Hello, I am new to this forum and I am looking to handgun hunt this year in my home state of Oregon. I have bow hunted the last 20 years but I have injured my shoulder one to many times and that season is over for me.

Anyway, I am looking at buying a new S&W 629 Performance Center 44mag w/ the 7.5 ported barrel. I have had many 44s in the past and have ammo and loading supplies for it so I thought that I would stay with something that I am familiar with. Does anybody have any experience with this gun or should I just stay with my 629 5" Classic for hunting this year?

Thanks

You could top that with a quality dot sight or scope and extend your range a good bit.

If your hunting the eastside for mulies and elk i would suggest topping it with Leupold VXIII 2.5-8 or VXII 4X. If your hunting the West side I'd go with either a red dot sight or a VX 2 or 4X for blacktail and elk.

wapitirod,

I am down in Medford and plan on hunting local. I might make a trip up to Newport (that is where I am from originally) and hunt with my brother. So most if not all of my hunting will be this side of the Cascades.

So would you guys go with the new Performance Center gun or stay with what I have??

I did not think a red dot sight was legal in Oregon, I might need to reread the regs.

Thanks,
Paul

I grew up down there and have hunted it all from Mt Ashland to Evans Crk up to Butte Falls and Crater lake and all in between. I still hunt down there from time to time. The 5" will work fine as long as your proficient with it but more guns is always better. The red dot is legal in OR, lazers are illegal, the sight cannot project a dot onto the animal and electronic sights of any kind are illegal on bows. Your 5 inch would probably work best with a reflex type sight like the Burris Fast fire or the Leupold Delta Point.

I'd recommend a Ruger SBHH or SRHH with a scope. Having shot both the 629 and the Rugers, I much prefer the Rugers recoil to the 629, plus if you want to amp it up with Buffalo Bore +P+ ammo, the Ruger is the way to go.

Haven't shot a PC S&W though, so if you do go that route, love to hear your thoughts on it!

I would probably put a fastfire on top of the five inch and after I felt like I could do all it was capable of then look into moving up to something bigger. You may decide when going bigger to move up performance wise to something like a super redhawk. I like the looks and easy shooting of the 629 but if you want more performance out of the 44 mag the super redhawk will take you farther than a couple inches of added barrel length can get you.

The area he's talking about hunting 99% of shots will be under a hundred yds and most of of those in the 50 to point blank range.

Can you elaborate on this statement ?

The ruger is capable of handling +P+ loads. It is also likely the same 7.5 inch barrel length as the PC gun asked about. It will simply shoot equal or heavier weight bullets faster. There's nothing wrong with the performance center guns but if I wanted more than I could get from a five inch 29 I would go to ruger to get it.

I understand that Ruger will digest hotter loads than will the Smith. However, a slicked up Smith is, IMHO, a neater package than a standard Ruger. The S&W 44, shooting loads that it can easily consume, will handle anything you are likely to encounter in the US.