Originally Posted by FordTruckGuy

The story goes like this.

The 41 mag was set to debut and the ballistics were fabulous. Then suddenly, the movie Dirty Harry came out in 1971. Then the line by Harry Calahan (Clint Eastwood) went like this: I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? Once the audience heard that line, the 44 magnum sales skyrocketed over night. You couldn't find a model 29 anywhere. They were just gone said a friend of mine that owned a gun shop back then. That friend of mine is 73 today. And what was left on the shelves? You quessed it. The .41 magnum says my friend.

The .41 magnum has superior ballistics, however because of the fact that nobody wanted a .41, research to develop different bullets stopped. That is why there is such a small selection of .41.

In my opinion the .41 is a better performer that the .44. I have shot both for 30+ years. If one of the bullet manufacterers would begin developing performance bullets for the .41, I believe it would begin gaining popularity.

One last note. When the movie Dirty Harry was being filmed, the first half of the movie was shot with a .41 magnum. The second half, they finally got the .44 magnum and finished the movie with the real gun.