I own three .41 Magnums. A 4" M657, a 6" M57 and an 8&3/8" M57. And just last week Mr. Lapell put me onto another, as new 6", that a dealer up his way was offering.
I also have a 7.5" Redhawk .44 Magnum. The only advantage I can see for the .44 is the 273 cast semiwad bullet I cast for it as a heavyweight. The heaviest I cast for the .41s is a 220 gr. semiwad. I much prefer the .41s! A lot of it is probably sort of a snob value, I guess. .41s are hard to come by. The other thing is the fact that the .41s are Smiths. Much prefer them over any Ruger I've ever owned!
I also have and shoot about eight or nine .38/.357 Smiths, mostly N frames, and I'm continuing to buy them, too, as a sort of hedge against inflation. Mr. L put me onto an as new M28 from the same fellow! These N frames loaded with Elmer's 172 gr. Semi Wad are very pleasant shooting for most uses. Probably shoot them more than any of the others.
But, if I could only have one handgun, it would be an M57 with a 6" barrel like my old one on top in the pic, loaded with a 220 gr. Keith bullet in front of 9 gr. of Unique! (Excuse the poor pic! Need to take some better ones.)
Dick
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