Trying out a revolver as a daily carry

That is a good carry gun for self defense from anything. I do have some trepidation about the 3" barrel. After just reading from the book Gary sent me that Elmer Keith felt that barrels shorter than 4" had the potential to mutilate bullets at the muzzle due to still high pressure at the bullet base while the bullet is unconfined outside the barrel. Reading the book by Franklin Mann he confirmed and proved it beyond doubt that bullet bases were indeed being deformed when barrels shorter than 4" were used. Dr. Mann even fired bullets from a revolver without any barrel at all and the recovered bullets were fully expanded from the base forward.

Now to be fair we must qualify as to bullet hardness then compared to bullet hardness now. Both Dr. Mann and Elmer Keith were of course shooting fairly soft cast bullets. I do not recall the alloy used in the Mann trials but Elmer was often quite clear that for his 44 mag alloy he preferred 16 to 1 lead to tin alloy which on the Lyman chart rates a BHN-11. At BHN-11 its easy to scratch with a finger nail. At BHN-20 its very hard to make a mark with a finger nail and at BHN-24 its like trying to mark glass.

As for jacketed bullets I have little experience but from what I have I know that some have very thin jackets with pure lead cores. I have no data on how such bullets will react to such testing so don't know what to think. They are probably somehere in between soft cast and very hard cast.

If I were to cast for that gun I wouldn't use any alloy under BHN-20 and I would size bullets to exact cylinder throat diameter. If your shooting factory jacketed bullet ammo you may never have any issues but if you do I bet you will find that the ammo with the hardest bullets with thickest jacket material is what will shoot the best.

I am very interested to know what you shoot in it and how well it performs.

First time I ran into "flared bases" was with a .58 ML. Shooting HB Minis that were not going where the rifle was pointed. Then read an article about to heavy a charge of 2F and / or to thin a bullet skirt. 55 grains of 2F Goex solved the issue & not 65 grains. But also increased the skirt diameter so back to 65 grains which was where the sights were set to.
Sure is something to be thinking about and remembering.
I still like the idea of a 5 shot big bore for carry.   May yet buy a model 69 and shoot 44 Special +P loads. 

We have a 95% model 29 4" sitting in a box wrapped in 30 weight and wax paper. But it is just to big for my 135 pound body to carry about for CC.
5 shots are very nice. I should have bought 10 of the 696 44 Special when S&W had them on production. But good old hindsight. And it turns out they tend to be fragile if heavy 44 Special loads get used.
But that 69 with a 2.34" barrel does look like it would never get stressed over some 44 Special +p usage. Sooner or later good used ones will start moving into the sale counters.

I have a 5” model 29-5 that is a very early unmarked DX hunter model. It has the full lug barrel and inflicted cylinder and may be the most accurate gun I own period, but by far the most accurate revolver I have ever owned. That gun almost shoots itself. I have carried both that and a 5.5” redhawk up here, but they are a bit hard to conceal, and with my job I can NOT have the gun in sight in any form since we are not supposed to have them, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna work in remote alaska without a side arm.

Oh, that unfluted 44 I had was also stainless

I like the looks of that 629.
But I still think a 5 shot will fit my little body much better.

With the cost of food up there and everything (clothes) I think I will wait. Plus I do not think my knees would like any more bulk to haul about.
Limit your total sugar intake to 1 teaspoon a day and watch what happens.
Recoil is not my issue... 475 Linebaugh and 454 Casulls are in our house.... It is a weight of the 6 shots to pack about.  Chest rigs work well for me but do not conceal well in warm weather.  A 5 shot much nicer. Especially the 5 shot Titaniums. 41 mag, 44 Special and 45 Colt are very nice carry.  
The Ruger GP100 5 shot in 44 Special is a way to heavy a brute. We have one which is fine in a regular holster or chest rig but CC ... not me.  
   

Have you shot the Bisley .38-40 yet?

Sorry Jr. I meant it for Mike, Missionary, as he purchased my old Colt Bisley .38-40 a while back.

Well I swapped the grips out to the pachmayer Diamond Pro grips and that tamed it right down. I also put the same grips on my model
60, but may not leave them on that one because of them being fatter. And not great for pocket carry.

Ya have to like a plan that works out. So now was that a 50 or 100 yard group ?
Well I had to look those grips up... May try a set on our Ruger GP100 44 Special.

That would sure get your attention.
Had a tree do that to me once while out in the Michigan woods.

Most any 44 slug at over 950 fps is going to be a show stopper as you sort things out.
We are very happy with heavy for caliber WC's cast from range scrap and moving at anywhere from 800fps - 950fps depending on how heavy for caliber they are. Multiple hits are going to be employed as ammo is cheap.

When we lived on Kuyu Island before you were born Jr. I had to kill a bear at work in my strip. The 44 mag did a clean job of keeping the bear off me. The load was Elmers 44 mag load with his 255 grain bullet and 22 grain of 2400. I didnt have a chrono at the time but I think Elmer figured it to give about 1250 fps.