Design
The 929 was built from the ground up as a Jerry Miculek Signature gun by the Smith & Wesson Performance Center. If you don’t know Jerry, he is the greatest revolver shooter of all time, and this is what he wanted in a wheel gun.
It is based on the S&W N-frame and has an eight-shot titanium cylinder. As it is chambered in 9mm, moon clips are a must. The 6.5-inch stainless steel barrel has a removable compensator at the end. Overall weight is 44 ounces.
The iron sights have a target-style black-on-black bladed front sight and windage-adjustable rear notch. The handgun is also drilled and tapped for an optic.
The action is tuned by the Performance Center for ultra-smooth performance. There is a chrome teardrop hammer and a trigger with overtravel stop.
Specs
- Caliber: 9mm
- Capacity: 8 rounds
- Width: 1.7 inches
- Barrel Length: 6.5 inches
- Length: 12.3 inches
- Height: 6.1 inches
- Weight: 44.1 ounces
- Action: Single/double action
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Trigger: Double action – 10 pounds; single action – 3 pounds
Shooting Experience
Shooting the S&W 929 is a dream. There is almost no movement because of the weight of the gun, the solid grip, and the compensator. The compensator is easily removed if you want to use the gun in a division that doesn’t allow compensators. The gun comes with a solid cap that can replace the comp.
Without a doubt, the highlight of the shooting experience is the trigger. The single action breaks at around 3 pounds and is outstanding. There is no take-up or overtravel, just a crisp, clean, short break.
As with most double-action revolvers, you only get the single-action pull when you manually cock the hammer. Most of the time, every shot is a double-action pull; and on this revolver, it is something to experience.
The DA break weight on the curved trigger is a little over 10 pounds, so it is not about how light it is. It is the smoothness and the feel. Even at 10 pounds, it is effortless to pull the trigger without disturbing the gun and pulling your shot off. There is little take-up and no overtravel. When you pull it slowly, it is not the best I’ve ever felt. But when you pull it at speed – man, is it fun. It’s almost impossible to mess up if your target is in the sights.
The Performance Center action job is only part of the equation. The other factor is the titanium cylinder. It was not added to reduce the weight of the gun, because clearly S&W was not looking for a lightweight revolver. The titanium makes the cylinder lighter and rotation smoother, which in turn improves the trigger feel, especially at speed.
Field Notes
Before you run out to buy this incredible revolver, I want to note two things.
First, I had trouble with the sight picture. The black-on-black sights are not the best for visibility. If you are target shooting on white paper outdoors in sunlight, the sights are fine. In an indoor range or when shooting at darker targets, you might have problems. I would install a red dot on a low mount adapter that goes right into the factory drilled and tapped holes.
Secondly, because the 929 shoots 9mm, you must use moon clips. Revolvers usually use ammunition with rims (as with .357 Mag) that hook on to the back of the cylinder. Cartridges like 9mm and .45 ACP don’t have rims, so moon clips are used to the capture the rounds so they don’t fall through the chamber.
Moon clips are finicky devices. They make carrying and reloading ammo much faster, but they are delicate instruments. They are just thin, stamped metal, so you must know the proper technique to load or unload them. They are easily bent, and once that happens, they are useless.
Personally, I like the double-pronged moon clips as opposed to those with only single prongs. The double prongs make them much easier to load and unload without tools. The single-prong variants pretty much require some kind of tool to snap rounds in and out.
Pros & Cons
