29-2 & 27-2 at Champion Shooters Supply

[BN]

https://www.facebook.com/Champion-Sh...5376996615270/

For those interested Champion recently listed a 29-2 and a 27-2 for sale.

[PNWTO]

A 4" or 5" 29-2 is my grail gun, is there a good 101-level resource online for assessing/buying one?

[okie john]

A 4" or 5" 29-2 is my grail gun, is there a good 101-level resource online for assessing/buying one?

A general note on all S&W revolvers: any combination of sights, barrel length, finish, butt configuration, etc. was possible. Someone with enough money and pull could get them to build pretty much anything over the years.

The N-frame was developed for the 44 Special and 45 ACP, and didn't stand up well to a diet of heavy 44 Magnum loads. Smith improved and strengthened all of their frames over the years, but the early 44's had problems when used with lots of heavy loads. In worn guns, the cylinders would often spin more than 1/6 of a turn when you cocked them, leaving the firing pin falling somewhere other than on a primer. This came to light about the same time that metallic silhouette shooting became popular, so there's a pretty clear link between super-hot loads and this issue. They fixed that with the Endurance Package in 1987, and it's best to keep the pre-Endurance guns on a steady diet of mid-range loads (250 grains at about 1,100 fps) and only run hotter loads occasionally.

The Model 29 was introduced in 1955. Smith started marking guns with model numbers in 1957, so the Model 29's built between 1955-7 are called "pre-model" guns. They're scarce and expensive only because they fit into a 2-year window of production. Smith didn't make many guns marked "M-29", and even fewer marked "M-29-1" because the market for a heavy magnum revolver just didn't exist at that point, so they're also scarce and expensive. The serial numbers on some early guns have an "S" prefix and there's a fetish about that, but I don't recall the details off the top of my head.

The 29-2 was the first 29 to be manufactured on any real scale, so there are a lot of them around. It was the last of the pinned and recessed (P&R) 44 Magnums, so they have some collector value for that alone. They lack the Endurance Package, so you want to find one that hasn't been shot much with heavy loads. The best way is to look at the recoil shield. If it's been shot a lot, then the finish will be worn where the cases have slammed into it in recoil. It takes a LOT of shooting to wear the finish in that manner. If you can live without a P&R gun, then I'd check out the 29-3. It's the first of the non-P&R guns so the collector value is less, but the last of the pre-lock guns. Later ones have the Endurance package, which makes them more durable shooters.

The S&W Forums can teach you everything you need to know about Smiths. Plenty of 29's come up on the For Sale board over there. You can probably find a shooter-grade 4" 29-2 with original finish for under $1k. In my subjective experience, the 6" and 6.5" guns were popular, but a lot of them didn't come out of the presentation case very often so they're common in new or nearly-new condition, often in the presentation case. It seems like the 8 3/8" guns either got hunted hard or barely used at all. And it seems like a fair number of 4" guns got pressed into service as ranch guns or by police officers, so they tend to show up with a fair amount of wear or they were refinished over the years.

The presence, absence, and/or condition of the presentation case can alter value by several hundred dollars, but I'll leave it to the S&W Forum guys to dive into that.

The 5" guns were extremely rare until the Classic came out, so you could be looking at $3-5k for one of them. Plenty of folks have cut 6", 6.5", or 8 3/8" barrels to 5" over the years, and those guns come up every once in a while on the online gun sale sites. Price for those seems to be about the same as a 4" or 6" gun in similar condition because it's such a good idea and because the originals are so hard to find.

Anyway, that's a quick, crude introduction to the Smith Model 29. I'm sure that Lost River and Dagga Boy can tell you a lot more.

If you get to western Washington very often, stop by a place called DJ's in Bothell. They get a lot of nice older Smiths and their prices are reasonable. They probably have what you're looking for.


Okie John

[PNWTO]

If you get to western Washington very often, stop by a place called DJ's in Bothell. They get a lot of nice older Smiths and their prices are reasonable. They probably have what you're looking for.

Thank you John, I need to get over to the Wet Side and buy you an adult beverage one of these days.