DesignGuy
Member
I recently purchased a new, un-fired Model 41 that has lived on a shelf since it was made in the late 90s. It was dry as a bone when I got it, so I broke it down and cleaned and lubed it as best I could (a Prolix dip is in the near future), but hadn't had a chance to shoot it until this past weekend.
Well, I was able to sneak out for a couple hours Saturday and get the new 41 out to the range.
I have to say ...that is just about the sweetest pistol I've ever fired. It's a very close match to my Dad's old High Standard Citation (which he had done considerable trigger work to). The trigger isn't quite as light as his, but was very light, and extremely crisp.
I started out with a box of .22 SV ammo that was available at the range store (I forget the brand). The very first round out of the 1st magazine failed to feed properly and I had to cycle it out. After that I didn't have any more failures to feed; though I did have a couple failures to fire. I figured out after my 3rd magazine that simply releasing the slide forward left the gun un-cocked. I'm used to my 1911 which is a matter of insert fresh mag, send the slide home, and continue firing. With the 41 I learned that when I change magazines, I need to release the slide by pulling it all the way to the rear and letting it go home; otherwise the gun was not cocked. ...easy enough, and perhaps it's in the manual, I didn't read the whole thing. lol
Otherwise the ammo from the store there shot very well, but consistently low, so I moved the sight up a couple clicks and kept at it.
I took a few different boxes of ammo to the range with me as well, 2 boxes of Remington .22 target that my Dad had left, so I have no idea how long they had been on the shelf. The first box of Remington shot beautifully, but the 2nd box had 3 mis-fires (same ammo, but of unknown date & origin). Each of the 3 I pulled out had a clear hammer strike; they just failed to fire.
Next was a box of Federal bulk pack ammo, some of which my Dad had sorted by weight & OD; he needn't have bothered. While the Federal all fed without problem, it was all over the place (relative to the other ammo).
This was at the 7 yrd. sighting range at Angeles Crest, so take my groups with a grain of salt. (I will add, though, the guy to my left was painful to watch shoot ...seriously painful).
The target above is actually upside-down here as I had just flipped it to shoot level with the (now top, formerly bottom) target and wanted to take a photo before I continued to shoot. The lower target shows where I was at sighting in (and with the bulk pack). The upper target (with the tighter group) shows 20 rds of the good Remington ammo ...you can see a few outliers here as well. ...I'm woefully out of practice.
Eventually I raised the sights another 2 clicks to get consistent bulls-eye at 7 yrds, then headed over to the steell range for some fun out to 100 yrds. Unlike my .45s, you can't hear the ding with the .22, you just have to look for the tell-tale puff of dust which indicates a miss. ...there were very few puffs of dust, even at 100 yrds.
It's really, really hard to miss with this gun; and when I do, I know exactly whose fault it is!!!
Well, I was able to sneak out for a couple hours Saturday and get the new 41 out to the range.
I have to say ...that is just about the sweetest pistol I've ever fired. It's a very close match to my Dad's old High Standard Citation (which he had done considerable trigger work to). The trigger isn't quite as light as his, but was very light, and extremely crisp.
I started out with a box of .22 SV ammo that was available at the range store (I forget the brand). The very first round out of the 1st magazine failed to feed properly and I had to cycle it out. After that I didn't have any more failures to feed; though I did have a couple failures to fire. I figured out after my 3rd magazine that simply releasing the slide forward left the gun un-cocked. I'm used to my 1911 which is a matter of insert fresh mag, send the slide home, and continue firing. With the 41 I learned that when I change magazines, I need to release the slide by pulling it all the way to the rear and letting it go home; otherwise the gun was not cocked. ...easy enough, and perhaps it's in the manual, I didn't read the whole thing. lol
Otherwise the ammo from the store there shot very well, but consistently low, so I moved the sight up a couple clicks and kept at it.
I took a few different boxes of ammo to the range with me as well, 2 boxes of Remington .22 target that my Dad had left, so I have no idea how long they had been on the shelf. The first box of Remington shot beautifully, but the 2nd box had 3 mis-fires (same ammo, but of unknown date & origin). Each of the 3 I pulled out had a clear hammer strike; they just failed to fire.
Next was a box of Federal bulk pack ammo, some of which my Dad had sorted by weight & OD; he needn't have bothered. While the Federal all fed without problem, it was all over the place (relative to the other ammo).
This was at the 7 yrd. sighting range at Angeles Crest, so take my groups with a grain of salt. (I will add, though, the guy to my left was painful to watch shoot ...seriously painful).


The target above is actually upside-down here as I had just flipped it to shoot level with the (now top, formerly bottom) target and wanted to take a photo before I continued to shoot. The lower target shows where I was at sighting in (and with the bulk pack). The upper target (with the tighter group) shows 20 rds of the good Remington ammo ...you can see a few outliers here as well. ...I'm woefully out of practice.
Eventually I raised the sights another 2 clicks to get consistent bulls-eye at 7 yrds, then headed over to the steell range for some fun out to 100 yrds. Unlike my .45s, you can't hear the ding with the .22, you just have to look for the tell-tale puff of dust which indicates a miss. ...there were very few puffs of dust, even at 100 yrds.

It's really, really hard to miss with this gun; and when I do, I know exactly whose fault it is!!!
