Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S&W 41-High Standard Supermatic Trophy

Folks ,

I would like to have your opinions of theses 2 pistols for Bullseye shooting .
The model 41 is a 5 1/2" bull . The HS is a 7" fluted .
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Soup

I love the sights, trigger, & grip feel(to me) on the H.S. But 2 I've had were picky about ammo, sometimes a very accurate brand wouldn't function well & vise versa. Magazines can be scarce &/or pricey. Then there's the thing that Hamden guns are preferred over the Hartford ones.

A 41 I once had, & the one I have now function very good with various brands of ammo, a plus. Mags not hard to find.

Both guns are probably capable of great accuracy, so it might come down to which one you shot the best. The longer sight radius on the HS might offer an edge. Might not.

The 41 is probably gonna cost more, if not, one is high or the other, cheap. Or, I just assumed you were looking to buy. If you could try both, they would give the answer.

Hope something of this jabbering helped.....

SW41

Both work, depends on you the gun the ammo.............HS triggers usually need some TLC.

The 7.5" barrel with longer sight radius may be easier for you to shoot accurately, but I still have, & shot a 5.5" bull barrel HS for a long time.

All things being equal, which they are not, I'd still probably opt for the 41.

MM

M41. Most Hi Standards have issues when shot extensively. Now that they're out of production (the newest iteration in Houston went belly-up awhile back), it's hard to get parts, mags and service. Alan Aronstein (also in Houston) works on them and has parts, but it's hit or miss if he can help you. Hi Standards have always had a problem with frame cracking...not all of them, but if it happens to you, you're SOL. Magazines that work will be your biggest issue.

Get a nice, gently-used 41, practice and go forth and win matches.
Bob

I’m a High Standard guy , I love mine

While I think High Standards are very cool, I never did warm up to them. I really liked the Victor, but I have found I can get all of the accuracy, and much more reliability from other pistols. I like the 41 better. I actually like the nicer Rugers better than the High Standards. Personally, I decided to go with the Beretta 76 mostly because I always like something a little different.

I’ve owned 2 Trophy models and 1 Victor, stil have 1 Trophy with both 5 1/2” and 7” barrel as well as the Victor . I have never experienced any reliability issues and they are very accurate.

Just my experience. But I will say when I had my victor, it was the 1980's; and ammo has come a ways since then.

I always wanted a HS. Read about to many magazine problems. Hard to get repaired etc. I went with the S&W 41. Picked up the Sport and the 7 in barrel.

TTT

Wow! Nice pistolas!

Anyone else 🦅

41... have had a couple HS and never really appreciated them. Stumbled on a 41 for a great deal and the remaining HS went away.

Shot a couple TenX High Standards tuned by Bob Shay. They were bug hole shooters with incredible triggers. He talked me through learning to tune HS mags and sent me a typewritten letter on how to do it with little pencil doodles illustrating the instructions.

But though I’d like a TenX or a space gun just because for a high volume shooter I’d take a 41 for durability sake and hassle free mags.

I have both, a 1970 7 3/8" Model 41, and a 1969 High Standard Citation with the 7" fluted barrel. Very hard to say if one is better than the other. Trigger is perhaps better on the HS but out not by much. I prefer the Military 1911 style grip on the HS. As to which one is more accurate, it depends on the day.. Magazines on the HS can be an issue, but I have three that work perfectly. I also have one of the Triple K mags that does not work, even after adjusting. So far no issues with Model 41 mags, original and current production. HS can have issues with using HV ammo, frame cracks. I only use SV ammo so not an issue for me. I also only use SV ammo in the Model 41. I have revolvers if I want to use the Mini Mag stuff.

Of those two, I'd opt for the longer barrel HS just because of the longer sighting radius. HS triggers I've read are excellent, but just for parts availability, I'd be holding out for a longer barreled 41 myself.

Had a HS years ago. Wouldn't shoot well. Traded on a 41. Bullseye - literally.

Funny how things work sometimes - my experience was just reversed. The 41 shot well but not like my Citation. Lots of guys love the 41 but I could just never warm up to the one I had.

PennDog

You may want to ask this question on this website:

https://www.bullseyeforum.net

You will get info from many bullseye shooters.


I had a 5.5" barreled S&W 41 (early 1980's vintage ) and shoot bullseye pistol for five years before I tore my shooting arm rotator cuff. I had some failure to feed/extract issues with that pistol. I shot CCI std velocity in it. I had to send it back to S&W for a rebuild. The extractor was replaced and tuned, and it worked fine after receiving it.

In my bullseye circles, the S&W 41 was a the butt of reliability jokes. They went along the line of: " If you haven't had an alibi yet with S&W 41, just wait, and you will at some point."

Again, after my extractor was tuned, the S&W 41 was solid gold. I thought it was heavy, especially when you put a red dot sight on it. I used an UltraDot MatchDot (30 mm tube).

Another pistol to consider is the Signed/Hammerli Trailside/Xesse 6" bbl 22 LR. Get the Larry Carter trigger upgrade (Larry's Guns website, and also his gun shop in Gray, ME). VERY accurate. Lighter. Great trigger. Fwiw, I sold my S&W 41, and kept my Xesse.
https://www.larrysguns.com/Products...lr__Hammerli-spc-Xesse-spc-Standard.aspx

Never shot a Supermatic. Had a Hamden Victor for two years, but had trigger / ftf-fte issues with it ( and a previous owner had dry fired it with empty chamber - which dinged the chamber rim -which didn't help feed/ extraction issues. Had the chamber touched up with a reamer to address dinged rim, but did not improve it enough. Sold it.)