629-2 adventures

[gulfdaddy]

Today my sone in law came by to pick me up to go scouting for a new 22 rifle.  We drove by the local gun store which I had given up on for many reasons and while he was shopping I looked at the pistol case.  I generally shoot/hunt with Ruger single actions and have owned a couple of redhawks as well.  Lately I had been reading about Smith and Wesson 29s and had casually shopped the prices ect. on line.  Anyway at the LGS I spied a very nice 629-2 with a 6" bbl for $550.  After examination I offered an even $500 and the deal was done.  My SNL picked up a Savage 22 bolt rifle and we headed to the range with the ammo we had available.  I had about 30-40 rounds of 44 special hand loads that I had put together for a new Ruger flat top.  I think they were something like 240 grain hard cast over 7.5 grains of Unique.   Wow what a trigger.  Wonderful function, that I throughly enjoyed.  Anyway I shot some of the specials at 15 yards and made some adjustments to elevation.  When I shot at 25 and was about 6"  high there and even higher at 50 yards.  It is going to make some evaluations, do some magnum load development to get the confidence I need for whitetail and hogs.  Groups were about 2" shooting two handed, standing but the elevation thing will take some work to learn the trajectory path.  It is all good, no worries.  What impressed me most was the personal fit of the weapon to me and the great trigger break, and nice sights.  I like my Rugers but almost always had to do added work to get them smoothed out.  I like the Smith and look forward to the load development, range and field days to come.  God Bless Ya, GG

[S.B.]

At $500, you stole that! Congrats nice catch.
Steve

[Mohawk]

Agreed.... $500 is a steal. Aside from a stock Model 10 I don't see  many Smiths at that price. Good find!

[Mikey]

gulfdaddy:  that's a good buy.  As for your point of impact - that may be the ammo you were shooting - the 44 specials that is.  They are much slower than most factory 44 magnums and as a result might print a whole bunch higher than 44 magnums with the same bullet weight.   I would try some good factory 44 magum ammo, 240 gn stuff, and see where she prints.

And, even if you still hit high at 25 with your rear sight bottomed out, as long as you are not resting your barrel on your shooting rest,  you can easily obtain a new, taller front sight directly from S&W, complete with installation instructions.  I had a similar problem with my 4" Mountain Gun barrelled M29-2 and S&W sent me a new front sight at no charge and it was changed out in less than 5 minutes.  Good luck and hope this helps. 

[S.B.]

gulfdaddy:  that's a good buy.  As for your point of impact - that may be the ammo you were shooting - the 44 specials that is.  They are much slower than most factory 44 magnums and as a result might print a whole bunch higher than 44 magnums with the same bullet weight.   I would try some good factory 44 magum ammo, 240 gn stuff, and see where she prints.

And, even if you still hit high at 25 with your rear sight bottomed out, as long as you are not resting your barrel on your shooting rest,  you can easily obtain a new, taller front sight directly from S&W, complete with installation instructions.  I had a similar problem with my 4" Mountain Gun barrelled M29-2 and S&W sent me a new front sight at no charge and it was changed out in less than 5 minutes.  Good luck and hope this helps. 

Or maybe opt for a shorter rear sight blade? Much easier to install.
Steve

[Rutin2tin]

I'd wait and try out some magnum loads first, before changing anything.....as another poster has indicated.
If the revolver shoots 240 grain magnum loads well, with the current rear site blade, then it's correctly targeted.

If that fails, as yet another previous poster suggested, a rear sight slide change may be required.

S&W K, L, N rear sight slides are available in .106" .126" .146" .160" .196" and also require a new adjuster screw and nut.
Smith & Wesson Parts sells those, as well as MidwayUSA, Brownell's, and other gun parts suppliers.

BTW: the sight slide is measured from top to bottom of the slide, (not the notch itself), as it would sit in the sight bracket.

Hope this helps!