Bought my 5.5" Model 41 new in late 2000 with the goal of eventually shooting it in bullseye. Had used a MKII for a few years in local club matches and my bullseye shooting friend said for a lot of shooters the 41 was step up over the Rugers.
And out of the box it was as it should be for the price. The 41 did not require a trip to Clark Custom Guns to get a trigger pull suitable for one handed shooting as the Ruger did. But like chief38 mentioned above upgrading a Ruger trigger won't break the bank.
I did get to the point where I shot the 41 maybe slightly better than the the MKII. As to true mechanical accuracy testing both off bags with optics resulted in very similar results with the 41 a very slight edge at 50 yards.
My bullseye friend said for a lot of shooters the 41 was a more ergonomic pistol the Ruger. And he eventually won a 22 bullseye championship at Camp Perry but did it with a Pardini.
As to new production Smiths l would NOT buy one. Bought a Smith Shield Plus last year that would not allow two separate optics to zero that had been fine on 3 other pistols. Smith's customer service answer was to contact the sight manufacturers. Really?
Realize the Shield is a totally different animal than the 41 but they are still the same company and would hate to go through getting anything resolved if I had a problem Model 41.
My worst online order, so far.....
