44 Magnum ABYSMAL - American Gun Manufacturing

Transcript

Introduction: Rough Start Back at the Idaho Office

Hi folks, this is Tim Sundles. We're at our Idaho office. You can tell we were gone all winter—chainsaws laying around, trucks with dead batteries, brass all over the driveway.

It's raining, by the way.

Today’s subject is this little 3-inch L-frame, five-shot .44 Magnum—Smith & Wesson’s Model 629 Combat Magnum, or whatever they call it now.

They made a 4-inch version first, then this 3-inch version. I thought I'd buy one and do some testing.

First Impressions: Good Design, Serious Flaws

It’s an incredibly usable gun.
I've been shooting it a lot this past week.

Design-wise, it's near perfection for someone wanting a small, all-steel .44 Magnum—small enough for a hip holster, carryable in town under a jacket, loaded with decent .44 Special ammo.

BUT—it has problems.
Serious problems.
And I'm going to rail on Smith & Wesson's ass for letting this gun leave the factory with such problems.

Walking Through the Setup

We're back on the rear patio—no neighbors, nothing but national forest.

If I were going to carry this as a woods gun, I'd load it with our item 4E, our lower recoil load—designed for the Model 329PD.

• 255-grain hard cast bullet

• Advertised 1350 fps out of a 5½" barrel

• In this 3-inch barrel, I chronographed it this morning at 1060 fps average.

15-Yard Shooting: Real World Bear Defense Practice

Let’s go shoot at 15 yards.
In a bear defense situation, if you're shooting at more than 15 yards, you're probably making a mistake.

Realistically, a charge is going to happen inside 5 yards, maybe even inside 3 or 4 feet.

I'm shooting double-action, not single-action.
If a bear charges—you’re just up and shooting, no staging the trigger.

Tim shoots.

It handles beautifully.
It extracts and ejects empties perfectly.
It’s accurate—BUT every shot is off to the left.

The Big Problem: Rear Sight Disaster

Every shot is off to the left side of the heart target.
Why?
Because Smith & Wesson let this out of the factory without properly functioning sights.

I’m furious.

I'm going to bring out a whole bunch of guns next video—expensive to cheap—and show you how bad quality control has gotten across the board.

Rear Sight and Front Sight Issues

Here’s the deal:

• The rear sight will not adjust enough to the right.

• If you shoot full-power loads, even with the rear sight adjusted all the way down, the gun still shoots high.

So the front sight isn’t tall enough for full-power .44 Magnum loads.

It’s like nobody even bothered to test it with a screwdriver at the factory.
One minute of testing—one minute—would have found these problems.

Rant: American Gun Manufacturing Quality Control

I'm tired of buying a gun and turning it into a damned project.

If I send it back to Smith & Wesson, chances are they'll send it back unfixed anyway. That’s been my experience.

I’m going to rail on Ruger next.
Then Springfield Armory.
Then Merkel.

All of them are pumping out junk.
The accountants are running gun companies now—and they don’t care about shooters, just profits.

It’s not the machinists, it’s not the engineers—it’s the accountants and the lawyers.

"Charge $100 more and make it right the first time!"

Inside: Demonstrating the Rear Sight Problem

We’re inside now, same revolver.
I’ll show you with a screwdriver:

• It’s very hard to adjust the sight to the left—but it will move some.

• It will not adjust to the right at all.

All the .44 Special ammo—and even the full-power .44 Magnum loads—shoot left.

And with the Magnum loads, even adjusting the rear sight all the way down, it still shoots high because the front sight isn't tall enough.

"This is a .44 Magnum, not a .44 Special—it should be regulated for Magnum ammo."

Velocities and Load Recommendations

Out of this 3-inch barrel, the 255-grain hard cast load (item 4E):

• 1060 fps average across a five-shot string.

It’s the hottest load I would shoot out of this gun.

For woods carry, I recommend this lower recoil .44 Magnum load.
For social (town) carry, I recommend .44 Specials—you don’t want full-powered Magnums for defense against people.

My Top Two Town Loads:

• Item 14E: 200-grain hard cast wadcutter, ~923 fps out of this gun.

• Item 14A: 185-grain XTP hollow point, ~1050 fps out of this gun.

Both are very lethal loads.

Serious Note: Lethality Matters

I don’t relish the thought of defending myself with a handgun and having to kill another human being. But if it happens—you want lethal ammo.

You don't want bullets bouncing off. You want bullets that work.

The Bigger Problem: Why American Gun Quality is Collapsing

Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Springfield, and others are catering to price point buyers.
They are trying to meet artificially low price points—and the customer is part of the problem.

If you buy guns only based on price, you reward junk manufacturing.

"Good guns cost good money—just like good cars, good whiskey, and good boots."

The price should be way down your criteria list for a gun.
Function, quality, reliability, and fit for purpose—those should be first.

Closing Words

Folks, guns are serious business.
They are life and death tools—not toys.

The function of a gun is infinitely more important than the price tag.

Please—support quality. Demand better from our gun makers.

Thank you for tuning in.
God bless you, and Kim and I will see you on the next video.