A similar post on another forum prompted me to do something I’ve been needing to do for awhile anyhow; unlimber my old S&W Model 29-2.
I’ve shot a lot of 29’s & 629’s over the years, and owned several. I settled on the 4” barrel long ago as being the best compromise of power, accuracy & portability. The keeper of the bunch has been an old nickel 29-2 from about 1980.
Anyhow I dug the old gun out and hung a B27 at 100 yards. I was shooting my standard hunting load of a 250 Keith over 22 grains of Winchester 296. This isn’t a firewall load, and no I haven’t chronographed it yet. Judging from what my friends who have chrono’ed similar loads have told me, it’s humming along about 1200 fps from the 4” gun- enough to shoot through any whitetail. The load isn’t bad to shoot from the 4” gun.
I stapled a 6 ½ x 8 ½ inch piece of red construction paper over X, and started blazing away. First group was fired standing, over the pickup door. That one produced about all the flyers you see in the photo. The rest were fired over the cab, sitting in a lawn chair in the bed. The range bag was used for a rest.
By the third six I had all shots either on or cutting the red aiming point. They are highlighted in yellow and comprise a group of about six inches.
Most groups looked about like what you see below; four in 3 ½ inches, with flyers by yours truly making the total group about twice that size.
Targets and general plinking with a .44 at distance are great fun, but I probably won’t shoot at a deer much past 50 yards with it. On a good day the old gun will print 2-2 ½” groups at that distance, right on top of the front sight. I’m pronouncing it ready to hunt with.