mp
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 15
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Post by mp on Apr 1, 2023 20:06:29 GMT -5
Anyone shooting a 41 special? Went through my brass and I have a ton of new starline. Maybe I should buy another one again.
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Post by kings6 on Apr 1, 2023 20:24:33 GMT -5
41 Special is what I carry most often. In fact, I’m having another built right now down in Houston by Alan.
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kb9424
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 52
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Post by kb9424 on Apr 1, 2023 20:54:16 GMT -5
Just picked up my first one a few months ago and boy is it fun to shoot.
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eskimo36
.375 Atomic
Oklahoma
Posts: 2,049
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Post by eskimo36 on Apr 2, 2023 6:13:38 GMT -5
I have a John Gallagher Single Six in 41 Special. Great all around carry gun.
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mp
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 15
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Post by mp on Apr 2, 2023 6:50:06 GMT -5
The one I have now was built by John Gallagher. This was the last gun he built before he passed, in fact it was still disassembled when he passed the Bowen reassembled it for his son. I can’t bring myself to shoot it.
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aciera
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,130
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Post by aciera on Apr 2, 2023 7:26:57 GMT -5
The one I have now was built by John Gallagher. This was the last gun he built before he passed, in fact it was still disassembled when he passed the Bowen reassembled it for his son. I can’t bring myself to shoot it. I’m the opposite……last gun John and I worked on together will get shot |
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fm027
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 73
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Post by fm027 on Apr 2, 2023 9:36:42 GMT -5
Terrific round.. mine is built on a Colt. I think if I was down to one last gun gripped hard in my hand not to let go, it be my single action 41 special for sure
Like that gun alot
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Post by bula on Apr 2, 2023 10:18:28 GMT -5
One of my best, oldest friends is a Charter Arms Bulldog 44spec.. It's thin cylinder walls, to my eye, have kept me honest when it comes to handloading for it. Always thought, if it came out in 41 spec, I'd buy one soooo fast !
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Post by bushog on Apr 2, 2023 10:47:11 GMT -5
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Post by taffin on Apr 2, 2023 11:28:52 GMT -5
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Post by taffin on Apr 2, 2023 11:31:09 GMT -5
Handloading the .41 Special
By John Taffin
One of our best sixgun cartridges is the .41 Magnum, however for some reason it has never received the attention it should have. It is almost treated as being illegitimate. There may be a very good reason for this as the .357 Magnum and the .44 Magnum followed a natural path from their ancestors while the .41 Magnum seemed to show up on the doorstep like an orphan in a basket. It has been treated like a redheaded stepchild for the past 50 years except for those very savvy sixgunners who can see it for the great cartridge it is.
If we look at the ancestral heritage of the .357 Magnum we find the relatively anemic .38 Long Colt in the 1890s and in the very early years of the 20th century it was lengthened to become the .38 Special which increasd the bullet weight by about 8-10 grains and the muzzle velocity went from 750 to 850 fps. I have a very early pre-WWI Smith & Wesson Military & Police with a round butt, target sights and a 6-1/2”barrel. The barrel is marked “.38 Special & U.S. Service Cartridge” with the latter at that time being the .38 Long Colt. Around 1930 the .38 Special was heavy loaded to the .38/44 Heavy Duty which set the stage for the cartridge case to be lengthened in 1935 to become the .357 Magnum.
In 1869 Smith & Wesson introduced their first .44 Single Action with their Model #3 American. The .44 American used a two-stage diameter bullet with the heel fitting inside the case. In the early 1870s when the Russians placed a large order for Smith & Wesson Americans they modernized the cartridge case with a bullet of uniform width and the case was increased in diameter to accept this inside lubricated bullet and the result was the .44 Russian. The Russian was one of the all-time great cartridges but it had an even greater future ahead of it. In 1907 Smith & Wesson lengthened the .44 Russian to become the .44 Special. One of the all-time sixgun mysteries is why they also did not increase the muzzle velocity at the same time; the original .44 Special was a black powder cartridge which basically duplicated the .44 Russian. So although it debuted in the strong Smith & Wesson Triple-Lock it remained for handloaders to bring out the true capabilities of the .44 Special. For about 30 years leading up to the mid-1950s the .44 Special handloaded was the most powerful cartridge available. Then in late 1955 the .44 Special was lengthened just as the .38 Special had been 20 years earlier and became the .44 Magnum. Everything was as it should be with both Magnum cartridges having ancestors they could look back to; and then came the .41 Magnum.
There was no .41 Special. Several experimenters came very close. In the 1920s, at least 10 years before the advent of the first official Magnum, the .357, gunsmith Cyril “Pop” Eimer was offering the .40 Eimer Special from his Joplin Missouri gun shop. Eimer started with Colt Single Actions in either .38-40 or .41 Long Colt. These were chosen as they normally had .403” barrels and it only required a new cylinder for his wildcat. The .40 Eimer Special, also known as the .401 Eimer, was made by shortening .401 Winchester or .30-40 Krag rifle brass to 1.25”and loaded with 200 grain bullets. At the time “Fitz”, John Henry FitzGerald, “Mr. Colt” tried to interest his company in chambering the Colt SAA and New Service in Eimer’s .40 but to no avail.
Two well-known names to handloaders who use cast bullets and study the past, Gordon Boser and Ray Thompson worked with the .40 caliber in the 1930s and 1940s. Boser was a Springville New Your gunsmith whose favorite sixgun cartridge, as so many others at the time, was the .44 Special, however he wanted more than the Colt Single Action offered with this chambering. Using .401 Winchester brass trimmed to 1-7/32”he designed his own bullet, a 195 grain semi-wadcutter offered by Lyman as #401452. Ray Thompson would go on to design four excellent gas check bullets for Lyman. In 1932 Fred Moore who was the Colt factory superintendent chambered the Colt Official Police for the .41 Colt Special using 210 grain bullets at up to 1,150 fps. Remington even supplied the ammunition and although they could’ve had a jump by three years on the Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, Colt declined to offer the .41 Colt Special.
The .41 Magnum came about in 1964 mainly at the urgings of Bill Jordan and Elmer Keith along with Skeeter Skelton who said he was just along for the ride with the other two. The .41 Magnum was supposed to be the perfect cartridge for LEOs, however the guns were too large and the cartridge too powerful. It did not become the latest answer for police use, however outdoorsman and handgunners in the know accepted it readily. In fact, during the early 1970s, when thanks to Dirty Harry .44 Magnums were almost impossible to get, many sixgunners gravitated to the .41 Magnum.
I first met Hamilton Bowen in the mid-1980s and I don’t know which one of us came up with the idea, (probably him), but as far as I know we were the first to go with a .41 Special. I do know in 1987 I shot the first .41 Special in a Bowen Security Six at the Shootists Holiday. At the time Hamilton had never worked on Colt Single Actions so I supplied two 2nd Generation Colt sixguns for his experimenting. One came back as an 8-1/2” .32-20 with S&W adjustable sights while the other was a 5-1/2” .41 Special with standard sights and an un-fluted custom cylinder. Both proved superbly accurate.
Now I had a .41 Special where was I going to get the ammunition? I certainly wouldn’t find a box of ammunition at the local gun shop or anywhere else. This was strictly a handloader’s proposition. There was not only no ammunition there was also no brass, however the brass was an easy solution. Standard .41 Magnum brass was simply trimmed to .44 Special length with no inside neck dreaming required. Bullets were very easy to come up with as many of the standard .41 Magnum bullets, cast or jacketed, work just fine in the .41 Special.
Over the years the .41 Special has gained a very small bit of legitimacy in several ways. It is listed in “Cartridges of the World” using my loading data and there’s been at least two runs of .41 Special brass with the proper headstamp. One is marked Starline and the other is QUAL CART for Quality Cartridge. Perhaps Starline will run another batch someday.
Reloading dies for the .41 Special are no problem as RCBS .41 Magnum dies work perfectly; well almost. I have found it necessary to take some material off the bottom of the crimping die so it will work properly with a shorter case. If one cannot find .41 Special brass only two things are necessary, namely trim .41 Magnum brass to the proper length and do the same with the crimping die. That makes the .41 Special about it is simple as a wildcat sixgun cartridge can be.
As mentioned, as far as I know Hamilton Bowen was the first sixgunsmith to build a .41 Special. In addition to my original Colt Single Action he is also converted a .357 Magnum Ruger Three-Screw Flat-Top to a beautifully finished blued/case hardened .41 Special and also a Smith & Wesson Model 586 is now a 4” double action .41 Special. John Gallagher has come up with the smallest .41 Special by turning a Ruger Single-Six .22 into a five-shot .41. Gallagher also rescued a disaster from another gunsmith and turned it into a 4” lightweight .41. Even though it will accept .41 Magnum cartridges I have never used it with full-house .41 Magnum loads as with .41 Specials and it performs just fine for me. I have found most .41 Magnum sixguns from Colt or Ruger shoot very well with .41 Specials and are whole lot more pleasant to shoot.
Gary Reeder is the first to offer a Production Perfect Packin Pistol. Gary said it has been a while since he premiered a new series, but here it is, and thanks to John Taffin for the idea. So it is altogether highly appropriate the first Production Perfect Packin’ Pistol from Gary Reeder is chambered in .41 Special.
Being a straight-walled pistol cartridge, the .41 Special is just as easy to load as the .44 Special, .44 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .45 Colt, and a whole list of other well appreciated sixgun cartridges. For powders I go with the same propellants I normally use for the .44 Special, namely Unique, Universal, #2400, IMR 4227, and AA9. The goal is not to turn the .41 Special into a .41 Magnum which we already have, but rather to load it at the same levels we normally use for the .44 Special which is from 900 fps to about 1,100 fps. The same Keith or Keith-style bullets which work in the .41 Magnum are certainly apropos to the .41 Special. The two I use the most are the Lyman #410459KT, which Keith did not approve of, and the Hensley and Gibbs 210KT which he definitely preferred. Jacketed bullets, of course abound though not as many as for the .44s, and favorites include the Sierra 170JHC and 210JHC, the Hornady 210 JHP, and most assuredly the bullet which is no longer available and for which I covet the last few remaining ones I have, that being the Speer 200 SWC-HP. This bullet is one of the earlier Speer designs and features a lead core in a copper cup rather than the conventional jacketed bullets. At one time Speer offered these in .38, .41, and .44. Apparently we have become too modernized for these to be offered anymore. This is unfortunate as this was an excellent bullet for both Specials and Magnums.
All of the .41 Special sixguns can be classified as strong sixguns and able to handle all of my .41 Special loads using 200-220 grain bullets over 7.0 grains of Unique or Universal, 12.5 grains of #2400 or AA#9, and 14.5 grains of IMR4227 EXCEPT I do not go over 6.0 grains of Unique with the Oregon Trail 215 SWC in the Gallagher Ruger .41 Special Single-Six. This gives me just over 800 fps which is plenty in this little five-shot sixgun. Dropping down to 5.0 grains results in just under 700 fps and a very tight group of 1” for four shots at 20 yards.
Test-Fire: Custom .41 Special Single Action x 5-1/2” Barrel
Handloaded Ammo Performance
Bullet Powder Charge Velocity Group Size
H&G 210 KT IMR 4227 14.5 gr. 1,082 fps 1-3/8”
H&G 210KT Universal 7.0 gr. 1,000 fps 1-3/8”
Lyman #410459KT #2400 12.5 gr. 1,065 fps 1-1/4”
Lyman #410459KT IMR4227 14.5 gr. 928 fps 1-1/8”
Lyman #410459KT Universal 7.0 gr. 1,025 fps 1-3/8”
Oregon Trail 215 SWC #2400 12.5gr. 977 fps 1-3/8”
Oregon Trail 215 SWC AA #9 12.5 gr. 1,061 fps 1-5/8”
Hornady 210 JHP IMR4227 14.5 gr. 1,083 fps 1-3/8”
Sierra 170 JHC #2400 12.5 gr. 996 fps 1-1/2”
Sierra 210 JHC #2400 12.5 gr. 1,003 fps 1-1/8”
Sierra 170 JHC AA#9 12.5 gr. 1,041 fps 1-1/2”
Sierra 210 JHC AA#9 12.5 gr. 1,048 fps 1-1/8”
Sierra 210 JHC IMR4227 14.5 gr. 919 fps 1-5/8”
Speer 200 SWC-HP #2400 12.5 gr. 1,006 fps 1-1/4”
Speer 200 SWC-HP AA#9 12.5 gr. 1,036 fps 1”
Speer 200 SWC-HP IMR4227 14.5 gr. 997 fps 1-1/8”
Speer 200 SWC-HP Unique 7.5 gr. 1,119 fps 1-3/8”
Speer 200 SWC-HP Universal 8.0 gr. 1.113 fps 1-1/2”
Notes: Groups the product of 5 shot at 20 yards. Chronograph screens set at 10 feet from muzzle. CCI #300 primers used in Starline brass.
Single Action .41s from top right clockwise-Bowen Ruger Flat-Top, Bowen Colt Single Action, Gallagher Single-Six, Gallagher Lightweight Ruger Three-Screw, and Reeder Production Perfect Packin’Pistol.
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Post by bushog on Apr 2, 2023 12:15:27 GMT -5
Thanks Mr. John…. I was just kidding….have 7. |
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Post by 500fksjr on Apr 2, 2023 18:55:37 GMT -5
Great answer...Great Pics... |
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Post by 500fksjr on Apr 2, 2023 18:57:21 GMT -5
Thanks Mr. John…. I was just kidding….have 7. Bushy...Your sense of humor gets you in dutch with the "Elders" at times!!   |
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princeout
.375 Atomic
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Posts: 2,001
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Post by princeout on Apr 14, 2023 9:41:44 GMT -5
I'm growing fonder of the 41 Special these days. This first one Greg had built by Alan Harton on a Single Six base gun. It hung around here for a few years and then went back home to live with Bushog.  Fear not, thanks to Robb, there are still a couple of 41 Specials that live here.  One is a Harton built USFA with Fishpaw musk ox and the other is an Andy Horvath built S&W M-28 with ivory Tim |
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