S&W Model 41 Reliability

[Empe]

I have hesitated buying a model 41 because of the many reports I see and read about their level of reliability . There's very little more frustrating to me than spending good $$ on a firearm...particularly one that would be considered a premium firearm ...and having reliability issues with it.
Any owners on the forum care to share their experiences ...good and bad with the Model 41 .

 

[Tom S.]

There have a multitude of threads on this topic.

 

[505Gibbs]

Yes, as noted above do a little homework here on the subject! The newer ones 'seem' to be more problematic than earlier ones BUT there is NO good timeline that I know of to discern 'good' from 'bad'!

 

[Doriangray6]

Several folks I know that shoot competitively have early model 41s and have told me that as long as they rigorously clean and lube them and use quality ammo they rarely have problems and when they do it's usually ammo related.
My S&W 442 is much the same and though it will cycle about any ammo it loves everything made by Eley.

 

[Exaviator]

Doriangray6 has hit the nail on the head. The 41 is built to tight tolerances, so you need to keep it clean, in particular the chamber. So regular cleaning and feed it quality ammo, and you it will give you a lot of satisfaction.

 

[Dave Lively]

I would describe mine as finicky but worth the trouble.

I bought it in the mid-nineties and it had to go back to the factory after it locked up on its first trip to the range which is rare. (Unless you replace the factory recoil spring with one from Wolff and install it backwards. Mine had the factory spring when it locked up).

What is unfortunately all too common is mine is very picky about what ammo it is reliable with. While most 41s do well with CCI standard velocity mine gives me failures about 3 to 5 percent of the time. I keep it clean and tried replacing the extractor, using light lube, heavy amounts of oil, etc. but still had problems. But fortunately it shoots reliably and accurately with CCI Blazer or MiniMags. Not quite as accurately as it did with CCI standard velocity but close enough I would rather use high velocity instead of trying to oil the ammo or use an aftermarket recoil spring.

Knowing what I know now I would still buy the gun again. Once you find ammo it likes they are reliable and accurate. But if you want a 22 that is reliable out of the box look elsewhere. Just remember that while the Ruger Mark 22s are more reliable most people have to modify them quite a bit before they can shoot them as accurately as a 41 does out of the box.

This is based on my experience with my gun. I knew someone with an older one I shot in the 80s which impressed me enough to buy my own once I had funds to do so. I remember that one being reliable but it was also being fed high velocity ammo since there was no internet to tell us CCI standard velocity is the one true ammo for a model 41. But there might be some truth behind the claims the older ones were more reliable.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

I bought mine used , but it came with box , papers , tools , all of it . It dates to 1978-79 , and I shoot it almost every week . I recently bought a 7 3/8 barrel with comp and wow , I wish I would have bought one a long time ago . If you buy an older one and can inspect it , I wouldn't worry about it . If the right one pops up , I'll be the proud owner of another one .

 

[Golddollar]

I had purchased a 1997 vintage Model 41 at an online auction. It was jamming on about 40% of its shots. I picked up a .25 ACP bronze brush and wet down the barrel with Hoppe's. I scrubbed that barrel and chamber from muzzle to breechface. The larger brush was big enough to scrub out the chamber and the reliability of the gun went from 60% to just about 100% with that simple expedient.

 

[madmikeb]

I bought one new in the early 80's. Very reliable for many years. Then it kind of went down hill and started jamming a lot, mostly failure to extract completely. I think maybe I should try what Golddollar suggested and maybe a new recoil spring. I just haven't messed with it or shot it for a long time.

 

[Yendor357]

A Model 41 has a lot of reciprocating mass; It takes a correct recoil impulse to make that gun cycle.

In my opinion, the M41 is built like the proverbial Sherman Tank.

My two M41s run with CCI SV. But the brass doesn’t get thrown very far. I run CCI HV 40 grain solids when I want an extra margin of operation.

Mine work every time. Very reliable.

 

[JwesleyN]

I have hesitated buying a model 41 because of the many reports I see and read about their level of reliability . There's very little more frustrating to me than spending good $$ on a firearm...particularly one that would be considered a premium firearm ...and having reliability issues with it.
Any owners on the forum care to share their experiences ...good and bad with the Model 41 .

I have a model 41 made in 1957 and no problems. Replaced all the springs when I got it.

 

[oneeyedpete]

My 1979 vintage Model 41 is as reliable as any other semi auto rimfire pistol I own. Still has the original springs. Any time you change ammo, you may geta few rounds to stove pipe because of the change. After the first few rounds the gun self corrects and functions flawlessly. I stick to CCI SV ammo, so it is not an issue. Remember, .22LR ammo is very dirty and you do have to clean your gun, but the barrel takedown on the Model 41 makes it very easy to do!

 

[Rick H.]

I sometimes wonder how many people are on the fence about buying a M41 after they visit this website or others. No doubt many of these individuals defer to other pistols such as a Ruger hoping it fills their desire for a decent target .22, but the longing for a M41 is still there. I was one such person and I listened to the hype about buying old as they are more reliable. In my case it wasn't so, I bought old and although the pistol looked great from the outside it was a good looking paperweight. After sticking some money into it and still having problems with it I sold the thing swearing off M41's forever. I try to stay away from dogs that bite me.

A few years later S&W came out with their alleged PC M41 and I fell in love with the looks of the pistol and the convenience of having a Picatinny rail for quickly mounting optics. I cast my doubts aside and bought one. I didn't really learn my lesson I guess. Less than 20 rounds out of it and it quit working. Then the dilemma, try to fix it myself? Take it to a local gunsmith or send it back to the Mothership but remembering the horror stories about sending anything back to the factory.

I opted for the warranty return to the factory. This was at the height of Covid and it took about 6 weeks for the pistol to get back to me. It sustained no damage in this return and the pistol worked much better, but still had occasional feeding issues with CCI SV ammo. It has gotten much better over time and I have discovered it REALLY likes CCI Green Tag ammunition. With Green Tag the pistol is 100% reliable and very accurate. I have fired over 300 rounds of Green Tag thru this pistol with no failures of any kind. I normally don't shoot over 50 rounds thru any firearm without cleaning it, but I did initially push 100 rounds thru this M41 with no problems what-so-ever. For me it was the ultimate test of function.

I currently have a 1 MOA Trijicon SRO on the pistol and I love it. So the bottom line is simple, buy what you think is best, but in my case I tried the vintage route and suffered the result. I then went new, had an issue and used my factory warranty to get the slide lock replaced at no cost to me. I had a Ruger MKIV that I tricked out and later sold when my PC M41 proved it was reliable and very accurate. Nothing in life is completely fool-proof and I expect I will have some rounds that don't function in the future. It is after all a .22 and .22's are known for ammunition issues. The Model 41 is no different in this regard. Good luck on your decision Empe!

Rick H.

 

[Highmaster]

Love the old ones, have a few (37) . Just picked up a serial 29xxx for a lot less than a new one . Look around your local gun shops a d gunbroker

 

[sceva]

I am sorry to say that I think the problem is that gunmakers don't build firearms any longer. They just assemble them.

 

[jjfitch]

I have hesitated buying a model 41 because of the many reports I see and read about their level of reliability . There's very little more frustrating to me than spending good $$ on a firearm...particularly one that would be considered a premium firearm ...and having reliability issues with it.
Any owners on the forum care to share their experiences ...good and bad with the Model 41 .

For eons CCI 40 grain S/V was the gold standard for the M41 in club/ Gallery BE matches. Ely in points races. Since covid CCI quality has dropped to budget ammo levels.

 

[BloodyThumb]

I bought mine in the early 80’s and it was used then. I have shot it regularly since then and now that I have grandkids shooting, it gets shot quite a bit

As long as I keep it clean and a good recoil spring in it, it runs 100%. I picked up a small supply of springs years ago as I do with anything I plan to keep long term.

We live in a time when a lot of newer shooters have bought in to the “perfection” mindset and tend to apply it even to older designs that shoot ammunition that is pretty dirty by nature. So many times I have heard or read the “If I PAY $1000 for a gun it should run forever on whatever crap ammo I put in it even if I never clean it! I should be able to paint it the color I want and bolt on any garbage accessory I want and it should run or it is crap at that price!” line that it gets to just be sad of funny. Mostly sad.

I have no idea if there is really an issue with the later guns, or the later buyers, but if I was betting blindly I will put my money on the issue being more with the later buyers. There may be issues with the way they are made as well, but the new shooter issue is real for a lot of things we hear, IMO.

 

[saleen322]

I have a lot of experience with target pistols but limited experience with 41s and my experience is like many others, some 41s can have issues. I had a 41 with the 7" barrel and it was okay for a target pistol. It was okay accurate and okay reliable. I wanted to put a dot sight on it so I bought a 5" barrel that was D&T for a sight. The 5" was accurate enough but more prone to stoppages so the 41 went to the back of the gun safe. It would have stayed there but I got a chance to trade for some FASs and the 41 went down the road.

Years later a dear friend passed and I received a number of guns through the estate including a model 46 which I had never seen before. That 46 is head and shoulders above the 41 I had. I would never sell it anyway but the 46 is a keeper on its own merits. So my conclusion is the older ones are better fitted on average but you can get a good one, or bad one, in any batch but the odds are more in your favor with the older pistols.

 

[kimporter]

My dad had one that went to my brother who immediately sold it so I had a urge to buy one for a long time.found an old one and it’s shoots my Remington sv ammo great,I’ve had zero problems

 

[Oldsalt66]

I purchased a new Model 41 last year.

Out of the box it was smooth as silk but built very tightly, and at the onset it was finicky with ammunition and only cycled 40 grain CCI standard velocity with any sort of (mediocre) reliability and wouldn't even chamber some popular ammunition.

After a break in period, it now shoots any and all .22 lr ammunition reliably and runs like a Rolex with anything I load into it.

It's accurate and reliable, but it's the only pistol that I've owned that truly needed to be broken in, and I own quite a few at all price points including high end handguns costing substantially more than the 41.

The break in period until "good" reliability was around 500 rounds or so, and perfect reliability was achieved by roughly 1,000 rounds, after which it's been superbly reliable.

I clean it thoroughly and then lubricate it with a few drops of Breakfree synthetic oil after every range outing,

Accuracy was never an issue.

Since it's a blowback pistol there isn't a lot of surplus energy from the standard velocity .22 ammunition to operate the action.

I've seen some shooters in my club "thumbing" the slide too tightly, introducing malfunctions which they falsely attribute to the gun.