Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Best handgun cartridges that aren't popular

.41 Mag
10mm
38 Super
.327 Fed.
357 Sig.
.44 special

Kevin, our lists are almost identical. Just a little difference in opinion on how I ranked the order of importance.
But I'll take the .357 Sig Cartridge over the 9X23, though just because it's a bottle neck cartridge. Which should make it out feed any other round fired through a self-loader, in theory, anyways. Mine's Never Jammed

3 - .41 Magnum - It can do anything a .44 Mag will do. The original S&W 29 was much better as a .41 mag (57 & 58) than it ever was as a .44. Flatter trajectory, better penetration and the bullet is only .009" smaller. So any job you'd do with a .44 can be one with the .41 mag. I often suspected had they designed the cartridge by elongating the .41 Colt that it would have done better because there'd be a ".41 Special". But it wasn't, and the .41 remains the cartridge of fans mostly.

Kevin, I think you meant to say the 41 is .019 smaller than the 44.
The 41 Mag is my favorite revolver ctg bar none. Have 10 or 12 of 'em.

Pete

I said 5.7 and nobody even blinked. I have no idea what the 5.7 x 28 is good for.

Oh man, there are a lot of cartridges that should have been popular but never really took off. Here's my top 5 list of handgun cartridges that have SO much to offer, but just don't seem to have the popularity.

1 - .38 Super. Basically it's a 9mm +P+ with a little heavier bullet. Closer to a .357 mag, but not quite there. As a personal defense cartridge this cartridge isn't really lacking much of anything. Pushing a 147 grain bullet at 1150fps you get great penetration against intermediate barriers, and good, reliable expansion. Put that in a LW Commander with 10 round mags, you have a light, flat, high(ish) capacity powerhouse.

2 - .45 Super. Had Ace Hindman not been so hell bent on getting royalties, someone would have picked this up and made it a legitimate. As it is, analogies were tried kind of half heartedly with about zero success. But the .45 Super is really a fantastic cartridge. It's basically everything the 10mm is, but with a .45 caliber bullet. Over the long term, it can be hard on a 1911, but who cares? And your average .45 Super an still function full power .45 ACP rounds reliably often without even changing springs. So you can have your powerhouse in the field, and a combat master when you're back on the street. Too bad the shooting public never really caught on to this one.

3 - .41 Magnum - It can do anything a .44 Mag will do. The original S&W 29 was much better as a .41 mag (57 & 58) than it ever was as a .44. Flatter trajectory, better penetration and the bullet is only .009" smaller. So any job you'd do with a .44 can be one with the .41 mag. I often suspected had they designed the cartridge by elongating the .41 Colt that it would have done better because there'd be a ".41 Special". But it wasn't, and the .41 remains the cartridge of fans mostly.

4 - .327 Federal. There is only one real problem with this cartridge; the guns. The .327 is a hangunners cartridge, and not something Joe-6-pak is going to "get". I have always pictured this cartridge in one gun, and one gun only. A 4 3/4" Ruger Bisley Single Six with a 5 shot cylinder. That gun would be a delight to carry, and could handily dispatch anything on up to deer at reasonable ranges. On predators, or varmints with the right loads (and good hearing protection), it would be a hoot at a prairie dog town. The other gun I see this cartridge working well in is the S&W Model 15. 7 shot DA revolver 4" light weight profile barrel; would just be slick.

5 - 10mm. This one is such a great cartridge, but people either don't understand it or know about it. Here's the "one" handgun that can do it all, and do so with factory ammo. If you're a handloader, it offers nothing over the .45 Super other than the fact you can buy ammo off the shelf. But if a guy wanted one gun to do it all, a 10mm 1911 with a .22 conversion unit would cover you for pretty much anything you'd ask from a handgun.

Honorable mention - The 9x23 Winchester is a VERY interesting cartridge. Probably the toughest brass case ever created (for anything, handgun or rifle). Ballistics analogous to a .357 magnum but the bullets are sometimes not quite up to the task. Buffalo Bore's .38 Super 147gr load at 1150 is pushing the design specs of that bullet. Any faster and the bullet starts to rip open too liberally. The 1300-1350 that the 9x23 can push the 147 is just too fast for a bullet that was really designed for a 950-1000fps 9mm Luger. It's too bad, because the 9x23 really shines with the heavier bullets. The one saving grace is the Winchester 124gr soft point. The 9x23 is one of the only handgun rounds that will make a soft point really work, and the Win 124 isn't bad. Still, a well constructed 147 would be Manna From Heaven for the 9x23; unfortunately there just aren't many asking for such a thing.

How about 41 Action Express? I like the concept of the straight wall case with higher case capacity than 9mm, and 357 Mag. velocities alot better than the .357 with necked-down design.

Well, I thought we could have a healthy debate jwp475. That's idea went out the widow. Jeeeeeesuuuuus!!!

SAAMI specs. on the 45 Super is 28K. To keep your word you better keep that 10mm under that. It will be less power than a 40 if you do.

Don't want to hijack this thread anyway.

One more thought. Find ONE path of logic and follow it. Just some helpful advice. Not trying to be mean.

You ain't kicked my ass and I doubt that you can educate me. I just do not want a 38,000 psi 45 caliber cartridge in a semi auto handgun.a bit much IMHO. I have plenty of revolvers for those type loads.

If you want a 38,000 psi semi auto then go for it.

I about to compare a 10mm to the 45 Super soon. I will be using a link less 1911, if such existed in 45 call I might reconsider a 38,000 psi 45

I am sure Kevin just had a typo there...but I personally don't care to see people say that cartridges of smaller diameters (loaded to like pressures of larger cartridges) will do the "same" things.

If we get into that habit we end up with a whole passel of cartridges that "all do the same thing".

The .41 Mag is only 0.019" smaller than the .44 Mag (so the 41 Mag does all that the .44 Mag will do).
The .44 Mag is only 0.022" smaller than a .45 Colt (so the .44 Mag does all that a hot loaded .45 Colt will do).
The .45 Colt is only 0.0.24" smaller than a .480 Ruger (so a hot loaded .45 Colt will do all that a .480 Ruger will do).
The .480 Ruger is only 0.025" smaller than a .500JRH (so a .480 Ruger will do all that a .500 JRH will do)

So in essence, we can see here that a .41 Mag is the equivalent of a .500 JRH (since each will do all that the one above it will do).

Is that the case? NO. Is there overlap between any two of the adjacent listed cartridges? Sure. Are they "equal?" I don't think so.