I came across the Elmer Keith commemorative at a gun show the week before last.  I purchased it for an incredible price, unfired with the box, the cylinder has been turned and the plaque is gone from the box.  The gun is beautiful and I recently found out there is a deluxe, mine is the standard.  Do I keep it unfired and let it collect dust or do I honor the respectable man by firing it and sighting it in as it should be.  So the question I am asking is yes or no? 

Hello 44,
First, Congratulations on your find !   Myself,  I would fire it with only normal 240gr. loads or reloads in the same velocity range,  no heavy Buffalo Bore, Cor-Bon or heavy reloads that might shorten its life.  Thats a fine handgun you bought !  I'd save the heavier stuff for a strong Ruger or the like.  You have to nice of a gun there to shoot loose prematurely.  Just my way of thinkin'.
Take Care,
Chris

You shoot yours and then I'll shoot mine. I was going to wait until the shoot in june and fire it then(maybe). The first 100 had the ivory grips. as for the plaque it was shipped in an envelope in the box never attatched at the factory. Yours was probably just lost.It would be easy to have a trophy shop make one thats close though. I'm glad you got a deal I didn't but I told my wife that I did.

Great gun, good find,Congratulations to you,
The model was manufactured with "1 of 2500" however they produced only 2000 guns the deluxe has imitation Ivory grips and a wreath around Elmer`s bust they were slated to make 500 of these and 2000 standard guns, they reduced production to 100 and 1900 respectfully.
Buy another 29 and shoot it hold the unfired one for a while it won`t hurt a thing!
Small note all guns are test fired for safety before they leave the factory so there really no guns that are unfired unless you build them yourself, I hope this note dosn`t cause a big commotion.

I actually shot mine two weeks ago.  I want everyone to know it shot excellent the sights were undoubtedly setup for 50 yards maybe more but @150yds this baby was ringing the saw I had set up.  I should have made a video of it.  As for the grips I am making a set of curly maple ones right now because I like the way the presentation grips looked and I have plenty of curly maple so I decided to make them but I have an issue.  I need a plastic or metal cast frame because I dont want to use the EMK 29 frame mainly beause I want them to fit perfect.  If anyone can help with that it would be great or if anybody knows anyone who makes them for a decent price let me know the maple I am using is 5 curls per inch .

I spoke to a gunsmith about some kind of plastic inserts that you could use, he said he didn`t know of anything on the market that would fill the bill, what he suggested was to cover the frame with tape so if and when you sand,file,use dremel etc. you won`t mar the surface unless you stay too long maybe a couple layers won`t hurt until you get real close to matching pieces together, go slow and carefully remember what the old stock maker said "you can take it off easily putting it back is a little harder" Good Luck.