And nothing else is magic either. But, some 41 Mag users seem to believe it is promoting it being more accurate, flatter trajectory, better killer all with the recoil of a 22 ! Unfortunately not everyone has the experience, equipment or ability to evaluate these type of statements and blindly believe and repeat them.
Since its likely few of you were around when the 41 was introduced let me tell you of my experience with it. Introduced with the normal HYPE about the cartridge as a world beater it was also intended to replace the 38 Special to become the next Police cartridge with a 210 grain soft lead flat point at about 1000 FPS it was sure to be a terrific man killer. Being young I always sort of hopefully swallowed the hype and had to have everything new. John’s Gun distributors in Indianapolis called to tell me they had beautiful, bright high blue 6” S & W Model 57 and ammo in stock. New speed record got me there to buy it and a couple boxes of ammo, dies, plus some bullets. Got home and checked it out. Typical Smith. Really looked good. Had been shot at the factory. Single action pull; typical—decent—not great – will need a trigger job. DA which I really didn’t care much about again typical and pretty heavy—about like the new condition one in the photo. Wiped it down, put a couple drops of oil in the right places. Couldn’t wait till Saturday to try it out.
Saturday—met Lee Jurras at his place and we hi-tailed it out to Ballistic Lab #1. Tacked up a 25 Yard Slow Fire target and from a rest proceed to carefully squeeze em off. Lee quietly watched, After 12 rounds he said “J what the hell is wrong with that thing?” “Dunno I replied, maybe its the ammo”. We walked up and examined the 12 holes in the target with about half in the black and half in the white. No point in trying to adjust the sights as the target looked like it had been shot with 12 ga. Double Ought Buck.
Checked the barrel and found the normal jacket fouling and nothing else of concern. Lee popped off a dozen with about identical results. After giving the rest of the ammo the usual testing to get the empties we figured it had to be the ammo. During the next week I loaded a variety of ammo using the 210 Sierra, which is still a very accurate bullet. A hundred empty cases later and targets showing a little improvement but still really lousy accuracy we were stumped. Shortly afterwards a 4 5/8 in Ruger 41 was added to the arsenal and Remington 41 ammo tried in it. At 25 it wouldnt stay in the black 100% but did stay in the 10 ring with several handloads. Ok this is more like it. Poor accuracy factory ammo and a poor accuracy S & W. At least we had an answer. Got rid of the S & W and replaced it a few years later. Guns and ammo got well but the police aspect of it failed miserably. I knew one cop who used the 41—a S & W 4” fixed sight gun with 170 grain Sierras at 1400+ FPS, none other than Walking Tall Buford Pusser. I know that’s what he carried as I loaded the ammo for him. His death in a car accident was controversial but he simply tried to fly his T bird around a curve a bit faster than it was capable of doing.
Ok –as a police round it was dead before being born. Hi Cap 9 MM autos took over that job primarily due to the S & W M 39 and a bit later M 59.. Initial sales of 41 Mag guns and ammo looked decent but fell off to barely enough to keep it in production. A few Silhouette shooters took to it but It never really became popular. Same deal with hunters. I worked it out pretty strongly on hogs –pardon me—on Wild Boar and felt it considerably less effective than the 44 Mag.
In general I found about the time the velocity got interesting I either ran out of powder space or into too much pressure. It simply can’t keep up with the 44 handloads. Try matching the 41 to 1500+ FPS with a 320 grain 44 in a Redhawk or Super Redhawk. Putting It into a 10” T/C improves velocity a bit but not substantially although I do like my 41 Mag sub sonic silenced in a 16” T/C. Putting that 210 grain into a 444 case (411 JDJ) in 14” Contender turns it into something else entirely at about 2400 FPS. As a matter of fact in the Auto Mag pistol I would say the 41 JMP (Jurras Magnum Pistol) was my favorite. I don’t see any real difference between the 41 and 44 as far as accuracy is concerned either.
The 41 pictured is my old refurbished Ruger. I always liked fairly short barreled single actions but for hunting preferred 6 to 7.5” barrels. The sight radius and my personal ability to see them favored longer barrels. Now after cataract surgery which I chose long distance lens I can now on a good day sort out the sight fuzz and do decent work.. Let me modify that a bit. Shoulder replacement has lessened my trigger control. Age has deteriorated my strength and bar bell workouts haven’t helped much. Occasionally shooting at a 50 yard mud clod just about the time the trigger breaks I will have a sudden arm tremor and often miss by 3 or 4 feet. Something to look forward to with old age, guys. Other days I can’t see sights for squat.
So where does the 41 mag fit. Well, wherever you want it to fit. At reasonable ranges it will kill pigs and deer with the right bullets about as well as you are capable of pointing it at the right place. Its a hell of a lot more effective than 357s but a bit slower to recover and shoot a second time. Not many hunters need any more than that. Many individuals will consider the 41 much more pleasant to shoot and therefore more effective than a larger caliber for them. Contrary to the naysayers it isn’t just a popgun either. Seems most shooting I hear about is done from a blind and ranges are short enough a long handled club might be effective too. Frankly until I was 82 I had only hunted from a blind when I was restricted to one a few times. Then Doc Rogers told me about Cave Mountain and Jane and I gave it a try. While it isn’t my favorite method of hunting we enjoyed it and I’m physically capable of doing it. Most of the deer seen were trophy class and several friends joined us for a few pleasant days in very scenic rough West Virginia country.
I recently purchased a like new 4” Smith 41 Mag and put a dot on it. Having a decent supply of old factory ammo I found it quite pleasurable to shoot and more accurate than me, however any target I can see out to 100 yards is in danger after a Nelson Ford sa trigger job. Then summer and 115 degree temperatures hit.
I purposely stayed away from discussing optics as that is another subject entirely. In closing I would like to say if you don’t know the anatomy of the animal you are planning to shoot get some life size archery targets that show the individual organs and learn their location from different angles and which ones to shoot. Then consider how much of the target iron sights bloc out. Think a little. Shoot a lot.
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