[JBelk]

I bought my first .41 Mag Blackhawk in 1969 and have never been without at least two since then.

This one is my pride and joy.

 

[JBelk]

I bought my first .41 the first day I worked at the gunshop as gunsmith. The boss said I had a charge account so I paid $85 for a used Blackhawk, old model 4 5/8" Blue. I handloaded it hot, mild and in between and became accustomed to hitting things I aimed at with it. I had it brush nickled and made grips and had a brother in law talk me out of it. He still won't sell it back...at triple what he paid.
As a deputy sheriff, I carried a 4"nickle Model 58, and bought a couple more Blackhawks and eventually bought a lump of rusted river-found New Model Blackhawk .357 6" and turned it into the revolver pictured above. This was late '80s when Ross Seyfried was writing of big, heavy, cast slugs in big bore revolvers and I became a convert with the custom BH. The barrel is a 1-14 Douglas blank and has never shot any bullet but 255 gr. LBT, quenched wheel weights. The sights are one fixed (75yard) and one folding (175yards) zeros and if anybody wants to go $20 hit or miss on a propane bottle at 400 yards. Come on! The range is open.
Penetration on elk sized game and larger is clear through with a ricochet on the other side.

In my opinion, the 41 bore diameter is the first useable long-heavy caliber and gives great case capacity with the longer bullets.
I've got two other .41s that shoots 'standard' 210 Jacketed bullets just fine, but the BH is at another level.

 

[JBelk]

One of the stories about the formulation of the .41 Mag by the major gun writers of the time, was the agreement by S&W to make three models available in the new caliber. According to Bill Jordan and Col. Askins in conversations years later, the third model was to be the Model 59 to complete the deluxe sporting Model 57 and the M&P 4" duty gun Model 58. The Model 59 was to be a compact 'undercover', round butt, fixed sight, 3" barrel.
In 1990, my best buddy called from a gun show with a pretty much ruined M58 that had been pitted and then buffed until it looked like a lump of road tar, but the sideplates were good as was the bore. It was just UGLY. I gave $150 for it and turned it into what I would imagine the Model 59 prototype would have been. THEN, they'd have made it a five shot!

The barrel shortened, round butted, stoned flat and true, rust blued, grips made of Macassar Ebony. All markings re-engraved. Original serial retained.

Its not hard to see why it wouldn't have worked well with detectives. The Model 13, .357 mag at bottom was very briefly the 'standard issue' FBI side-arm.

 

[JBelk]

waiting to see if Ruger/marlin come out with a stainless 1894 in .41 mag

Blood thinners cause cavitation. Please be careful.

 

[JBelk]

Clydester619- Are you a reloader and plan to load for the .41? Due to the kindness of a forum member, I'm pleasantly over-supplied with brass and willing to share.

 

[JBelk]

High quality guns always increase in value faster and go high than junky ones. And they're almost always discontinued due to high cost of manufacture.

 

[JBelk]

Look at the changes in S&W revolvers. The quality of the '50s were gone by the '70s and the milled and case hardened parts were replaced by pressed metal and overall quality by 2k resembles what the Brazilians were making in the '60s. Of course people that love quality will pay more for a 'good 'un' than a brand new one.

 

[JBelk]

I carried a M58 Smith .41 mag on duty for five years but only because S&W didn't make the Model 13 or M65 at the time. I broke two rear sights off a M29 in a month and wanted the M&P style with a heavy barrel. At that time, only the M58 fit the bill.
I also had a Ruger BH in .41 and made a shark bang stick in .41 because I REALLY like the caliber.

 

[JBelk]

The 'bang stick' was a piece of light SS tubing about six feet long. On the working end was a simple, fixed firing pin, fixed breech silver soldered to the end. The chamber was also SS with a couple O rings for friction. There was a cross pin safety, but it was never loaded unless there was a shark coming in. A sharp jab in the sweet spot and the biggest sharks rolled over. They can be made in any caliber, of course. I always had a .41 and ammo with me.

 

[JBelk]

I started reloading .41 Mag in1969 with H-4227 and 200 Speer HP. I moved to the Hornaday 210HP in 1971 and then fully embraced Ross Seyfried's 'hard and heavy' philosophy by build a .41 with slightly faster twist and bought a two cavity LBT mold that throws 255 gr. wheel weight bullets. I load light at 1080fps. Its never failed to put down what it hits. Penetration is beyond belief (Bullet noses smear when they hit concrete under seven feet of water).
I'm zeroed at 75 yards with the fixed blade and 175 with the flip-up.

 

[JBelk]

Now days I just shoot it against the mountainside for fun and money.
I carried the SA for eight years traveling remote corners of the west and got a chance to shoot it quite a bit. It was re-built from a .357 found in the Colorado River in the mid '80s. I finished it in '88.

Seyfried preached penetration as king. I agree. The long, heavy bullets do it in spades. I had the sad duty one time of trailing up a wild horse that had been hit by a bus and had a broken leg. I shot him at 210 steps on the edge of a large, Nevada salt pan and saw three bullet strikes beyond the horse as he crumpled from a high shoulder-spine shot. I dared not stick around for a post-mortem or go look for the bullet. In those days such a shooting, even purely out of mercy, was a very serious offense under the Wild Horse Annie Act.

 

[JBelk]

Kosh said :

The .41 Mag., .44 Mag, and .45 Colt are all capable of launching a 225 gr. projectile at 1400 f/s, largely with the same propellant. The loads, nonetheless, feel different to me in firearms chambered for each, even when of very similar configuration.

I very much agree. I've shot them all and consider the .41Mag as the first of the 'useful big-bores'. The first .44 Mag Blackhawks were absolutely brutal to shoot in the '60s. In GS school a shooting buddy had a Super BH that calmed it down considerably but too much for me. A .357 is brash, loud and obnoxious to me, but the .41 was just right. That decision was made in '69. A M57 was too nice for a duty gun (a short-lived M29 got beat up bad) but a deputy in a neighboring county complained about the heavy duty gun he'd been talked into buying and he was a baliff ! I gave him an old M10 light barrel and a M36 Chief for the nickeled M58 I carried for five years.
I switched to H-110 powder to cut down on muzzle flash in 1970 because a guy that worked at Olin in St. Marks traded me an eight pound keg of it for a 'raccoon-dog puppy.

 

[JBelk]

Yes I did.....partly to prove a buffed/ruined gun could be brought back by stoning and polishing. The 3" barrel conversion is tough. All the extractor parts have to be shortened too.

 

[JBelk]

Model 57 is a finely finished N frame and sold for considerably less that M29 when the Dirty Harry craze hit. Originally, there was supposed to be a Model 58 M&P, Model 57 and a Model 59 pictured above that was never made.