Mark_Mark
Contributing Member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2021
- Messages
- 23,204
oooh yeah… 629 Mountain Gun!!!OK, right here, STOP! Seriously, DO NOT DOWNLOAD W296/H110 like this. I'm assuming this is a .44 Magnum load based on your bullet weight. I'd wager a real $5 bill that half of the issue you're seeing is due to downloading this powder so severely. There are just too many of us who used it for a long time with nowhere near the metal-eating effects your pictures show. I've had34 different .44 Magnum revolvers and way more different .357 Magnums pass through my care since I started reloading as a teenager, and I cannot for the life of me remember seeing any of them eroded that badly. And W296/H110 was almost always my preferred powder for loading MAGNUMS, mostly because it was easy to find and easy to load. I remember an old Winchester pamphlet explicitly stating not to reduce the charges listed, so we just loaded what was printed in the manual and went on our way. As others have stated, it's a one-trick pony, but for that trick it's tough to beat.
It'll hold. I once reloaded some heavy 300-grain LBT hardcast bullets for a Super Blackhawk and used a few (OK, maybe a whole box of 50) in the 629. The gun survived just fine.
If you're looking to do a lot of plinking with your .44 Magnums without wearing out your shooting hand, get yourself some 240 grain SWCs, a bottle of Winchester 231/Hodgdon HP-38 and a big pile of empty .44 Magnum cases. The majority of those 15,000 rounds I put through that 629 were using this combination, loaded to about 950-fps from a 6" barrel. It's more muscle than any common semi-auto round can generate (yes, I'm deliberately trying to trigger the 10mm Auto guys), easy on the gun, easy on the shooter and very accurate.
Great, all of this reading, typing and reminiscing is making me want a .44 Magnum again. And of course S&W had to introduce the 629 Mountain Gun without The Lock this year. Maybe I can sneak one past the wife as my anniversary gift this summer...
Heck yeah… .44 mag Full house is FUN! lets you know your alive! better than coffee
but those wood grip got go! lol
