# S&W 329 PD



## desertman (Aug 29, 2013)

I've gotta' be out of my freakin' mind? I picked this one up today 10/6/21. It's light as a feather and it's a .44 Magnum. Just for the hell of it I'll probably run a cylinder full of 240 grain Hornady XTP's out of it. But carry it with 200 grain Gold Dot .44 Specials. I dry fired it and it's got a real nice trigger in both double and single action. I've been carrying it around since I bought it. It's so freakin' light that I hardly even know that it's there.


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## SSGN_Doc (Mar 12, 2020)

Nice find. My memories of shooting +P ammo out of a .38 Airweight were that it was not FUN to shoot a lot for practice. Having recently squires an all steel .38 snubby, one of the pleasant surprises was how much I enjoyed shooting it.

I did have a Model 29 which was a big baby with .44 Specials and standard magnum rounds.

The grip you have on the 329 may help a bit.


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## desertman (Aug 29, 2013)

SSGN_Doc said:


> Nice find. My memories of shooting +P ammo out of a .38 Airweight were that it was not FUN to shoot a lot for practice. Having recently squires an all steel .38 snubby, one of the pleasant surprises was how much I enjoyed shooting it.
> 
> I did have a Model 29 which was a big baby with .44 Specials and standard magnum rounds.
> 
> The grip you have on the 329 may help a bit.


Thank You!

I saw it about 3 weeks ago, I didn't know whether to get it at first? I already have 3 other "N" frame .44 Magnums. Why the hell would I want another one especially one that feels like it could float on water? But I just kept thinking about it wondering if it had been sold yet? I then started kicking myself in the ass for not buying it when I first saw it. But to my pleasant surprise it was still there and I didn't hesitate this time around. It came with a rubber set of grips along with a set of wooden square butt conversion grips. I swapped them out for a much nicer pair that I bought some time ago. I plan on changing the front sight for a sloped night sight.

My first Model 29 is on the far left. It originally came with an 8 3/8ths barrel. I put so many full power rounds out of that thing that I wore out the forcing cone. I swapped the barrel out for a 4 inch, bobbed the hammer, rebuilt and did an action job. Barrel length on these beasts indeed make a difference in recoil and controllability. The 2 1/2 and 3 inch barrels are anything but fun to shoot. But with 44 Specials you're not putting too much wear and tear on these guns. Besides they're almost like shooting a 22.

I've got J-Frames in steel, stainless steel and Airweight's. The Airweight's have stainless steel cylinders and aluminum alloy frames. The also come with titanium cylinders including a .357 version that are even lighter. That to me is really insane. I've fired .357's out of my all stainless steel Model 640 and it was anything but fun. I recently picked one up in .38 Special that I've wanted for a long time but rarely if ever see them come up for sale. I believe that they stopped making them in the mid 90's? At around that time I bought my all steel nickel plated Model 49 Bodyguard. It has a shrouded hammer but I really wanted that Model 640 all stainless with a fully enclosed hammer. I don't like buying guns on line, I want to see and handle them first. You can only do that at a gun store, show or face to face private sale.


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## SSGN_Doc (Mar 12, 2020)

Funny, my Model 29 also had the 8 and 3/8 barrel. It was really the reason I sold it. It was just too big to be practical. A 4” would have been perfect. I bought it on impulse, because I had walked into a shop that I frequented and saw it, asked to take a look at it and thrived the trigger, (with the shop owners permission and a snap cap). Absolutely the smoothest revolver I have felt in over 30 years of shooting handguns. 
The shop owner, I think was partly kidding, but he said “It’s been a slow week, if you got $350 cash, I’ll sell it today only for that price.” I had $450, because I had a different gun in mind, but when he said that I whipped out my wallet, and I could see the mix of emotions on his face that told me he regretted putting that bluff out there and getting called on it. But he did want to make a sale and honored the price.

I like the IDEA of Scandium and Titanium frames, but could never get myself to take the plunge and buy one, figuring I would just not enjoy the shooting experience. I do have to admit one of those in .22 LR and with a 3” barrel would make an awesome hiking/pack sidearm.


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## desertman (Aug 29, 2013)

SSGN_Doc said:


> Funny, my Model 29 also had the 8 and 3/8 barrel. It was really the reason I sold it. It was just too big to be practical. A 4” would have been perfect. I bought it on impulse, because I had walked into a shop that I frequented and saw it, asked to take a look at it and thrived the trigger, (with the shop owners permission and a snap cap). Absolutely the smoothest revolver I have felt in over 30 years of shooting handguns.
> The shop owner, I think was partly kidding, but he said “It’s been a slow week, if you got $350 cash, I’ll sell it today only for that price.” I had $450, because I had a different gun in mind, but when he said that I whipped out my wallet, and I could see the mix of emotions on his face that told me he regretted putting that bluff out there and getting called on it. But he did want to make a sale and honored the price.
> 
> I like the IDEA of Scandium and Titanium frames, but could never get myself to take the plunge and buy one, figuring I would just not enjoy the shooting experience. I do have to admit one of those in .22 LR and with a 3” barrel would make an awesome hiking/pack sidearm.


Those Dirty Harry movies are what got me started on .44 Magnums. I just had to have thee most powerful handgun in the world at the time at least according to Clint Eastwood. I ordered mine with the 8 3/8ths inch barrel. It was my second handgun. I carried it in a vertical shoulder holster. Soon after I bought a Ruger Redhawk when they first hit the market. I still have those guns. I used to shoot them a lot and I mean a lot. Enough to wear out the forcing cone on the S&W. I think that I paid around $400 for those guns when they were new that was back in 1980.

I have two J-Frames a 351C in 22 WMR and a 43C in 22LR. Both have aluminum alloy frames and cylinders with stainless steel barrels. Talk about light, these things feel like they could float in mid air. I didn't really need another .44 Magnum that's for sure but there was just something about a scandium framed gun with a titanium cylinder that fascinated me. Especially one in .44 Magnum. Mine was a trade in and had never been fired. I got it for $879. The only thing I did was change the grips ordered a set of night sights, swapped the trigger for a stainless steel one that I had from my parts bin and polished the ejector rod. I had already polished out the bearing surfaces of that trigger which made the trigger even smoother than the original.


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