41 Magnum Input

[Seabee CO]

I am looking for comments from people who have a 41 magnum. I am looking to get a S&W 57, but I am leary of getting a 41 magnum. What can the 41 do that I can't tailor a load on a 44 Spl or 44 Mag? I am a reloader so 41 mag ammo availability won't be a factor. I am wondering about performance.

Comments?

[CommonHighrise]

What can the 41 do that I can't tailor a load on a 44 Spl or 44 Mag?

AFAIK, nothing. 44 was simply a more modern replacement for the .41. The 44 became more popular for a reason (power), and the .41 faded to obscurity.

However, they do have a certain cool 'throwback' factor that usually get spontaneous Elmer Keith quotes.

[crazywolf]

the 41 did not start out as a magnum.the 44 was already on the market.it was build to be the top of the line police gun of the day.if I remember right
it was pushed by 2 or 3 of the top gun guys back then.with a 41 cal soft lead bullet at low speeds it was and still is a great stopper.but the magnum craze with running wild so S&W wanted to cash in on it.an then thats when the trouble for the 41 started police got the mag load instead of the police load and it beat them up there were also leading problems.plus there wasn't anything the 44 mag couldn't do better.with no police market and low civilian sales it was dropped from the S&W sales list.another reason to was semi-atuos were takeing off in the police market.it is a good round but if I had to choose I would get a 44 mag.

[41 Redhawk]

What can the 41 do that I can't tailor a load on a 44 Spl or 44 Mag?

Really nothing but the inverse is true too for the most part. You are only talking about .019" in bullet size and about 30 grains of bullet weight. Recoil is slightly less in the 41 but not by much. The 44 will handle heavier bullets a bit better.

The 41 was designed as a magnum cartridge but a mid-range load was sold as well and marketed towards the police. The primary pushers were Elmer Keith and Bill Jordan. They were looking for something that was a better "stopper" than the 357 particularly when car door and such were involved.

[coat4gun]

I used to own one of the titanium Taurus Trackers in .41 mag. At 25 ozs it was a real pain in the hand to shoot.

The .41 will shoot a little flatter than the .44 and will be slightly cheaper to reload for... but not by much.

It is a great deer hunting round if that is what you intend to do with it, but so is the .44.

The .44 is a bit on the overkill side for self defense, while the .41 not so much. It was originally developed as a defensive round.

[homefront]

I have a .41 Blackhawk, a .41 Marlin 1894, and a .44 mag. Super Blackhawk.
The difference in downrange performance is negligible, but the difference in recoil is significant. The .41 has lighter recoil at all velocities due to a lighter bullet. The .41 shoots a tiny bit flatter and has slightly better BC's for a given bullet weight.
The .41 magnum is my "pet" cartridge. Has more punch than the .357, less recoil than the .44 mag., and uses a little less lead and powder than the .44.
However, in a heavy gun like a Super Blackhawk and especially in the Super Redhawk, the .44 mag. is not hard to handle. At under 150 yards, it has ballistics similar to low end .30-30 rounds.

[Dave_n]

I have two Model 57s. One 6" one 8 3/8". Excellent revolvers and if you hunt around, you can buy the "cartridge that never was", the 0.41 Special. Before anyone tells me I am wrong, wrong, wrong....Starline ran a special order of 0.41 Special cases and I have a couple of hundred of them. Loaded to give around 850 fps with a 215 lead head, then are tack drivers, as are their equivalent in 0.41 Mag (the old "Police Load").

I have their companions in 0.44 Mag (Model 29) and in 0.45 Colt (Model 25) both with 8 3/8th barrels. All are great fun to shoot and I only have one problem with each one....they seem to give only one ragged hole in the target, rather than the multiple holes I am used to with the couple of "Tupperware" pistols that I have to admit owning (Glock 21 and Walther P99 in 0.40). Dave_n