Here's my chance to speak my mind on this subject. Being 61 years old, I can still remember the introductry ads employed by S&W in Outdoor Life in the spring of 1964 when I was in the 7th grade. A big M57 4" firing a round with sparks flying everywhere. The 41 Magnum was introduced, not to compete with the 44 Magnum, but to replace the 357 Magnum(and more importantly, the 38 Special) in the hands of police officers, deputies and troopers that were on the front lines dealing with criminals in cars and shoot outs. As formerly stated, Keith, Jordan, and even Skeeter, had a hand at convincing Mr. Hellstrom to come out with the M58 as a lawman,s gun which put big medium velocity bullet down range to better the 38 Special and without all of the 357's noise and blast. The 210 gr. lead police load did exactly this. Never mind that the 44 Special and 45 Colt had been doing this for decades. Everyone knew that these were not modern police rounds. The M58 did all of this in a traditional inexpensive package. No, younger readers, it was not the semi auto craze of the late 80's and early 90's that spelled the doom of the 41 Magnum. The 41 Magnum is a professional shooters gun, a gun a trained officer can learn to shoot very effectively if he wants to. Most officers are not shooters and at the time had just fell in love with the petite M19 357, which is and was a fine handgun. Everyone else was fine with a m10 or M15 in 38 special if it was an issue gun. Back in the sixties, departments didn't upgrade guns every 5 years just to have the newest toy. By the time the auto craze came about the 41 magnum was finished as a police round, due to the Magnum loading and the Magnum stigma applied. I've been around 41 Magnums since the mid sixties. A school chum's Dad had a 6 1/2" Blackhawk that we shot with handloads and I've had more S&W's that I can remember. Presently, I have 10 S&W's, 2 Rugers, and a Marlin carbine and have alway been well satisfied with just about any M57. I agree that they are the perfect match, cartridge to frame size. I've never seen an abused M57 and the early guns match any M29 in fit and finish. To me, it boils down to this, the 41 Magnum is just a more user friendly cartridge if one wants a magnum N frame. I prefer a 44 Special for shooting .429 bullets. I just got in 1000 Starline brass(41) today that I ordered last week, so components are not hard to get. Bob!