I think the only thing that all 41s have in common is that individual specimens have nothing in common. Every one I've ever seen has been a law unto itself regarding ammunition preference and little tweaks that might be needed to get it to run. I've had mine for 40+ years and I got lucky - it seems to shoot just about anything well and runs fine as long as I'm good about keeping it clean, especially around the breech.

While the 41 is unquestionably a fine firearm, the mantra that it's the finest .22 pistol ever built is really a bit of hyperbole. After many years of Bullseye competition with mine I upgraded to a Walther GSP Expert and there's honestly no comparison. The European target pistols (Walther, Pardini, Hammerli, et al.) are in a different league entirely, but of course also come to market at a price approximately double that of the 41, and I suspect that if S&W wanted to design a gun that would compete with them at that price point it could do so.