Six Decades with the 41 Remington Magnum

by Shane Jahn

The grand 41 Magnum turned 60 years old this year. Originally it was designed to bridge the gap between the 357 and 44 Magnums, and that’s exactly what it did. The .410 caliber 41 Magnum debuted in 1964 and was chambered in Smith & Wesson’s strong Model 57. Let’s look at the reason for its development and some of the men who were behind the 41 Magnum before we get too far.

Up until the later part of the 1970’s, much of law enforcement was issued revolvers chambered in 38 Special. Elmer Keith had little use for the 38 Special cartridges of his time, and only a little more for the powerful 357 Magnum. To be fair, bullet technology today is head and shoulders above what was available during much of Mr. Keith’s lifetime. And to be honest, it’s obvious the ol’ grizzled gun writer liked plenty of power in everything he shot and preferred handgun calibers starting with the number four!

To Elmer, the 44 Magnum solved any performance issues in handguns-period-end of story. He had no qualms firing heavily loaded 44’s in his beloved Model 29’s and saw no reason why anyone else would either. The only problem was, there were a whole lot of folks

Elmer Keith, early proponent of .40 caliber weapons for law enforcement

who carried guns then, and a bunch who carry guns now, that cannot tolerate recoil like Elmer Keith did, nor shoot a handgun like he could. Elmer was devout in corresponding through letters with readers, and he had received many over the years from lawmen relating the ineffectiveness of the old 38 Special loads. In a 1964 Guns & Ammo article he wrote that the consensus among knowledgeable and experienced peace officers was that they needed a cartridge of at least .40 caliber weighing 200 grains that traveled at 1000 feet per second or more to get the job done. He further mentioned many had asked for a .41 caliber police gun and load. Enter Bill Jordan.

While Mr. Bill seemed quite pleased with his S&W Combat Magnum (M19) in 357, that had been on the market since 1955, he was also a proponent of an additional, larger caliber handgun round for law enforcement. He detailed in a 1981 letter to Colonel Rex Applegate that it had been proposed that a stout 44 Special load, namely Elmer Keith’s load of 18 grains of 2400 under a 235-grain hollow point bullet, just could have been the answer to

United States Border Patrol Agent and sharpshooter Bill Jordan

solving the mystery of a better police round. Ammunition companies would not go for it. So,

after Jordan convinced Keith that “everyone” could not comfortably handle the 44 Magnum, the two of them teamed up and cornered the Smith & Wesson bosses at an NRA Convention. After eloquently stating their case, they got them on board to produce the gun with the stipulation that someone had to also agree to produce the cartridge. Remington officials stepped up to make the round. In a nutshell, that’s how the S&W Model 57 in 41 Remington Magnum finally came to be. The fixed sight M58 came along a bit later and today it is a highly sought after sixgun.

The N-framed 41 Magnum was not an instant, overwhelming success for a variety of reasons. Some did not like the size of the gun. Others were turned off by the magnum loads and a few just didn’t understand why we needed a cartridge hotter than the 357 Magnum and less powerful than the 44 Mag. You just can’t please everyone!

In my opinion, an opportunity was missed for 41 Magnum perfection by chambering it in the heavy N-frame. To be fair, this was 16 years before S&W bridged the gap between the K and N-frames by adding the L, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t do it today! Don’t get

Smith and Wesson Model 57 in 41 Magnum

me wrong, I love my big N-frame Smiths and would never part with my 4-inch Model 57, but I still would like to see the 41 in an L-frame sized gun, even if it required the cylinder to be pared down to five chambers. I think the 41 would have been better received if folks had thoroughly understood the concept behind the two levels of ammunition that was originally offered. The original round designed for everyday police work was more in line with a muscular 44 Special load. The 41s pushed a 200-grain semi-wadcutter at 900 fps. That’s a manageable and adequately powerful load. The heavy load launched a 210-grain JHP to 1300-1400 fps. That load was intended for hunting and extraordinary law enforcement work like shootouts with barricaded suspects, longer range rural situations, and the like. Those unaccustomed to recoil management found the hot loads fell in the Raunchy Recoil Realm of Discomfort in a double-action revolver.

In an article on the 41 Magnum by Skeeter Skelton titled, “The 41 Magnum: The Lawman’s Workaday Cartridge,” Skeeter wrote that he had also been pushing for the 41 Magnum and it is certainly plausible and highly likely that he had discussed such a cartridge

Skeeter Skelton

and handgun with Keith and Jordan, as they were all friends. Skeeter wrote that the idea behind the cartridge was nothing new and men like Pop Eimer and Gordon Boser had been experimenting with similar rounds for years. He also mentions his disappointment that some gun scribes heckled the new 41 Magnum cartridge and could not see the point of filling the void between the 357 and 44 Mags. Clearly some writers back then were more opinionated, more informed, and just thought differently. Okay, that’s my attempt at a joke!

Fast forward a minute to modern times and it seems we can’t turn around these days before a “new and improved” round is on the market, especially in rifle cartridges. Each is complete with an acronym, abbreviation, or catchy name that will “fill the gap” or out-perform those tired, old rounds like the 7mm Mag, 30-06, and 30-30 Winchester. I completely understand that this is good for the business of selling guns, ammunition and even articles, and I’d rather see new products and innovations over a stagnant market any day. I believe most shooters and sportsmen would probably agree with that. Advancement is great, even if it is probably not always detectable in the field. I doubt a deer shot with the old 270 Winchester dies less quickly or any deader than one perforated with the newest .277 SnotKnocker XL. The same probably goes for the 41 Magnum when compared to the 44 Magnum. This further proves that everyone has an opinion, including yours truly!

Over coffee this morning, Jim Wilson brought up a good point while we were discussing the ups and downs of the 41 Magnum. As we know, the 44 Magnum came about from the desire to commercially offer a heavy 44 Special load. Now think for a minute, just what if we had been given the 41 Magnum first, instead of the 44 Magnum? Of course we’ll never know, but that’s an interesting point to ponder!

Where the 41 Magnum does set itself apart is in generating less recoil than the 44 Mag. I admit the 44 Magnum will outdo the 41 with heavier loads and that is perfectly fine, as they are not the same cartridge and are not intended to be. One of my go-to quotes concerning the 41 Magnum was written by John Wootters (johnwootters.com) in an article titled, “Big Iron for Whitetails,” were he stated, “I’ve found nothing it [44 Magnum] can do that the 41 Magnum can’t do just as well, with less fuss and commotion.”

Author Shane Jahn and his No. 5 in 41 Remington Magnum, with a management buck

I’ve hunted deer with my custom 41 Magnum a bit and have even finished off a wounded aoudad or two with it. It kills just as well as my heavy 44 Specials and 44 Magnums. The 41 Magnum continues to intrigue me, and I recently added a couple more to my arsenal and will be taking them to the field on upcoming hunts. The custom sixgun was the first such revolver my friend Dusty Hooley turned out when he started gunsmithing at Tyler Gun Works (tylergunworks.com). It’s built on an Old Model Ruger Blackhawk and has a Keith #5 Grip Frame that was made famous by none other than Elmer Keith. The frame is color-cased, and the barrel was cut to 5.5-inches. It has one of Fermin Garza’s (fermincgarza.com) bold front sights, a Bowen rear, and wears stag stocks.

My 4-inch S&W Model 57 is an early pinned and recessed gun in fine condition. I currently have a set of Herrett’s Stocks on it and it’s due an action job by Bryan Eastridge of American Fighting Revolver fame (americanfightingrevolver.com) as soon as I see him, and he has his toolbox with him!

I found a used Ruger Bisley with 7.5-inch barrel on Gun Broker several months ago in very fine shape. Someone added a yellow insert to the front sight that I will likely replace. This gun shows to be very accurate and can be left as-is or be further customized if the fancy strikes me. And last, but not least, proving one can never have too many 41 Magnums, I just added Lipsey’s Exclusive Ruger Flattop Bisley (lipseys.com and lipseysbulletin.com) to the herd! Now, after writing this, I see I am heavily sided towards the Bisley-styled grip frames in my 41 Magnum single-actions, and I should probably find one with a traditional plow handle grip for the collection!

A trio of 41 Magnum revolvers

Opinions abound in the gun and cartridge world. In the end, I enjoy having something that’s a little different from the majority, and the 41 Maggie suits me just fine. In fact, I’m in pretty good company with a good amount of 41 Magnum aficionados out there. The 41 Magnum offers plenty of versatility, no matter what job it’s given. I have sitting here on my ammo shelf, right now, a fine selection of cartridges ranging from 41 Special loads to heavy hitter magnum loads up to 265-grains.

Don’t write this fine cartridge off as “has-been” or “one that never really made it.” It’s still going strong and with new guns like Ruger’s Flattop Bisley hitting the market I’m certain it will continue to prosper. Simply put, it just works. Add to the fact that a good variety of quality ammunition is currently available from several manufacturers in this fine, 60-year-old cartridge and we just might be seeing a resurgence of the classic 41 Remington Magnum. Sixty is the new 40, ya know!