Since I live in an open carry state...

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Standing Wolf

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I live in Colorado, which recognizes the right of the people to keep and bear arms. It's legal to carry openly here, although the police in Denver wouldn't necessarily be above arresting an open carrier for "disturbing the peace," "frightening the bliss ninnies," or some such equally silly offense.

I carry openly about a third of the time. To date, nobody's noticed except at my friendly local bullseye range. My pre-agreement Smith & Wesson model 60 is a fairly unnoticeable gun, especially since I carry it in an inside the waist band holster. My blued four-inch Python and hip holster from http://www.mitchrosen.com are more noticeable, although the gun is in Montana being engraved these days.

Some while ago, gbelleh offered a three-inch Smith & Wesson model 629 for sale here at the High Road. I'd been looking for a four-inch model, but didn't need to think it over longer than about ten seconds before beaming him a private message.

He was easy to do business with, and the delivered gun was as described.

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I didn't send the whole gun to Magnaport. I sent the unfluted cylinder to Michael Gouse: http://www.mtart.com/index.htm with somewhat vague notes and a couple equally vague sketches of standing wolves.

He said the engraving would cost $150 and take about twelve weeks. I had the cylinder back in my hands in three. Amazing!

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Magnaport quadruple-ported and crowned the barrel for me, bead-blasted the gun inside and out-, and jewelled the hammer and trigger. I've had the good folks there give the same treatment to all my stainless steel guns, which look better and no longer show wear quite so quickly.

When you're contending with arthritis, anything that reduces perceived recoil is a plus, especially when the recoiling gun is a short-barreled .44 magnum. I normally shoot .44 special target loads in .44 magnum cartridge cases, but of course, a carry gun needs to be loaded with the proverbial "real McCoy." The only drawback to porting I've ever discovered is that it takes three to five extra minutes to clean a ported barrel.

I believe crowned barrels last longer and deliver better accuracy; even if they don't, I like the way they look. Having the hammer and trigger jewelled was plain, simple, old-fashioned ego gratification.

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There's still a bit more work to be done on the gun. I'm going to have my friendly local gunsmith concoct a new front sight that will be slightly lower, narrower, and square-topped, and I'll replace the ugly white-outlined factory rear sight with a sturdier, more finely adjustable sight from Millett: http://www.millettsights.com
 
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As far as I'm concerned, black rubber grips belong on snow shovels, not firearms. These stippled walnut stocks are from Nill: http://www.nill-grips.com/Pages/homeGB/index.html

They're distributed in the United States by Larry's Guns: http://www.larrysguns.com. Larry's customer service can be haphazard at times, but if you're persistent and patient, all will be well.

I like to grip a firearm with my thumb up rather than down—it's hard to teach an old bullseye dog new tricks—but these stocks fit my hand very well, and the fit and finish are superb.

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How to carry it? I ordered a holster from Kramer Leather. I've ordered assorted holsters from Kramer before, and so ordered a paddle holster with confidence. I specifically asked whether I could have one for a model 629 with an unfluted cylinder rather than the usual fluted. "No problem, sir!"

The holster delivered was for a model 629 with a fluted cylinder. It took a week's worth of delays, messages, telephone calls, more messages, more calls, excuses, and more calls, but in the end, Kramer agreed to rework the holster. It kind'a sort'a more or less sort of fits the gun, but it's clearly an approximation rather than the holster I expected. The design is excellent; the fit and finish leave rather a lot to be desired.
 
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Wolf:

Very, very nice. As I've said in another thread, engraved guns are not to my taste. However, to each his own, and that is a very fine, and very appropriate, example. Worthy of a barbeque.:D :cool:
 
Nice gun you got there Standing Wolf! ;)

It's so nice to know that it went to a good home! Have you fired it yet?
 
Of course I've fired it! The first thing you do with a new gun is take it apart and clean it and put it back together. The second thing you do is take it to the range.

Truth to tell, the snub-nosed .44 magnum packs quite a wallop of recoil with full house loads. I expect the porting will reduce the perceived recoil; unfortunately, the weather and arthritis have conspired to preclude my going back to the range this week end.

I'm sure Michael Gouse could engrave a grim reaper.
 
Standing Wolf,

That is a very nice piece of work there and you have definitely made it your own.

I can sympathize with you on the arthritis. At the ripe old age of 36 (as of this Thursday) my hands bother me most days to varying degrees. My knees bother me too, but that's more because of the *ahem* substantial payload they have to bear. My solution has been to stay away from .44 magnum altogether, but then I'm a wuss that way. ;)

Congratulations on a beatiful piece of work. May she serve you long and well.
 
Engraving to me is something I don't need - BUT - readily appreciate on other's firearms. This one SW appears to have been done very nicely indeed. Nice work.

Porting .... also not for me but it is obvious from this and other examples I have seen that Magnaport do make a fine job of what they do.

All in all ... a highly personalized and very pleasing piece. Excellent pics and an all round enjoyable read as a description. Thanks for that.

(Hey - way more than your more usual 2 liners!!! :neener: )

J/K .. good post Sir. :)
 
One fine looking weapon. Let us know how the porting effects the felt recoil.
 
cool

awesome looking gun! Almost looks too nice to shoot, belongs on display! I personally don't like the look of the smooth cylinder, but with the engraving its great!
 
Wow that's nice!! My Lew Horton model 29 is at Magnaport right now and should be back in a couple of weeks. I'm having the quadruple ports, action job and ball detent lock put on it. Can't wait!!!
 
Ports

How did the porting effect the feel of the revolver? Worth it?I ask because I have a Ruger Redhawk .44 - 7 inch that I have been thinking about getting some work done on. I would like to b eable to carry it at times and am considering a Barrel bob/Port down to a 3 inch. Are you happy with the results at the firing line?
 
How did the porting effect the feel of the revolver? Worth it?
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Porting helps reduce perceived recoil, which I've found helps my accuracy and reduces some of the stress of arthritis. One at a time, I've had virtually all my center fire revolvers ported over the years.

A three-inch barrel on a .44 magnum is mighty short. The reduced sight radius makes long range accuracy more difficult; conversely, it's a lot easier to lug around than a long-barreled model.
 
Standing Wolf: I enjoy your posts here. Those photos are beyond my extensive vocabulary. Nice work. Happy trails.
 
SW,

Are those grips speedloader friendly? I noticed on the Nill website their grips indicated whether or not they were...Nice revolver! Mike
 
Big Mike:

The stocks are somewhere between speed loader-friendly and speed loader-unfriendly, which is to say: my HKS speed loaders work, but require a little bit of jiggling to keep from scratching the wood.

Frankly, I like Bianchi speed strips much better than old-fashioned round speed loaders; unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, they're available only for .38 special/.357 magnum rounds.

If this were my main concealed carry gun, I'd have had to choose different stocks; since it's an occasional open carry gun, however, and I live in the non-Denver part of Colorado, I carry a speed loader, but doubt I'll ever need it. Even with a short barrel, this gun is a bit too heavy for the small of my back after a couple hours.
 
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