i guess im a bit more recoil proof them most. Personaly i dont think the 41 or the 44 have enough recoil to even make a coment on. Surely if you can shoot one you will have absoultely no problem with the other. Another thing to keep in mind that if you are a handloader and who here isnt. you can also compare them like this. I can take a 44 250 swc and shoot it at 1100 fps out of a 44 and have at least as much if not more killing power then if i shoot a 210 at 1300 fps out of a 41. Recoil again on those two loads is light enough not to warant comment but the 44 load will have much less muzzle blast. Dont get me wrong. Ive killed deer and pigs with the 41 and it gets the job done but in my opinion its knock down power is closer to the 357 then it is to the 44 and 45 colt. Especially when the animals your hunting get over 300 lbs. Again i have to say i cant see where theres a single advantage to the 41 over the 44. I kind of chuckle at the guys here claiming its a recoil thing. Most of them own fricking 500s and 475s. heck the 357 even kicks less and i dont see all the 41 guys dumping there guns to hunt with them. Sorry guys but theres nothing magical about the 41. Its the 44s little brother and will always be.

I often carry a41 for Self defense against 2 legged vermin. I have tried the 44 and I do like it, but can't recover from recoil as fast with 240 graqin SJHP's. In a hunting senario the difference is meaningless. I have seen little to no difference on deer size game beween the 2. The 41 desrves more popularity than it enjoys, since it is a top performer. The 10mm gets close to 41 mag performance i9n a semi auto, but close only gounts in horse shoe's and hand genades

The first "magnum" or "big bore" I ever owned was the 44 mag. My first was a second year model Ruger Blackhawk....I used that gun for almost thirty years. While all of my shooting and hunting buddies were going from one caliber to another, trying to find the "best", I just stuck with the old 44 mag. Eventually I sold the gun to a friend of a friend who was a collector, and bought a New Model Super Blackhawk 5 1/2"...in.....44 Mag, of course. By this time, I had settled on the fact that the 44 mag would and could do anything I could ever ask of it. I still have that gun, and I modified it a couple of years ago to make it compact and portable...a "back up" piece so to speak. It is a joy to carry. A couple of years ago, I wanted to get into shooting heavy for caliber bullets at moderate velocities, and had thought about some of the new caliber offerings on the market.....in the end, I was right back where I started...with the 44 mag. I now own two Ruger Redhawks (those long cylinders are the icing on the cake)...a 5 1/2" blued, and a 4" stainless, which I am going to rework to my Ultimate Backup design. The U.B. is being built around a 405 grain bullet at a tad over 1000 fps.....a Taylor of 25..... a muzzle energy of 936 ft lbs..... its a powder puff load to shoot, penetrates like nobodies business, and will serve the purpose as a last ditch defense handgun at close range. No more is needed. If I so choose, I could also use this gun as a "camp gun" or trail gun with light loaded 180 grain bullets to fill the pot, or shoot just about any bullet and load in between. I guess the point I am trying to make here is, that the 44 cal has such a huge selection of bullets, that a reloader can just about tailor any load for any purpose....light to heavyweight bullets....low to high velocities...squirrel to elephant....the sky is the limit! I have just gotten to a point in my life where "retooling" for another caliber just doesnt make much sense, when the caliber I have shot for most of my life can get the job done. I have nothing against those that choose the 41 or the 500, or one of those monster wildcat handgun cartridges.... but after well over 45 years with the 44 mag, for me, I need nor want nothing else.

Broaden your horizons, shed those doubty feathers and fly

JWP; No need to "fly".....right now I am in a very happy place! The 44 mag works well with my 444's, and my 44 special...all the bullets interchange, and I have all the dies. Heck, if I got a 41 mag then I would have to buy dies, bullets, and build a 441 rifle to go with it!

I have a Ruger Blackhawk in 41, as well as a blue 4" S&W 57 and a stainless Magnaport custom 3" 657. Good guns, and i like the caliber. Also used to have a 6" S&W blue 57, but traded it off. On the other hand, I have a half dozen 44 Mags, and have had others in the past. I would have a tough time picking one over the other. - dan

With all of this talk about the .41 mag, I need to get myself a M57......

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:
With all of this talk about the .41 mag, I need to get myself a M57......

Yes you do. Long live the 41 mag

I've always thought the N-frame a tad too bulky for the 41 and wish S&W chambered the 41 mag in their L frame even if 5 rounds. The Taurus Tracker in 41 mag seems a tad small in frame it being closer to the K-frame S&W. I'm always afraid it will shoot loose over time. Any Taurus Tracker owners here have a problem with them shooting loose? The Ruger GP100 frame I think would also make a nice 5 shot 41 magnum, very stout.

I have the Taurus 425 in .41 magnum and while I have only run about 1000 rounds through it, I don't see any signs of it shooting loose. I also have a Taurus .357 that has had in excess of 15K rounds through it and it still locks up tight.

1000 rounds? Were they full house rounds? Sounds promising. Here in The Demokratik Peoples Republik of Hawai'i some goofball politician picked a arbitrary 4.5" as the minimum barrel length legal for handgun hunting. I sold a 4" K-frame 357 because I couldn't legally carry it in the field here. I think a 5" barrel 41 mag would be ideal. I think Taurus offers 4" as the longest length barrel in the 41 mag Tracker.

That was a 1000 rounds of 210 grain cast and 200 grain jacketed with a stiff load of 2400.

Yeah the barrel length is only 4 inches but adequate for deer. I took a doe this past weekend - my second with it. Shot her at about 40 yards. About like hitting her with a 30.30. She ran about 75 yards.

I got my first .41 back in 1971, a Ruger OM BH with 4 5/8" barrel. I carried it for 10 or so years, putting the old Speer 1/2-jackets, 200gr and 220gr, through it with cast 210gr SWCs as much as I could.
I later got a brand-new 8 3/8 nickle M57 and put a LOT of jacketed HPs and SPs though it as a handgun sillywet competitor.
Finally, I found what I was seeking. an M57 6". I've, in the ensuing years, put over 10K through it. Much has been jacketed 170gr HPs through 220gr SPs, but the most has been cast. I've molds that are for 170gr TCs, a couple of 210gr SWCs(one hole in each HPed) and 240gr SWC.
To say that I'm a fan would be an understatement. If I had a .44, I'd have done the same thing, but when I bought my M57s, The Dirty Harry Syndrome was in full swing, and M29s were well out of my reach.
The belief that a .41 is inferior/superior to a .44 is as accurate as saying a blonde is superior to a brunette. Individually, one may be better than another individual, but that's it.
I'll take my .41 and my brunette(she's been around as long as my .41, and is no longer a brunette.)LOL
Have fun,
Gene

And another 41 fact:
It is what Dirty Harry carried in one of his movies. Said it was a 44.
Duck and cover!!!!!!!!!

I am not a 41 mag guy but I am curious if anyone has any thoughts or remembers the 41 Action Express? That was sort of like a 40 or a 10mm though shot a .410" bullet. I wonder how it would have helped the popularity of the 41 magnum if our autos became .41" instead of the .40 that they are now?

Smallfry;
Hope your haitus was self imposed and the reason has left you in a better place.

41 AE was a retrofit to my daughter's Belgian Browning High Power. Dropped in and flew.

The determining factor was cost, and time. She liked to shoot a LOT.

That was about 20 years ago. I liked it but the rule was, she would like a gun and say"Wow Dad I really like that Bisley or High Power and I'd fold and give it to her.

She liked the HP and when she went shooting with friends, they could buy their own ammo.

Now I,m gonna' go look for a Canadian HP to convert..........

quote:

And another 41 fact:
It is what Dirty Harry carried in one of his movies. Said it was a 44.

Well, we've GOT to hear the rest of that story...I did however hear that in one scene in Magnum Force he was carrying an SW that was longer than his usual 6 1/2.

And in Sudden Impact there was a scene where he got so put out with malfuntions that he threw his Auto Mag into a lake and they had to send down a diver.

Btw, I've had two of those Model 57s in 8 3/8. I regularly hunt with one. It's in nickel and has ebony grips. I have just one other .41. It is what's just maybe the only .41 Magnum in an autoloader..the Auto Mag in caliber .41 JMP.

I've never heard of that .41 Action Express. But here's what Wiki says - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.41_Action_Express. Given the fps, it doesn't sound like a magnum.

Shack;

You are right, the 41AE is no magmun. But in the HP it was just SO natural to shoot for me. I just knew the pistol so well. My daughter liked it more. :-)
A 40 S+W but no 10mm. Brass was a pain at times, but it was more than a 9mm in the HP.
Anybody got a HP for sale????