P. Plainsman said:
This is the cover gun in the current American Handgunner. Lots of photos, but Roy Huntington's accompanying article -- to be blunt -- is lame. They didn't even let him shoot the gun, yet he went ahead and made it the cover piece! No data, just a bunch of content-free advertising for S&W. The better thing to do would have been to hold off on an article until you can tell readers whether the thing will shoot.
Anyhow: I can tolerate the lock, though I sympathize with all of the complaints voiced in this thread. What I can't tolerate is the honking gold logo on the right sideplate of the gun. Looks ridiculous. Unless S&W offers the commemorative 29 with an optional plain blue sideplate (as they apparently did for the Model 21-4 "Thunder Ranch Special"), it's no sale.
S&W: please lay off the huge, ugly logos. Jeez. From the .44 "Thunder Ranch Special," disfiguring Clint Smith's original fine concept, to the hypertrophied "TACTICAL Smith & Wesson" logos on the slides of their current 3d gen autos, to the dumb "S&W 1911" billboard messing up the early 1911s, to this weird sunflower plastered on the M29, S&W is harming good guns at every turn with ugly, superfluous logos.
The new M22 Thunder Ranch revolver in .45 ACP is billboard-free, and looks great. S&W also wised up with the 1911s and toned them down to a much more tasteful design. They need to extend this thinking across the board.