I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’

Well, do ya, punk?”

do i even need to do an intro

you already know the gun

this is the smith and wesson model 29

but what we gotsta know is

how does something so awesome come about

did the san francisco police department put out a requirement for blowing heads clean off

man how times change lol

well actually our story starts in the 1920s with a cowboy named elmer keith

now elmer keith is a name you really should know

he went around shooting pretty much everything he saw for decades

he loved his wheelguns so much he did all kinds of crazy stuff with them

he took his beloved 45 colt single action army and load it with bullets that were way to friggin heavy and with way too friggin much powder

then hed shoot things like friggin deer with it

handgun hunting wasnt really a thing like that

and then hed write all about his exploits in gun magazines

people had a hard time believing him lol

he also blew up a lot of guns

one day he was out with some new crazy overpowered handloads and he blew his cylinder clean off

foreshadowing perhaps

turns out if you take a .45-70 bullet and cram it into a .45 colt its going to overpressure the gun because theyre not actually the same size

but this started keith on the path to something new

the smokeless powders that were now common were more powerful than the black powder theyd recently replaced

so all these legacy cartridges had a bunch of empty space you could play with by cramming extra powder into

and keith needed a stronger gun so he could get more power

so he started looking at the .44 special

.44 special had a thicker case than the .45 colt

and its smaller diameter meant more cylinder thickness around the case for the same cylinder width

so he set to work cramming way too much powder in those instead lol

after his experiments he eventually started harassing remington and smith and wesson to build him some ammo and revolvers in his new souped up .44

i like to picture him literally pounding on their doors on a sunday morning while they pretend to not be home

eventually they relented and made him the dang gun and ammo

now for smith and wessons part they started with their proven hand ejector series

the hand ejector had introducted the now standard operating system for a revolver with the swing out cylinder and ejector rod to kick out the spent shells

this meant you could have a very strong solid frame instead of weaker break open designs

it started in .32 caliber with the i frame

and was followed by several more sizes up to the n frame in .44 russian

later smith and wesson had made the .44 special by lengthening the .44 russian and sticking that in the n frame

so now that they had a beligerant man in a stetson demanding even more oomph it was an obvious choice to take the n frame and adapt it once more to the new .44 magnum cartridge

remington made the cartridge a tenth of an inch longer so you couldnt blow up a .44 special gun

and smith and wesson made the new guns chambers slightly longer to fit the new round

it was released in 1955 and was an immediate success

and by success i mean it had a moderate niche following among handgun hunters

some law enforcement agencies bought it but not that many

guys it didnt start out super great lol

it was actually not currently being produced when they went to make dirty harry

smith and wesson was just slowly selling out of its stockpile

and as a result it was kinda hard for the moviemakers to get the right gun

in fact they didnt get the right gun

heres the gun from dirty harry

that long barrel and black finish Is the iconic look

but actually it was originally supposed to be short barrelled nickel finish

and have ivory grips

crazy isnt it

so after the movie everybody rushed out to buy the most powerful handgun in the world

including my dad lol

he got one in the longer barrel with blued finish and hogue grips

those grips are so nice guys

fits your hand like a glove

and they help tame the recoil

which is good considering most people like owning the most powerful handgun in the world

but arent so keen about their sore hands

a lot of them were subsequently sold having fired only a cylinder or two and the rest of the box of ammo goes with the gun

pussies lol

so even to this day the biggest users are handgun hunters are recreational shooters

as a hunting round it is quite capable just as elmer keith knew it would be

in fact he even invented a special bullet that allowed you to get even more room for powder while still having more bullet weight

there are plenty of people who take deer and elk with the .44 magnum

and you can find a story of somebody using one on pretty much any other large animal you could name

tho im sure with any dangerous beast there was a man right behind the hunter with a double rifle heh

and for recreational shooting of course its awesome

its friggin huge and puts giant holes it things and makes soda bottles explode

and if you want to shoot it more than your wrist can handle you can still use .44 special

its got that versatility

plus its just a great quality weapon

lets see how it works

so the model 29 is a single action double action weapon

you can pull the trigger and it goes bang

or pull the hammer back for a much shorter and lighter trigger pull

to pop the cylinder out the left side you push the cylinder release forward

the cylinder holds 6 rounds with early models having recessed chambers and later models deleting that

recessed chambers contain slightly more of the cartridge giving a bit more protection in case of case rupture

great to have in the early days of smokeless powder

or if youre wildcatting big rounds lol

but not really needed much with modern quality ammo

pushing the ejector rod kicks the shells out of the cylinder

the rear sights are adjustable

and many different stocks can be put on

internally it is mechanically the same as most other external hammer smith and wesson revolvers except for the j frames

heres i think a k frame

close enough and a good picture

the trigger is tensioned by a leaf spring in the grip frame

two sears on the hammer

and lets take a look at the safeties found on smith and wessons

brownells has this excellent video

but ill also show still images here as i describe it

the first one is the rebound safety which prevents the hammer from going forward unless its slid backward by pulling the trigger

this is a pretty good safety because its a chunk of metal that is going to completely block the hammer unless it gets a blow so hard it horribly mangles and deforms the metal

and then theres a hammer block safety that prevents the hammer from being able to contact the firing pin unless the trigger is being pulled rearward

this was added after a wwii sailor dropped a revolver onto the deck of the ship and hit the hammer at the perfect angle to horribly mangle the rebound safety resulting in him shooting himself in the head and dying

oh dang

thats mega bad luck

but now there are two safeties to prevent that so youre probably fine

finally there is a cylinder lock

that stops the hammer from being able to move backward unless the cylinder is completely secure and ready to fire

it also prevents you from taking the cylinder out if the hammer is back

these are top prevent the gun from firing out of alignment because that could make a bullet hit some part of the weapon instead of going through the barrel

so the model 29 has been in their inventory for a long time and i think even now they make them in batches

but they are still selling them

you can get a blued one with 6 1/2 inch barrel just like dirty harry for 1200 bucks

it aint cheap but its a good gun and well built so im not gonna say its not worth it

i tell you what

if somebody got me one for my anniversary itd sure

make my day

pew pew

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