Ode to the 629

I have been traveling since Tuesday and hence no time for posting. But on my return there's my leetle friend, the Smith and Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum (my wife picked it up from the gun shop while I was gone).

A few comments, in no particular order (actually a false statement; clearly there's a particular order, so hear it here first: all these years folks have been fibbing about the non-particularity of their particular orders).

1. It weighs as much as a kitchen pot half full of water.
2. The chambers are so large that I can get a good portion of my pinky finger into them.
3. Pointing it at yourself in the mirror gives you the heebee geebees (even, obviously, when verifiably unloaded).
4. It's barrel-heavy, with the 6" barrel. Tweaks the wrist a bit. The 6" barrel is I think shortest allowable for hunting. Moose. Or bear. It's Palin Friendly as we now say.
5. The grip is slightly small, although not unreasonably so.
6. It seems for all the world like a gun of such heft that one could make a plausible case that even absent ammo, it could still function as a formidable weapon.
7. My mother-in-law likes it. Really.