S&W 329PD Care and Feeding/range report

[umc180gr]

I am the new owner of a 329PD lightweight .44 from Smith and Wesson. I was so excited to get it and had to wait a whole day to get it after I ordered it. I picked it up today and I really like it. I bought some .44 Winchesters, 240gr Mags to try it out on the indoor range. Fellow next to me said it was kind of loud. It shoots really nice with manageable recoil, although I would not want to shoot 50 rounds through in a sitting. It was shooting way left but I got that adjusted. So, you 329PD owners, what .44 mag ammo have you had good luck with in this gun? I usually shoot Win 240gr white box. Have you ever had any rounds back out the crimp? The maually specifically says to test for this. I read somewhere here not to shoot .44 specials in it. Those of you 329 naysayers dont tell me it is going to go kaboom. I dont plan on working it too hard or doing any handloads. I still cant get over how light it is and I like the red fiber optic sight. It will be my new sidearm this deer season. Thanks for any comments.

 

[B36]

I am the new owner of a 329PD lightweight .44 from Smith and Wesson. I was so excited to get it and had to wait a whole day to get it after I ordered it. I picked it up today and I really like it. I bought some .44 Winchesters, 240gr Mags to try it out on the indoor range. Fellow next to me said it was kind of loud. It shoots really nice with manageable recoil, although I would not want to shoot 50 rounds through in a sitting. It was shooting way left but I got that adjusted. So, you 329PD owners, what .44 mag ammo have you had good luck with in this gun? I usually shoot Win 240gr white box. Have you ever had any rounds back out the crimp? The maually specifically says to test for this. I read somewhere here not to shoot .44 specials in it. Those of you 329 naysayers dont tell me it is going to go kaboom. I dont plan on working it too hard or doing any handloads. I still cant get over how light it is and I like the red fiber optic sight. It will be my new sidearm this deer season. Thanks for any comments.

Nothing in my manual about not shooting 44 Special--in fact the manual says you can. My PD has about a 1000 rounds of Special thru it, and perhaps a box or so of Cor Bon 165gr 44Mag, and another 100 rounds of warm lead.

Carried often, in Kramer or CABO holster.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Nothing in my manual about not shooting 44 Special--in fact the manual says you can. My PD has about a 1000 rounds of Special thru it, and perhaps a box or so of Cor Bon 165gr 44Mag, and another 100 rounds of warm lead.

Carried often, in Kramer or CABO holster.

Same here. I shoot more Specials than anything else. They shoot SO sweet in this thing. When I carry it in the car it's loaded with Special Silvertips, when out in the great outdoors I put Mag Silvertips in it. Neither of these Winchester loads have any bullet problems, or accuracy problems. I shot a few Cor Bon Magnum loads through it also, and they functioned fine. I just use the Silvertips because I got a great price on a few boxes.

I have maybe 100 Silvertips through it, 300 or so Blazer Magnums, and the rest Specials of one kind or another, close to 800 or so of those.

I can't imagine where you would see a recommendation against shooting
Specials in the thing. I carry mine in a lower end Galco OWB, but I'm not trying to conceal the thing, that's for sure

My only complaint with this and all of the Scandium guns is the cylinder
is extremely hard to clean. There remains one little scorched area that I can never get rid of. My 386PD has the same scorch mark in the same spot. You can see it in the photo below. That pic was taken after a range session. Those marks clean up about 60% from what is shown, but they never clean completely.

It's loaded with Special Silvertips here:

 

[umc180gr]

Thanks for the replies. I think the post I read about .44 specials said something about having to clean the cylinder good after shooting shorter .44 specials before going back to the .44 mags. I still cant get over the weight of the gun, I handed to a friend last night as he asked me if it was real. Is there a good place online to buy a good holster for the 329PD?

 

[Dave Dembinski]

Yeah, if you shoot specials there will be a fouling ring further back in the cylinder than it would be for the longer magnum case. No big deal, though, just use an already fired magnum case to scrape it out after shooting specials.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Yeah, if you shoot specials there will be a fouling ring further back in the cylinder than it would be for the longer magnum case. No big deal, though, just use an already fired magnum case to scrape it out after shooting specials.

Or just throw a magnum in there now and then to keep you honest