S&W 929 new to me

[tomjerry1]

I just purchased a S&W 929, I have been looking through this forum looking for sites to go to for improving my new pistol. Any suggestions on sites and or parts will be greatly appreciated. Being new to revolvers, are the shells supposed to be held tightly in the moon clips, or is there some movement? I got TK Customs .035 moon clips with it, I have been trying different cases, and so far, Winchester fit the tightest. 

I am an open shooter, so this thing is completely foreign to me, the last revolver I shot was 20= years ago in the military.

[ysrracer]

Holy crap, how many of these did you buy?

 

Yes, I use .035 TK moon clips with Winchester brass, with a BMT Mooner to load and unload them.

 

I didn't have any luck with factory ammo, to much bullet creep and light hits.

 

Reloads with Federal Small Pistol Primers worked best. Find someone to do a trigger job and chamfer the cylinders, and you'll be happier.

[ysrracer]

Oh, and I couldn't get .040 moon clips to work. Anybody want to buy a package of them?

[tomjerry1]

I am going to try a load I already have for my wife's 9mm, 147 extreme, Winchester cases, and CCI SPP, a good place to start. Any suggestions on the work you recommended?

 

[ysrracer]

Yeah, work on finding Federal Small Pistol Primers, you can run a lighter trigger. They require less hammer force.

[Lesliet]

Apex makes some really nice hammers for these, if you have any ability on doing your own smithing. Couple of my mates are running 929s with the Apex da only parts, Wolff reduced power springs, and Federal spp so it'll go bang with the lighter hammer strikes. Are you going to do optics, or irons? What kind of competitions? 

[AzShooter]

Good advice so far, you can't go wrong.  I agree with using the TK .35 moons.  I could never load my Winchester brass in .40s.  

RevolverSupply.com has what you need in regards to moon clip holders.  I like the Moon Mountain 3 post. You can put 3 moons on each post and they are easy to get to and fast.

 

Apex hammer is great.  You can probably  just drop it in and it will work.  If it needs to be fit a gunsmith shouldn't kill you in pricing.  Mine just fell in.  With Wolf springs and an 11 pound rebound spring my trigger was under 5 pounds.  You need Federal primers for reliable ignition.

 

If you want good iron sights the LPC is real good.  I may have the initials wrong, it's been a long time for me. I do know that the sight is very nice, easy to see and easy to adjust.  For Optics you can't go wrong with a C-More.  Vortex Venoms and nice as well and both are in the same price range.

[tomjerry1]

Thanks everyone for the input, as far as sights or optics, I'm going to stick with the sights for now and see how I like a revolver, I am going to change the front to fiber. I shoot open as a rule and like my C-Mores. As far as primers go, I have CCI SPP, haven't seen any others out in the wild to change to, so will stick with that until availability changes.

Also going to replace the grip, I handled a 929 with the Hogue smooth Big Butt and liked it. I will be playing around with a spring kit and hammer in the near future, I have all winter to find different primers and tuning.

[Lesliet]

I have my 625 set up with the Hogue big butt,and irons for now. Very comfortable shooting gun.  So, since you'll likely need to keep a heavier spring in it for now, to light off cci's, you may want to try the Wolff full power mainspring.  You may be able to back off ( and loctite) the strain screw a quarter turn or so, you'll have to test that for reliability. I'm finding the smoothness to be more important than the pull weight, although a light trigger is lovely.  You can gain a lot for very little work, by using hammer and trigger shims to take up space, and keep those parts from rubbing on the sides. Once you've got it broken in a bit, maybe 1000 rounds, or a lot of dry firing, you may be able to see rub marks on the sides of the hammer and trigger, which will guide you as to where to put your shims. triggershims.com is a good source.   Powercustom.com is another great source for certain parts, and for gunsmith tools and fixtures. Jerry Kuhnhausen's book " The Smith and Wesson Revolvers" is a great resource for in depth gunsmithing info for these.  Most of the parts are the same as the older N frames, and there is a section on the newer firing-pin-in-frame versions. 

[macbolan]

New to the forums and new to this topic.

 

I have a 929 and am getting used to it.  I really like the potential the 8 shot 9mm has since I've been shooting a 6 shot 686 for Steel matches and shot the Steel Challenge with it back in the early 90s.  Two extra rounds are a nice bit of confidence to go a little faster.

 

I'm about to get a C-More RTS2 installed next week and I have the Hogue Big Butt grip and love that.  I have been using the TK .40 moon clips and have settled on Federal brass as with my load of 3.4gr of Red Dot, I have no extraction issues.  I did run into the issue with Starline brass early on, but have now relegated the starline brass to my PC Carbine I'm picking up next week.

 

I am having intermittent cylinder lockups and am not sure if its because the TK Moon clips are too thick (I've read that some 929s like .35s and some like .40s).  I am pretty sure I'm running into the Dillion brass bulge issue as I have the TK moon clip gauge and have had several loaded moon clips not fit.  I am getting a lee undersize 9mm sizing die and hopefully the oversize brass bulge issue will go away.

 

Did others run into the intermittent cylinder sticking issues when they were getting their 929s up and running?

[ysrracer]

On 10/17/2020 at 2:22 PM, macbolan said:

New to the forums and new to this topic.

 

I have a 929 and am getting used to it.  I really like the potential the 8 shot 9mm has since I've been shooting a 6 shot 686 for Steel matches and shot the Steel Challenge with it back in the early 90s.  Two extra rounds are a nice bit of confidence to go a little faster.

 

I'm about to get a C-More RTS2 installed next week and I have the Hogue Big Butt grip and love that.  I have been using the TK .40 moon clips and have settled on Federal brass as with my load of 3.4gr of Red Dot, I have no extraction issues.  I did run into the issue with Starline brass early on, but have now relegated the starline brass to my PC Carbine I'm picking up next week.

 

I am having intermittent cylinder lockups and am not sure if its because the TK Moon clips are too thick (I've read that some 929s like .35s and some like .40s).  I am pretty sure I'm running into the Dillion brass bulge issue as I have the TK moon clip gauge and have had several loaded moon clips not fit.  I am getting a lee undersize 9mm sizing die and hopefully the oversize brass bulge issue will go away.

 

Did others run into the intermittent cylinder sticking issues when they were getting their 929s up and running?

 

Yes, when I use .040 moon clips in my 929 I get lock up. .035 works fine.

[MWP]

On 10/17/2020 at 2:22 PM, macbolan said:

New to the forums and new to this topic.

 

I have a 929 and am getting used to it.  I really like the potential the 8 shot 9mm has since I've been shooting a 6 shot 686 for Steel matches and shot the Steel Challenge with it back in the early 90s.  Two extra rounds are a nice bit of confidence to go a little faster.

 

I'm about to get a C-More RTS2 installed next week and I have the Hogue Big Butt grip and love that.  I have been using the TK .40 moon clips and have settled on Federal brass as with my load of 3.4gr of Red Dot, I have no extraction issues.  I did run into the issue with Starline brass early on, but have now relegated the starline brass to my PC Carbine I'm picking up next week.

 

I am having intermittent cylinder lockups and am not sure if its because the TK Moon clips are too thick (I've read that some 929s like .35s and some like .40s).  I am pretty sure I'm running into the Dillion brass bulge issue as I have the TK moon clip gauge and have had several loaded moon clips not fit.  I am getting a lee undersize 9mm sizing die and hopefully the oversize brass bulge issue will go away.

 

Did others run into the intermittent cylinder sticking issues when they were getting their 929s up and running?

Try sizing your brass with a undersize or super die. Ideally you want to use the thickest available moons for reliability. 

[tomjerry1]

I have talked to people, and read about moon clips. I have TK .035, and the folks that I know, all run the same. Seems everyone is using Winchester brass, and through my test of different brands, Winchester seems the tightest. So, I will run with what i have and maybe try some .040 later. As far as brass bulge, I use an EGW under size die and have no problems with my open gun, I know pistols are different, but suspect it will work.

[macbolan]

Thanks MWP.  I've got a Lee Undersize 9mm die on back order.  Seems many many more people discovered this remedy before me.

 

I think the undersize die will fix the issue of the loaded moons not dropping easily into the Tk checker, but I'm not sure if that will fix the intermittent lockup issue.  I was at the range yesterday and while running strings on steel stages, several times I had the cylinder lockup and I could not pull the trigger.  I had to bump the cylinder to get it open.  Something was hanging up.  There were no extraction issues, the Federal brass just fell right out.

 

So the thicker moons will not cause the cylinder lockup issues?  Is .40 thickness on the TK moons sufficient?

 

Thanks

[macbolan]

5 minutes ago, tomjerry1 said:

I have talked to people, and read about moon clips. I have TK .035, and the folks that I know, all run the same. Seems everyone is using Winchester brass, and through my test of different brands, Winchester seems the tightest. So, I will run with what i have and maybe try some .040 later. As far as brass bulge, I use an EGW under size die and have no problems with my open gun, I know pistols are different, but suspect it will work.

 

Early on I tried Winchester brass, still have the 2 or 300 cases I bought, but came to the decision with the .40 moons I had that Federal worked better.  I'll get some .035 moons from TK and try those with the Winchester brass and see if that fixes the intermittent sticking issue.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

[tomjerry1]

EGW has an undersize die also,

 

[tomjerry1]

Any consensus on spring kits, Wilson Combat, Wollfs?

[MWP]

36 minutes ago, tomjerry1 said:

Any consensus on spring kits, Wilson Combat, Wollfs?

I prefer to just modify the factory, but it’s very popular to get a JM mainspring and a Wolff 11lb rebound with lightened hammers. 

[Makicjf]

On 10/18/2020 at 9:31 PM, macbolan said:

Thanks MWP.  I've got a Lee Undersize 9mm die on back order.  Seems many many more people discovered this remedy before me.

 

I think the undersize die will fix the issue of the loaded moons not dropping easily into the Tk checker, but I'm not sure if that will fix the intermittent lockup issue.  I was at the range yesterday and while running strings on steel stages, several times I had the cylinder lockup and I could not pull the trigger.  I had to bump the cylinder to get it open.  Something was hanging up.  There were no extraction issues, the Federal brass just fell right out.

 

So the thicker moons will not cause the cylinder lockup issues?  Is .40 thickness on the TK moons sufficient?

 

Thanks

I had a 929 which would lock up at random.  I eventually sold it, with full disclosure of the issue I was having. When the new owner received the revolver, he noted the ball detent notch  had not been milled into the frame.  Under "recoil" ( does a 160 grain bullet at 800 fps really have recoil?)the cylinder would pop out of alignment and , thankfully,  freeze the cylinder.  He sent it to the mother ship, they milled in the slot, and the problem resolved.

This may or may not be your problem, but it might be worth investigating!

Jason

[macbolan]

Well latest update on my 929 saga is I shipped it back to S&W today.  I was going to have a red dot sight mounted on it and as I was cleaning it I noticed that the extractor was loose and moving back about an 1/8 of an inch when I just nudged the extractor rod, like it was loose.  Then I messed with the extractor rod and it came out.  So I think I have heard on one of these topics that the cylinder lockup could be caused by the extractor rod getting loose and backing out.  That seems to have happened to mine.  But when I tried to screw the extractor rod back together it would not thread properly.  So I threw up my hands and sent it back with a description of the problem and a pretty pretty please to go thru it and see if there are timing issues and if other things are correct.  Hopefully in a few weeks I'll get my gun back and I can run it with some 0.035 Tk moon clips and I won't get the intermittent sticking cylinder.  I'll also try to contact S&W and ask them to check this "ball detent notch" thing.  Thanks for pointing it out.

[MWP]

47 minutes ago, macbolan said:

Well latest update on my 929 saga is I shipped it back to S&W today.  I was going to have a red dot sight mounted on it and as I was cleaning it I noticed that the extractor was loose and moving back about an 1/8 of an inch when I just nudged the extractor rod, like it was loose.  Then I messed with the extractor rod and it came out.  So I think I have heard on one of these topics that the cylinder lockup could be caused by the extractor rod getting loose and backing out.  That seems to have happened to mine.  But when I tried to screw the extractor rod back together it would not thread properly.  So I threw up my hands and sent it back with a description of the problem and a pretty pretty please to go thru it and see if there are timing issues and if other things are correct.  Hopefully in a few weeks I'll get my gun back and I can run it with some 0.035 Tk moon clips and I won't get the intermittent sticking cylinder.  I'll also try to contact S&W and ask them to check this "ball detent notch" thing.  Thanks for pointing it out.

Left hand threads on extractor rods. One drop of blue loctite and a decent hand tightening and you’d be good to go. 

 

Hopefully you’ll get your gun back in time to shoot for next season. 

[Mcfoto]

Part of my Make Ready is to give my extractor rod a twist. Most times it’s backed out a quarter turn on the previous stage.

[NoSteel]

11 hours ago, macbolan said:

Well latest update on my 929 saga is I shipped it back to S&W today.  I was going to have a red dot sight mounted on it and as I was cleaning it I noticed that the extractor was loose and moving back about an 1/8 of an inch when I just nudged the extractor rod, like it was loose.  Then I messed with the extractor rod and it came out.  So I think I have heard on one of these topics that the cylinder lockup could be caused by the extractor rod getting loose and backing out.  That seems to have happened to mine.  But when I tried to screw the extractor rod back together it would not thread properly.  So I threw up my hands and sent it back with a description of the problem and a pretty pretty please to go thru it and see if there are timing issues and if other things are correct.  Hopefully in a few weeks I'll get my gun back and I can run it with some 0.035 Tk moon clips and I won't get the intermittent sticking cylinder.  I'll also try to contact S&W and ask them to check this "ball detent notch" thing.  Thanks for pointing it out.

Not likely you’ll see back in a few weeks,  more likely a few months.... The rod is reverse in it’s threading (lefty tighty instead of righty tighty) so when you get back check it again and if still an issue the blue locative suggested should work.  I have had the best no issue results using only Winchester brass w/ TK .035”  moons.

[Intel6]

13 hours ago, Mcfoto said:

Part of my Make Ready is to give my extractor rod a twist. Most times it’s backed out a quarter turn on the previous stage.

 

I use this tool to safely tighten the rod on my revolvers without damaging it and have never had any of them loosen during use. When you need to loosen it for maintenance you have to tool and don't have to use vise grips. 

 

extractor rod tool

[ysrracer]

A unplugged drill will work too.