Smith & Wesson - Model 29

Here is an American-made handgun--the Smith & Wesson Model 29. This .44 magnum revolver was popularized by Clint Eastwood's character, Dirty Harry Callahan. While, technically, it may not be the "most powerful handgun in the world", this handgun most certainly "could blow your head clean off". Nice piece!

While the .44 Magnum was very popular among shooters for many years after its introduction, it did not come to the attention of the general public until 1971, when Clint Eastwood's character "Dirty" Harry Callahan described the .44 Magnum as "the most powerful handgun in the world" in the film Dirty Harry. While this was not strictly true in 1971 (the more powerful .454 Casull was announced in 1959, and was available in custom revolvers), it still caused prices of the Smith & Wesson Model 29 to skyrocket; demand far exceeded supply, and guns were selling for triple the normal retail price. This sudden surge in popularity elevated the .44 Magnum to "magical" levels, spawning a mythos, such as the (false) claim that the .44Magnum could "put a bullet right through an engine block"—a claim made by Easy Andy, the gun dealer character in the 1976 film Taxi Driver. The .44 Magnum continued to be associated with Dirty Harry's character, including the scene with Eastwood's famous line "Go ahead, make my day" in the 1983 film Sudden Impact.

To read the whole wikipedia article, click on the blog post title or copy and paste this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_%26_Wesson_Model_29