American Handgunner July/August 1977

HANDGUNNEWS FROM MANUFACTURERSAGNUM FORCE, the .44 to be spe-M cific, is in the news these days inNew England's "Gun Valley." Smith &Wesson's Model 29 will be sold at blackmarketprices no longer, if company execsDel Shorb and Dick McMahon and othershave their way, and it looks like they will.The company had been telling the gunwriters that they couldn't do anythingabout those dealers selling 29's for hundredsof dollars over list because of thescarcity, since the Sherman Anti-TrustAct prohibited them from squeezing offsupply to dealers who weren't cleaving tocatalogue prices. The only solution: to increaseModel 29 production, thus satisfyingthe demand from the. shooters thathad driven the price up in the first place.The company has made a productioncommitment this year: 80% more .44Magnums will roll out of Smith & Wessonin '77 then did in '76. In turn, '76 productionwas well above that of '75. It's hopedthat they'll be selling at list by the end ofthe year, everywhere in the country.Speaking of the Dirty Harry syndrome,a major factor in the Model 29 mystique,the rumor persists that in the first movie,Clint Eastwood was actually using an identical-in-appearanceModel 57 .41 Magnum,at least in some of the scenes. The29s were hard to come by even then, andaccording to the story, they couldn't getone by the time camera deadlines rolledaround; the director supposedly tookSmith execs up on the suggestion that theysubstitute a 57 until a 29 could be shippedto the producers. Whatever Clint Eastwoodsays about this anecdote, our sourceis very high up at Smith & Wesson ...'77 will supposedly see three times asmany double-action 144 Magnums as '76did. Maybe four times as many.High Standard Crusader .44 mags,we're told, should be ready for you to buyabout the time you read this, or before.DAN WESSON is ready to toss a bigfistful of chips into the .44 Magnum pot.The gun Dan plans to introduce will be, inBy MASSAD F. AYOOBAMERICAN HANDGUNNER JULY/AUGUST 1 977essence, a scaled-up version of his increasinglypopular .357. The same slick, basicaction will be there, and the same distinctivesilhouette. So will the interchangeablebarrels and grips. Many of his advisors areurging Dan to go a step further with thebigframe gun and go for a "Giant Pistol-Pac" with interchangeable calibers aswell. This would be a boon to New Yorkshooters, who are limited to a certainnumber of handguns, and could thus havean almost infinite number of centerfire revolverscharged to one serial number asone gun.Only problem is that, with present productionmethods, each cylinder wouldhave to be fitted at the factory, making foran exceedingly expensive initial purchase.Dan is mindful of the fact that, though hesells more of his regular "Pistol-Pacs".each year both numerically and proportionately,still more of his customers liketo buy one basic gun and acquire the barrelsone at a time, later.Dan is chary about predicting an introdate; he's been burned before. His .22rimfire revolver was formally announcedto the shooting media, but has since beendropped into a limbo that this writer haslearned is probably permanent.A "newie" you can count on from thismanufacturer is longer barrel options:lo", 12", and 15". They'll be available inall four of Dan's present Pacesetter configurations.(It's interesting to note that,though the gun-buyers had just startedidentifvine , " with the "Pacesetter" sobriquet,Dan is dropping the name in favorof numerical designations like "12-HV".)Rifling twist will be either one-in-sixteen,IMPROVE ACCURACY^edtm.^ddTftwy^Uf^Wtft,WILL NOT CHANGE BALLISTICSor the present one-in-eighteen and a halfinches that duplicates the Smith &Wesson in the same caliber.As awkward as it sounds, Dan assures usthat the heavy-barrel variation in fifteeninches hangs like a rock. Experimentersand .357 reloaders should love it. A 16"revolving carbine is obviously the nextstep, though Dan just smiles mysteriouslywhen you suggest it; the stubby grip frameof the DW gun does lend itself to an idealshoulder stock. . .Before we leave the Monson. Mass.gunmaker, we should note that the popularityof his guns has increased to the extentthathe & once again putting on a secondshift of production workers to meetthe demand. He did that once before, acouple of years ago when Dan WessonArms was making the High Standard SentinelMk 111 .38s and .357s on contract.Quite avart from the subseauent loss ofthe ~ i Standard ~ h contract, the problemwas that Dan had put too many new peopleon the second shift, with too littlesupervision from the experienced gunmakerson the personnel roster. WhenDan talks about putting on the secondshift again because of increased marketdemand, we're not worried about it. Betweenhis hard-learned experience, andthe management talents of Dick Rosenfeld,the latest up-step in the company'svroduction should be fruitful . . .This column has mentioned the secondgeneration SMITH & WESSON 9 mm.autos more than once. Latest word is thatthe project is still in the plateau phase,and nobody's saying when it will reach climax.The ambidextrous safety has beenrelegated to "sometime." The fully adjustablesight really is in a fairly advancedstage of development, but is being heldpending redesign; it seems that extendedtests showed it lacked the durability tokeep its adjustments with a continuousdiet of full charge ammo. Our sources inthe field, who tested the prototypes, gaveS&W some specs that may fill the bill.More honest answers from SMITH &WESSON: Police Combat shooters canforget about that bull-barrel K-38 that hasbeen the subject of wildfire rumors inPPC circles. The popular NRA Distinguishedmatch demands a strictly-productionpolice revolver, and if S&W were toproduce a gun like the custom heavy-barre1jobs sanctioned by NRA for regulationPPC shooting, it would have been a boon.But demand is just too small to warrantthe company's commitment to the necessarylevel of production. Colt was able to