The subject of the 5" 41 bbls has been discussed several times in the past.

41/46 bbl interchange - the 41 and 46 bbls can be swapped on frames if the 41 or 46 slide is used with it. The 46 bbl can not be swapped to a 41 frame/slide due to the lack of an undercut for the wider slide rail on the 41. The 41 bbl can be put on the 46 frame/slide, but has an ugly gap.

Early 41 5" bbls were made as such -NOT 7 3/8" bbls cut. Later 5" bbls were made using 7" bbl bodys cut to length after they had been drilled for UB wgt. Actually 5" bbls ranged from 4 3/4" to 5 1/4" depending on the run and probably varied within runs. They can be found with both ramp and patridge front sites, red ramp, white outline rear, 3 dot F/R. The S&W 46 5" bbls had ramp and patridge fronts. Some came with a military dull finish.

Although some 5" bbls were possibly made due to "bad" 7 3/8" bbls, most were not. Note until the 7" bbl came out, the 5" bbls all had the little "Tit" on the front end. The later ones parallel with the 7" bbl mfg. were counter sunk as is the 5 1/2" bull bbl. and the 7" bbl.

Remember the S&W "RULE" - with S&W there are NO rules. Example - have you ever seen a factory 4 1/2" bull bbl with a red ramp - and on, and on-------

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TOMBECK