 900 - 1000fps. Crimp HARD to prevent bullet creep due to recoil. That'll do for any cat or black bear. In the past I loaded the 300-gr truncated cone at about 1,000fps. Really not needed for cat and black bear, and it was those, along with the Garretts and Corbon, that battered the lockwork, even at only a half-dozen or so per year.
I hope you have a great time on the trail. I plan to keep going until I can't.

[oldrevolverguy]

I purchased a 4" 329. It was acceptable for use with 44 SPL hollow points and shot shells. It is light to carry and shoots with adequate accuracy. I have owned numerous 44 mags over the years and have never been recoil sensitive in the least. With 44 spl ammo the 329 is pleasant to shoot. However, with 44 mag ammo this particular weapon was a complete fail for me. There were two show stopping issues. First the weapon is painful to shoot with 44 mag ammo for me. I could not fire multiple rounds effectively on target. Secondly, I had to return the weapon to the factory for repair/re-timing after every range session that included magnum rounds.

I am not saying that my singular experience constitutes sufficient data to support the idea that 329s in general will not hold up to firing magnum ammunition. My particular sample would not hold up and I will not ever be able to trust it. I promptly sold it. I love my Glock 29 with Double Tap 200gr JHP and carry it in circumstances previously reserved for the 329.

My $.02 worth.

[scaatylobo]

LOL,funny you should mention the 386 as I have a 3" barreled 7 shot model too.
As well as a 360 PD that is a REAL hoot at 9 ounces with a .357 [ OUCH ].I actually carry that but its got the same load as my 442 = + P 125's.
Before the shoulder went bad and the hands,I was shooting anything I felt like and did not bother about recoil or weight.
Now I fear the weight as the knees are hopefully going to last a lifetime !,that means not wearing them out.
What used to be a 'light load' at 50 pounds is now THE most I would hump in a SHTF bug out.
Like the Dr. said,consider your shoulder & knees as if they were the brakes on a Lamborgini,they can last 100,000 miles or 10,000.
I MUCH rather the former than the latter.

[chuckpro]

I love my 329pd. S@W promotes it as a gun you hope you never have to use! I use it primarily for that reason "in a shoulder holster while hiking" and i forget it is there.

I do practice with it quit a bit with full house 44 rounds because that is what i carry and it puts a smile on my face the first cylinder full, it just hurts after that and i am not normally affected by recoil. Everybody is different but to me it feels like slapping my hand down on a table. Even the 44 spl loads in the 329 to me there is more recoil than my 686 with mag loads. I can shoot my 642 with +p ammo all day long but i really start to flinch with the 329.

Just a side note, i break mine down and tighten all the screws quite often but have not noticed any significant wear on the pistol.