S&W Model 41 Project

[Rick Bowles]

I finally got my shooter Model 41 finished and I'm tickled! The vent milling on the 5-1/2" Heavy Barrel was done by Eric Kovachic at EWK Arms.

 

[4T5GUY]

That is sweet. Looks great. But I am kinda biased by 41's, especially ones that have been customized.

I have seen "something" like that before.

Jim

 

[wproct]

Nice! And I like the plating on the frame and slide also.

 

[les.b]

Rick,

That would look super paired up with a nice Randall knife, if a fellow knew where to find one!!

Seriously, that is a fantastic project, from concept to execution. Congratulations and thanks for sharing with us!!

Best Regards, Les

 

[ameridaddy]

Very tasteful, pretty piece!! What kind of wood/brand are those grips? I want a set!

 

[kidcom]

I finally got my shooter Model 41 finished and I'm tickled! The vent milling on the 5-1/2" Heavy Barrel was done by Eric Kovachic at EWK Arms.

Very very nice. I'd like to know what the cost was for this customization.

 

[03Fatboy]

I really like how that turned out. I toyed with the idea of having my project barrel hard chromed.

Eric (EWK) does great work and is very accommodating. He has been doing that barrel venting for several years now. I don't remember the cost, it's on his website.

I had him do this modification, vent and mill a flat, and tap to mount a Fastfire III a couple years ago. Came out great!

 

[Rick Bowles]

Very tasteful, pretty piece!! What kind of wood/brand are those grips? I want a set!

Those grips are NOS factory smooth Rosewood. The vent milling, bluing and shipping is $165.00. The hard chrome is by Metalife.

 

[series guy]

You picked a hard gun to improve on but you have succeeded. Very nice and tasteful.

 

[Rowlf]

Forward slide serrations like the M41's cousin the Hammerli 208/215 are nice to have too:

The customized M41 I saw with this modification on had been used to set the national Bullseye record.

 

[Barrie]

With all this nice work done on it how does it shoot now? Its really nice to look at for sure.

 

[Tom S.]

Looks great! Now you need to do one with a bright nickel frame and high polish blue slide.

Some may despair modifying an already beautiful gun like the 41, but there really aren't a shortage of them to be concerned about preserving, and I look at it like creating custom cars.

The work on this gun looks great and takes nothing away from the gun, IM(not so)HO. If we had a thumbs up smilie, I'd give it two!

 

[MauleN12VR]

Front Cocking Serrations

Like this:https://imgur.com/agepMtl

 

[Rick Bowles]

Like this:https://imgur.com/agepMtl

That's very cool, I like the oversize trigger guard. I have one on my safe queen M-41.

 

[Rowlf]

Like this:https://imgur.com/agepMtl

Yepper. My M41 slide has very shallow serrations on the rear of the slide. I like the front serrations on my European pistols.

The M41 I saw had been worked over by innovative bullseyesmith Travis Strahan. It also had a deep flute on each side of the 5.5" barrel.

 

[kidcom]

Like this:

That's really nice but to mess with a 41PC I don't know........

 

[Smizy]

that looks great

 

[chief38]

Is the finish on the Frame electroless Nickel??

 

[wlmccann]

Not to steal the thread, but sometime between '78 and '80. one of the gun magazines had 2 articles on modifying the Model 41. One was Bob Loveless of knife fame shortening and lightening it to a field type pistol. The other article was a carbine conversion. I think the carbine appeared in "Gun World". If anyone has or can direct me to copies of these articles I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Rowlf]

That's really nice but to mess with a 41PC I don't know........

You ought to see what the US Army does to Hammerli 208s... new barrels, Aimpoint 9000s, 1911 style grip adapters...

 

[Barrie]

The US Army also has a much bigger play money bucket then all of us here put to-gether. Unlimited ammo supply as well.

 

[Troystat]

Really neat project. The 41 with the field barrel is a beauty as well. Let us know how they shoot.

 

[Tom S.]

Like this:

Who did the work on this?

 

[MauleN12VR]

Who did the work on this?

Who did the work on this?

EWK - Vent rib, Accurate Plating - Hard chrome, owner - front cocking serrations and oversize trigger guard.

 

[WhiteRiver]

Here is mine. EWK did the vent rib and threaded the barrel. Nill grips. Robar NP3 finish.

 

[WhiteRiver]

 

[MikeR90S]

You guys are giving me ideas! I already had Eric do the threaded conversion on my not-original-to-gun heavy barrel. Now maybe it needs a rib too...

 

[4T5GUY]

I forgot all about this thread of posts. All of a sudden I'm getting likes for something I didn't even remember responding to. I'm glad it came back.

I had many questions right away but they did get answered. I did not want to steal or high jack the O.P..

I want one. It seems like an "inexpensive" conversion. I really like it/them.

Although Bob would want me to shoot it more, I just can't bring myself to do that. His, (my,) Loveless S&W 41 Field Gun is still almost new, and I don't want to devalue it. I only paid $816.00 for it on Gunauction so I'm doing OK if I keep shooting it. Some.

I think I should get a modern conversion and shoot the heck out of it, even though the Loveless conversion was just $262.00 on a supplied 41. If Bob liked you, if you could wait, and IF Bob didn't ask for it back, which he did numerous times. According to Jim Merritt, Bob and him only made @ 34 of them so Bob spread them around.

Jim

 

[6string]

The "Gun Digest Book of Pistolsmithing" by Jack Mitchell has an article about this exact style of customizing for the M41.

Jim