I finally got around to making up some .41 Specials. Using John Taffin's work as a baseline, I trimmed some .41 Magnum brass back to 1.160", loaded it with 7.0 grains of Unique behind a 200 JHP. In the photo, the .41 Special is in the middle, a factory .41 Magnum is on the left, and a .38 Special is on the right.

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Vaya con Dios

I finally got around to making up some .41 Specials. Using John Taffin's work as a baseline, I trimmed some .41 Magnum brass back to 1.160", loaded it with 7.0 grains of Unique behind a 200 JHP. In the photo, the .41 Special is in the middle, a factory .41 Magnum is on the left, and a .38 Special is on the right.

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Vaya con Dios

Looks like a good option to go to when my .41 Magnum brass necks start splitting - J.Solo

The round for police was a 210 grain cast bullet moving a 1,000 feet per second. It came out late.
8.0 grains of UNIQUE will duplicate it.
I also, like 5.0 grains of UNIQUE with either a 210 or 220 grain.

Originally posted by MADISON:

"The round for police was a 210 grain cast bullet moving a 1,000 feet per second. It came out late."

Actually, it came out when the cartridge and Models 57 and 58 did, and was considered THE standard cartridge for the .41 Magnum sixguns. Remember, the .41 Mag was designed and marketed primarily as a law enforcement weapon.

The jacketed soft- and hollow-point loadings were secondary, intended to make the new round appealing to sportsmen, hopefully expanding the .41's appeal and in hopes of selling more guns.

For those interested, the 17th edition of Handloader's Digest has a nice detailed article on the 41 Special with tested loads and performance results. Page 12.

By coincidence I was reading it Sunday evening late.

Noah

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Nicht mehr als 30 Zeichen

I used nothing more than a Lee factory crimp die and turned it down some. It worked perfectly. THe hardest part (other than trimming the brass), was expanding the case mouth. My expander die wouldn't turn down that far, but the expander on an old Lee Loader in .41 Magnum works fine, just tap it on and the case is expanded enough. Much better than having to go out and modify a die. Another way is to take a wooden mallet and tap the case into the expander die by hand. Then put the die into a Lee Hand press and put the shellholder on to the case and the die arm at the same time and pull the case out that way. More tedious and I don't want to do any damage to the die, so the Lee Loader is much easier and quicker.

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Vaya con Dios

I've got my gunsmith friend Sam Damewood making me some .41 Special dedicated dies from one of the several .41 Mag die sets that I had lying around. Now I just need to get him to convert over a GP-100 for me . . .

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Now go make God proud...

As a longtime .41 shooter and handloader , I'd like to see .41 Special headstamped brass. Trimming them back won't help at some ranges. Some ranges won't allow any rounds headstamped MAGNUM , not matter how mild the load. Not my club , but I went as a guest to a friends club and they had that rule.

They are from Quality Cartridge -

http://www.qual-cart.com/41_Special.htm

For some reason, I'm absolutely jonesing for a 41 Special. Tell me, doyou have any idea if the 41 has to be a 5 shot, or can you squeeze 6 holes into the cylinder of a GP-100 or 686?

John Taffin had a Smith 586 modified to .41 Special. I think it was only a 5-shot though and not six.

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Vaya con Dios

My 686 is definately Special

The 686 is capable of 6 .41 Special chambers

-2sigs

I Have 54,000 rounds of .41 special brass. Starline with proper head stanp.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

EDITED OUT BY 2SIGS

Starline .41 Magnum brass costs $147.75 for 1000 rounds, shipped. I would just use Mag brass with softer loads unless I had a range problem restricting me from using mag brass, but what do I know?

On the other hand, if the Starline .41 Special brass was reasonably priced then I'll shut up!

Dale53

ddixie884,

Are you willing to sell some of that .41 Special brass? I don't see an email addy in your profile.

Randy

Man, now I know how to set up a Pavlovian response amongst my brother .41 fans! "Oh look! I have a bunch of Starline .41 Special brass in my garage . . . right under the unicorn that Dear Leader Barack sent me!"

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Now go make God proud...

I had 550 of the Quality Cartridge at one time. Had to agree to buy the first 500 to get the ball rolling. There were some delays, so they included an extra box of 50. Sold some off to forum members a few months ago. Now have misplaced what I had left during the move.

I sent Starline an email asking if they make .41 Special Brass. Their reply - "Sorry we do not make the 41 special". Maybe they did in the past?

Randy

try it now. I wish I had only had to buy 550 rnds to get mine.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Uh, I'm probably going to sound like the village idiot here, but why cut the cases back?

I shoot .41 special all the time, rarely shoot .41 mag as it hurts. But I use regular cases.

A long time ago I clogged up the chambers in my 28 by shooting tons of .38 spl wadcutters in it and one day wanted to shoot some .357 mag and it would not chamber. After a good cleaning that was fixed but I still try to use brass that fits.

Besides it seems like a lot of work, and would also increase the pressure, which is ok in light loads I know.

Well, if you've got a conversion of an L-frame (for instance) to .41, it makes sense to have the thing reamed for .41 Special so that you don't inadvertently blow your gun up with the "real" magnum loads in the regular-length cases. After all, you probably paid a bit for the gun and the conversion . . .

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Now go make God proud...

I do!

I only shoot .44 Specials and .44 special reloads in guns chambered in .44 special ( my only one, A 696-1)

I shoot .38 specials only in guns chambered for the .38 special ( my model 36's & model 60's)

The models 629's, 657, 625's in 45 Colt, model 27 5 inch, model 28 all use the brass "Parent Case" the gun was designed for I just lite load the rounds.

I hope that answers your questions

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Semper FI

A .41 Special sounds really nice, but what I really want is a .41 Russian!

Making up the .41 Specials also gave me a good idea what I needed to do with my .44 Magnum brass. I find the Magnum brass alot more than I do .44 Special brass, so I just trim it down when I get some. I picked up 60 .44 Magnum cases recently for $4-, I just took them home and they await the tumbler.

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Vaya con Dios

Erich, how did you know?

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

It's all that will fit in my 41 Special.

I knew there were some of THEM out there, who built your's?

Nice Ruger.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Boxhead, That is a splendid piece of art!! 5 or 6 special .41's?

looks like 5 maybe?

-2sigs

Thanks Tom for the pics, now I'm sitting on the curb waiting for the mail with mine LOL thanks alot it's cold and lonely out here but worth the wait I'm sure.

Can't wait to carry one of these to show people LOL Might even sacrafice one for one of them there key chain deals and ask the guys at Cabelas Gander mountain etc. to sell me more, I love screwing with them fellas that think their so smart and give such dumb responses to questions sometimes... well time to get down off the box

Thanks Dixie and Gary

If you thought I was doubting that the brass existed, you misunderstood me. I was just making light of how everyone got all lit up when the brass got mentioned. It amused me - and since Dear Leader is expected to deliver us all unicorns soon, I just made a joke about another side benefit that we could expect fromthem.

Me, I just cut down my .41 Mag brass. That's a great price on the .41 Spl brass, no doubt.

I still think it's funny how many folks started jumping up and offering to buy the instant dixie mentioned it.

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Now go make God proud...

"High Caliber",
That means those calibers that start with the number"4"

Dale53

I took the .41 Special out with 7.0 grains of Unique under a 200 grain JHP. The camera died due to the cold, but the chrony listed an average of 950-970 fps. Recoil very much like that of a .44 Special or a light .357 Magnum from my Ruger Blackhawk. Shows alot of promise. This was compared to the 1,300 average fps of loads coming from the factory Reminton 210's I was shooting.

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Vaya con Dios

David, have you loaded any cast bullets in your custom .41 cases.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

For a few years, now, I have been loading .41 SPECIAL rounds and not knowing it.
I do not trim cases...
My loads are with anykind of 210 or 220 grain bullet:
8.0 grains of UNIQUE = This duplicates the "Old Police Load".
5.0 grains of UNIQUE for a good PPC load.

I have some .41 cast bullets loaded up, just waiting to get chance to get to the range. (yet another snowstorm on the way). Will chronograph the results.

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Vaya con Dios

David, did you ever try the cast bullets?

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Still working on that Dixie, right now I haven't had much chance to play around at the range with it, since the wife and I are in the process of trying to get a house, and with everything else going on. I have to get some other loads and guns sighted in and worked up, but I have some cast loads ready to go right now. Just a matter of getting out to the range with them.

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Vaya con Dios

Dixie,

Couple of weeks back I sent you some load data on 41 spc cast rounds. Did you get them, have you had a chance to try any?

Last weekend I finally got a chance to use some of the brass I bought from you and they work great! I didn't change a thing in any of the loads I sent and velocities were with in 5% of the ones I got with the trimmed 41 mag brass. Do you have any of the 41 spc brass left?

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Jack in El Paso

Yes I got your E-mail, thanx. No I have none of the .41spl brass left. Thank goodness I have sold off the surplus, and I'm down to the brass I need for the rest of my shooting career.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV