Another Model 41 question

If you want to have work done on it don't send it back to S&W, there are several good gunsmiths mentioned on the bulleye.net forum that do wonders for model 41's. If yours is still acting up after a 1000 rounds there could be several things going on. You might try polishing the chamber, if that does not work I would send it to somebody like KC custom, Clark or one of the others mentioned on the bulleye forum. It is frustrating that a pistol that costs over a 1000 dollars out the door does not run perfectly but one of those gun smiths mentioned will work wonders on yours.
 
I have a M41 from 1968. It is the heavy bbl. with the EFS. I cannot say how it runs, as it has always been a safe queen, and remains unfired to this day. Yeah, at my age, I am mostly a collector. Best shooting 22 pistol I ever had was a High Standard Victor and in my earlier days, I had several M41's. Don't remember any failures and sometimes I shot the cheapest stuff I could find. 69 cents at the big box store. Big Larry
 
For polishing the chamber you can take a slotted cleaning tip on a rod and put some 800 grit emery paper on it and spin it in the chamber. Do not over do it. You could also get a chamber reamer and clean the chamber that way. Sometimes you can just use a brass chamber brush and just scrub the **** out of the chamber. You do not want to change the shape of the chamber.
 
I haven't had time to change the recoil spring yet but did get out to sight in a new red dot sight I bought for my old Model 22A-1 Talo Edition my wife will shoot - she struggles with open sights. That "cheap" pistol shoots great with perfect functioning and accuracy - dime-size 10-shot 25-yard groups from a rest at 25 yards - with SK Pistol Match, Lapua OSP and CCI SV ammo.

By the way, that sight is a Bushnell RSX-100 I bought from Midway for $99.99 on sale from $149.99 with free shipping and I recommend it highly. I just checked and it's still on sale.

I did try a 10-round magazine of CCI SV in the Model 41. That's the ammo with which S&W told me it test-fires all its 22LRs but my experience resulted in 10 failures to eject. Given the disruption with the malfunctions, the group wasn't hateful but with the rear sight all the way down, the POI is all but four inches high. That's another problem I'll have to address, I guess. I hope to have time one evening this week to give it a good cleaning and lubricating while changing the spring from the factory 7.5# to the 7# Wolff. It sucks when work interferes with pleasure!

The seven year-old granddaughter's softball games are excusable distractions though...

Ed
 
New target guns are tight and usually require breaking in .
A model 41 should have at least 500 rounds put through it .
My method is shoot 100 rounds ... clean and lube , then do this 4 more times ...at first 50 rounds may be all you want to shoot ...then clean & lube .
These pistols have tight tolerances and little hand finishing work is done today ... so break it in before you panic .

If you are still having trouble I can highly reccomend Clark Custom Guns in Louisiana , they specialize in model 41 work and did a most excellent target trigger job and reliability package on my 41 ... they even tune the magazines !
Gary
 
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That may be exactly what my pistol needs.

Anyone know a way to do that at home?

Fired brass actually makes a good lap. get some 800,1000,2000 abrasive powder or paste and drill/tap one empty case for each grit. For paste just wipe the brass in the paste and use, for powder you mix a tiny bit of powder and oil (I tend to use tapping fluid). Put it in the chamber and turn 50-100 turns by hand. Clean out the chamber and bore thoroughly between grits and don't re-use laps since the abrasive embeds in the brass.
I recall using a #10 screw size as my handle, but I might be forgetting.
If your chamber is really bad you can start at #400. Work up to whatever grit you have patience for. In my case I found #400 helped things somewhat, and #800 was almost a full cure, past that it does get better still but it's diminishing returns.
 
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