Friend looking for a light weight long barreled 44 mag.

[C-grunt]

I got a buddy who is looking for a light weight 44 mag that has a 6 inch barrel or longer. He has carried another friends 4 inch S&W Scandium 44 on several fishing expeditions and likes it a lot but was wanting something with a 6 or 8 inch barrel. Does something like that exist?

[spdldr]

You might suggest to him that the 4" will be better at contact range. I'm quite sure he won't be doing any plinking or target shooting with a scandium .44!!

[Kain]

I know this is not going to be a whole hell of a lot of help. But wouldn't the longer barrel kind of defeat the purpose of a compact-ish and light weight revolver? Once you over over six inches I think you are at the point of overkill for something that is going to be carried a lot and shot a little. Would go with four, five, or six inches, and get a good performing load and carry on, no pun intended.

[C-grunt]

I have made these arguments. I told him though that I would look around.

[Hizzie]

S&W made the 386 XL Hunter with a 8-3/8" barrel but the 329's were all 4" or less to my recollection.

[Lost River]

One option is to have a model 29 Smith fitted with a tapered barrel from a Model 24 .44 special. Essentially this is the mountain gun profile barrel, at a longer length.

Personally I would suggest a compromise of a 5" barreled model 29.

My experience has been that the 4" guns are great for packing, but not quite as easy to shoot as accurately, and recoil more.

The 6.5" guns are very easy to shoot well, but not as packable/comfortable to carry.

The 5" guns seem to strike a balance of packability and shootability. I currently have 3 5" Model 29s and consider them to be the "Uber .44".

The favorite being a 29-2 that started as a 8&3/8 8ths" gun. I sent it to SDM FABRICATING, where the barrel was trimmed back, and the wide serrated trigger was narrowed, serrations removed and polished smooth. I also had them set the front sight base up to use interchangeable front sights like on the DX series.

Though I own a 329, the 5" 29-2 is my idea of a perfect packing .44 Magnum after 25 years of owning and shooting .44s.

This waskilly wabbit got his head made into a canoe at 60 yards last week while elk hunting.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/Mobile%20Uploads/photo-2_zps9ca635cc.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/Mobile%20Uploads/photo-2_zps9ca635cc.jpg.html)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/P1000384_zps06f31ec1.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/P1000384_zps06f31ec1.jpg.html)

[Lost River]

Forgot to add that the elk pic is a couple years old. The elk this year was dropped with my Sako TRG, and was a cow. A tasty cow.. :)

[Ron3]

Damn that's a beautiful revolver Lost River!

As for the OP, I don't think what your friend is looking for exists yet. Those lightweight magnums are not fun to shoot without proper gloves. But that's no big deal, just get proper gloves for practice and enjoy the light weight during hours of carry.