"I guess my question remains, does it offer something the 44 special, the ACP or 45 long colt does not (other than a smaller package)?

Any Forum members here presently shooting one of these? Would the L-frame handle this cartridge with a 6 shot cylinder?"

S&W has made six shot .40 S&W revolvers on the L frame. The .41 Special is barely thicker and no longer. I believe that there are some 6 shot .41 Special conversions running around the archives of recent handgunner literature.

How they would hold up would be strictly a fuction of how the shooter loaded his ammo. A 200-210 grain bullet at 800-850 fps with fairly fast pistol powders should be plenty mild enough.