The .41 Magnum is one cartridge that is definitely misnamed. It should never have been called that. "Magnum" is a poor handle to tag on any cartridge in this day and age. I mean, look what it has been stuck on - - - the .32 Magnum!? My gosh. Sure you can handload it to higher pressures, but you can do that with most any cartridge in a decent gun. I am thankful the .454 was never tagged with the word "magnum". Oh, some have called it that, but it has never been designated that. No, the .41 should have been named something else.

Introduced by Remington in 1964 during the momentum of the "magnumizing" of handguns, the .41 was the result of work by Bill Jordan, Elmer Keith and Skeeter Skelton. They had long advocated a medium-bore revolver for Police work. Remington introduced the cartridge and Smith & Wesson introduced the sixgun. With Elmer Keith's help, Tom Ferguson got the San Antonio Police Dept. to adopt the Model 58 S & W revolver as their service gun. That it proved a good choice is shown by the fact that in it's career with the SAPD, during some 26 gunfights it was a particularly singular one-shot fight stopper. Interestingly enough, the bad guys who were not killed immediately during the fight usually recovered. As Tom Ferguson said, that suited most of the Police Officers just fine.

The .41 should have been called the .41 JKS (or KJS or SKJ or....) for the men who did so much to bring it into reality. It was almost named the .41 Keith in San Antonio. When the guns were being ordered, someone on the committee objected to the fact that the gun was marked "Magnum" on the barrel. I guess you don't want to "mangnumize" bad guys, or maybe it won't hurt so bad if the gun is not marked that when you are shot with it or something? Anyhow, Tom Ferguson called S&W and they said for $200 they could mark the barrel ".41 Police". Tom and one other officer held out for ".41 Keith:". The City Fathers decided $200 was too much to pay to have the guns remarked, so Tom and the other officer offered to pay for it out of their pockets. That too was stopped. But for a moment there it looked like we could have had a .41 Keith. The old man deserved it if anyone did. Too bad he never had a handgun cartridge named after him.

I never owned a .41 until a few years ago. I had shot one on several occasions but just never paid it much mind. Sort of like most shooters today. When someone mentioned the .41 I had I "ho-hum" attitude. And if someone talked to me about it's capabilities and how it performed I went into a MEGO (My Eyes Glazed Over). However......after owning and shooting one awhile I suddenly became a Convert!!!! I mean, I shot the smallest group at 100+ yards I have ever fired with an iron-sighted handgun. 3 3/32" center to center for 5 shots. The largest group of the day at that distance was just over 4"! Man was I happy. And easy on the wrist? I could run 235 gr. bullets at 1500 fps with little recoil. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.

Lately I have been playing with a Freedom Arms Model 654 .41 Magnum that was customized by Magna-Port™. This beauty boast a 2 x 6 power Bausch & Lomb Elite 3000 scope, porting, special barrel crown, and is just about the prettiest thing you have ever seen. Made up for the 1998 Outstanding American Handgunner Awards Foundation, it was won in a raffle by Trudy Adamovich. Anyhow, I have been playing with it some and find that if you cannot hit with it, you are doing something wrong.

I have shot mostly handloads through it. And most loads that I have tried will hit a quarter at 25 yards every time if you do your part. The only factory loads I have run through it so far are some Cor-Bon loads with the 265 gr. hardcast bullet. At 1325 fps these are not light loads. None of the loads I have fired so far are over 1500 fps. They are plenty for what I have to do in Missouri.

So, to get back to the opening of this peice, what should the .41 be called if we do not call it the .41 Magnum? Well, "magnum:" is going to stick on it since it had been officially named that for so many years now. It can be called "great" . Or "excellent". Somehow "41 Excellent" just does not have the ring of ".41 Magnum" though. And since it ain't the .41 Keith I guess we are stuck with it. Maybe it ain't so bad after all................

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.