Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns for you .41 Shooters....

I doing some looking, the .41 Special brass is made by Quality Cartridge Comapany. They sell the brass to American Custom Ammo 850-689-4553/acrammosun.net

Just an honest question, cause i don't know, why would one want the cost in .41special brass etc. when one could just download .41magnum?
Kind of like the argument for .44special in a .44magnum.

Taken from an article by John Taffin plus a link to the entire article. Its a good read.

http://www.sixguns.com/tests/tt41spec.htm

"In fact, the .41 Special is what Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, and Bill Jordan asked for as the perfect defensive sixgun shooting a 200 grain bullet at 900-1000 feet per second. Instead they, and sixgunners all over the world benefited with a grand outdoorsman's cartridge, the .41 Magnum. It would be nearly thirty years before the cartridge asked for by Mssrs. Keith, Skelton, and Jordan would come along and when it did, it was not in a sixgun but in the form of the .41 Action Express and the .40 S&W and the FBI 10MM load all in semi-automatics."

You are correct Ron...the problem being that since Remington and Winchester dropped the 950 fps 210/LSWC "Police" load no one makes a "target" velocity round for the .41.

Where the .41 Special comes into its own is in a Colt SAA (or clone), converted S&W 27, Taurus Tracker or Freedom Arms 97 that all have short cylinders.

What is a real shame is that there already was a cartridge on the market that if it had been properly loaded would have made the ideal LE and medium game round...the .401 Herter's PowerMag. Would have been the perfect round for the Colt Python/Trooper and one day the S&W 686 and Ruger GP100. There was no "need" for the .41 Magnum but more than likely it was George Herter's name attached to the round that doomed it...

Bob

If I have a .454 and a .460 ... Why would I want a .41 ? Seriously I would appreciate a short answer. I have been looking at .41 .44 and .45LC in Uberti SAA but do I really need one?
Thanks

Well the real answer is no, probably not. I look at a lot of this stuff from the perspective of one who casts bullets, has reloaded for years, and rarely buys factory ammo. And is of the belief that a 200grain something running about 1000fps is just about ideal for most situations in a handgun. And i spend a lot of time reading of how in .40S&W or at least it's big brother 10mm, 45colt, 41magnum, 44magnum, or for that matter in some 44specials i can do that. If I reload.
But, then i wouldn't need all the toys either would I?
I was looking at some 200grain 10mm loads today, and they are in .41magnum territory. Course the 10 can't compete with the 41 in the upper end territory. And the real irony for me is i love the .41magnum, not so much the 44magnum, but like the 44special. And the 45colt which in some ways started it all, and STILL works pretty good.

Where the .41 Special comes into its own is in a Colt SAA (or clone), converted S&W 27,

oops, i have one of those, a skeeter conversion in a 28 to 44special. But that's to big, being .429 rather than .410.

As Bob mentioned, The only real need for 41 Special brass is for a custom built 41 Special revolver.

For someone like myself, who owns only factory 41 mag cylinders, I think it is preferable to load my "Special 41's" in full length magnum cases. I, as I have mentioned many times before on this forum, reduce the internal volume of the case to the same as a 41 Special simply by seating the bullet to the same COAL as a "Special" cartridge.

Usually, at this length, I can crimp just over the ogive of the bullet.

Personally, I have never fired a Special case (of any caliber) in a magnum cylinder. So all I know about it is what I have read in the gun rags.

Article after article over the years has mentioned the need to scrub all the gunk off the chamber walls when switching back to magnum loads after shooting Specials.

This problem, real or imagined, is negated if one shoots all of his light loads in magnum length brass.

A reason to want a 41 special
One by Alan Harton and one by Andy Horvath





Ronnie

+++ That's what I'm talking bout
Beautiful

I shoot a 41 Special that Alan Harton built for me many years ago. It is built on an Old Model Single Six. Back then an enthusiast of the round had Starline make a run of 41 Special brass. I bought 500 from him then for a bit more than what 41 Mag brass was selling for. A fun little piece.

and this discussion reminds me of a double action colt i got stashed away, circa 1889, something like that, in .41 long colt.
I believe billy the kid used one.

...guess it just "depends". I've owned just about everything from a .22 Jet to a 500 S&W. While I love the .454 it is just "too much of a good thing" as a friend of mine once described his FA .475. It was one of the most accurate guns I have ever owned but 20 rounds in one session was all I could tolerate.

With an identical .41 Magnum even with top end loads far beyond factory I can shoot it as accurately all day long with no flinching or discomfort.

And since the .41 will kill anything that I am ever going to run across two or four legged why damage my wrists and elbows, which is exactly what the .454 was beginning to do to me.

And yes I could have shot .45 Colt from the .454 but I shoot the .41 much more accurately than the .44 or .45.

So that is why I settled on the .41 vs. .44s, .45s or .475s...

Bob