.41 Mag Association

Pretty good shooting! How's the recoil?

"recoil"...with the original stock wood grips it is reasonable to a point...but once you up things past 210 grans it gets uncomfortable fast...

The new open back Hogue grips that now come on the 4" guns are an improvement as are the old Uncle Mikes that were on the gun when I shot that group. The gun now has a set of camo Pachmayer Presentation grips with the full backstrap and they are comfortable to shoot with any load...

Bob

RJM52 said:

"recoil"...with the original stock wood grips it is reasonable to a point...but once you up things past 210 grans it gets uncomfortable fast...

The new open back Hogue grips that now come on the 4" guns are an improvement as are the old Uncle Mikes that were on the gun when I shot that group. The gun now has a set of camo Pachmayer Presentation grips with the full backstrap and they are comfortable to shoot with any load...

Bob

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The Redhawk has a long trigger reach without the open back strap. Assessing the grips might be a matter of hand size or, in racial terms, finger length.

Bought a Smith 58-1 earlier this year. What a beast of a gun. The stock grips had to go. Found a set of Herret's that fit well. It's a handful with factory Remington 210 grain soft points. I've been loading it just a little lighter with my hand loads. The arthritis in my hands thanks me!

I'm in with 3:

A Gary Reeder Black Mamba conversion of a Ruger GP-100
A Marlin lever action
A S&W Model 57

Sam

This has been a long wait... but I found a Marlin 1894 FG .41 Magnum. Seems to have been made around 2005.

It needs a disassembly and a thorough action cleaning, but she's kinda minty! and should prove to be a great deer gun. Here it is pictured with my .41 Magnum Old Model Blackhawk...

That is pure awesome. Nice find on the Marlin.

Nice find on the Marlin. 41s are super hard to find. I also bought one about 10 days ago. Was going to a gun show and a fellow texted me wanting to sell the one he had. I made a detour and bought the darn thing. Then a few days later I bought another 41 mag at an auction. Ruger new model BH with 6 inch bbl. So now I have 2 57s in 4 inch another in 8 3/8 nickel in presentation case a 4 5/8 inch BH 6 inch BH and the Marlin 1894. Paid 500 for the Marlin. At the gun show a fellow offered me a grand which I of course turned down. the 6 inch BH I paid 375. What I have ben looking for is a S&W 58. I'm sure I will find one. Oh at the auction I got 700 new 41 mag cases with about another 100 what looks to be once fired 41 Special Starline cases. Paid 45 bucks for them. Also got more than 3000 once fired 38 sp cases for 15 bucks. When I dumped the bucket out at the bottom was a bullet mold. Hard to find single cavity 429 348 flying trash can wadcutter. that was a lucky find

A couple of years ago I was first in line at a gun show and wanted to make hay before the unwashed masses filtered in. 10 minutes into the show I spotted an interesting looking Marlin on a table, it turned out to be a CCL in .41 mag in probably 95% condition,the price tag was $600.00. I played the aw shucks card and let the seller give me his sales pitch about how good the .41 mag cartridge is and what a fine rifle the Marlin was. While having a death grip on the gun I gave my most faux look of not caring when the seller said "how about $575.00?" You can only guess how fast I got my wallet out and started counting the cash.

...and with the octagonal barrel and straight stock, to boot!

Man! That was some good muletradin'.

And skeet! Jackpot!

The .41 Mag. is a pretty easy to shoot handgun for me. I saw a Henry .41 Mag. at our gun shop. It looks awfully nice, & if I wanted a .41 rifle the Henry would be the one!

I have learned that CCL means Cowboy Carbine Limited. Much as I love an octagonal barrel, I don't associate .41 Magnum and "Cowboy". Same for 44 Magnum. My Marlin 44 has a round barrel, and I am happy with it that way. But man that CCL is nice, and what a price. Gunsamerica shows one NIB sold for $2500.

The round bbl would be the one I'd want. A rifle in .41 mag or any pistol ctg would have to be relativily light & easy to pack to get my attention. It'd be a packing rifle one to take on walks/hikes in the hills. Reaonably powerful, fun to shoot, & accurate. The .41 would qualify in all catigorys.

Boxes added to the guns are nice to have. A few years ago I bought a bunch of S&W boxes and others at an auction..most all handgun boxes Got 'em cheap. When I was paying the auctioneer gave me a few rifle boxes. One of them was a Marlin 1894 box for the rifle configuration I just bought. it is about a hundred and twenty in serial # difference from the rifle I just bought. How can you tell when your Marlin was made? That cowboy configuration is really neat. Only CB Marlin I have is an 1895 45-70..It shoots great with almost any load you put in it...and I like the 26 inch bbl. I have quite a few jacketed bullets for the 41 but need to get some coated or plated for the mid range loads. I carry my old 2nd year 4 inch 57 in bear country..which is almost any mountain areas. I carry it with some 250 gr Wide flat nosed gas checked bullets at around 1050-1100 ft per. Will shoot completely through ol grizz from front to back. I have hunted elk with the 1895 and a Win 71 I have in the timber. Shot one deer on the ranch here with the 41 BH at about 35 yds 2 steps and DRT. I used the bear loads. The 4 5/8 inch bbl does just fine even with the loss of velocity. About 40 yds is my max distance to shoot critters with a handgun. Most of my HGs are short bbls...except the Contenders.

The first .41 I shot was years ago a friends Ruger Black Hawk. If I remember it was a 6-1/2" bbl & back then all Rugers were three screw. He was loading with 4227 but I don't remember the load or bullet. We shot some very good groups at 50 yds & I was very impressed with the cartridge. I've liked it every since.

Nice rifles guys...

Henry just announced two more .41s for this year...the steel frame with 16.5" barrel and big loop lever and the original brass frame...they are putting the serious hurt on Marlin prices... On GunBroker they are down about 25% from a year ago... Saw two FGs sell for between $850 and 950...they had been bringing as high as $1600.

I have one of the CCLs..what a fine shooter. Mine does not however like target velocity loads... Best load so far has been the Cast Performance 255 GC with 22.0 grains of H110...

Sitting at 50 yards with Willaims Receiver sight..






Velocity from a 5.5" is 1450 fps so it should be in the 1650-1750 area...

Bob

Nice shooting. I also shoot the 250 gr WFNGC bullet at 1050-1100 in a 4 inch gun. or 4 5/8 inch. I could push it more but it goes clean through any large critter. Say 50 yds without fail. As far as the Henry?? Not my cuppa tea. They may be getting better but they look a bit chintzy to me. A friend has one in 45-70... He wishes he had bought a Marlin!

I see .41s advertised in Henry's catalog. They sure build nice rifles.

skeet028 said:

Nice shooting. I also shoot the 250 gr WFNGC bullet at 1050-1100 in a 4 inch gun. or 4 5/8 inch. I could push it more but it goes clean through any large critter. Say 50 yds without fail. As far as the Henry?? Not my cuppa tea. They may be getting better but they look a bit chintzy to me. A friend has one in 45-70... He wishes he had bought a Marlin!

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If you set aside all the crass 22 LR nonsense in their promotions, there is nothing chintzy about the Henrys I have seen. I own what must have been the very last 45 Colt Big Boy before the plant got flooded out by Hurricane Sandy, after which they restarted in a new location. I scoured the country via internet before finding one.

Is it too late to join the club? I've had a hankering for a .41 for quite some time now, hoping to be able to find a nice 6" model 657. Current confiscatory prices that original S&W's are currently demanding haven't allowed that, however, and I simply NEVER see used .41's for sale locally in any brand or model of gun.
While in a LGS the other day killing a bit of time before the local gun show opened I asked if they might have any .41's on hand and the guy told me they didn't. Knowing they have a 10-day hold policy on all newly arrived firearms in case a gun has been stolen, I asked if they might happen to have any in the 10-day hold area. He replied, "Oh, yeah, that one over there", pointing to a 5.5" Redhawk (my personal next choice after a Smith) lying on a work table behind the counter. They wouldn't give me any information as to how much they'd be asking for it, but the owner told me to call her the following Wednesday which would be the day before it became available for sale.
Long story short (sort of), after filling out the 4473, waiting for it to be transferred across the state line to my FFL and serving my 3-day Illinois Gestapo waiting period she finally came home with me yesterday! I already have some brass I'd been optimistically saving for such a time, and bullets are due to be delivered in a day or two so hopefully soon the old RCBS will be cranking out some rounds....
Can't wait to try out this classic caliber.

Jcon72

Congrats on finding the .41 Mag. Redhawk! That barrel length is really handy and practical to use in the field. My brother had the same gun, only in .44 Mag., when he lived in Alaska. He took it with him whenever he went hiking.

I've had a full sized one going on 25'ish years. It's my favorite of the three. Also have the 44 and 45 colt as well.

Don't know if you cast or not, if so shoot me a pm and I'll give you a rundown on some molds to look into. Or heck give me a couple days and I'll just post up a list here for everyone.

I can say that 20.5grs of 296 under a 200gr jacketed HP is a very good load. I use the Rem bulk bullets, but they are HARD to come by. Which ever you use, try different crimps with your loads. Start off with just a slight roll and check the last round of the cylinder after each shot when shooting the previous 5. You only want/need enough to hold the bullet in place.

Hope that helps.

Good find, Jcon and welcome to the club and the forum!

I happened into a 41 magnum a couple of months ago when someone offered me one on an even trade. I was looking for a good bullet mold and tried a NOE 412-238-WFNGC. The cylinder on my Ruger is exactly the way I like it, it will just pass a factory bullet with a little resistance at 0.410" so I wanted the cast bullets to finish at the same size. I sized the bullets with a .410 sizer (RCBS) and they were coming out a shade over .411 and they just seemed too tight for my liking. I got a .409 sizer (Lyman) and they are coming out right at .410 on the nose. With my current alloy, the bullets with gas checks weigh 240 grains. I used Carnauba Red lube with Gator gas checks. I had cleaned out my lubrisizer but it still had some traces of old lube on some of the first bullets to come out. I picked out 10 with all red or mostly red lube and set them aside to accuracy test. The mold is a 5 cavity and very consistent in size. I used new Starline brass and the loaded rounds had an average OAL of 1.681. The shortest of 40 I loaded was 1.679 and the longest 1.682. I could not find data for this bullet but I have had great luck with AA-9 in the 41 mag. I wanted enough pressure to seal the cases well but still leave a good safety margin so I went with 16.0 grains. I had one errant reading of the 10 I set aside to accuracy test but the other 9 averaged 1228 fps from my 5.5" barrel. What was more impressive was the fastest was 1241 and the slowest 1215. The primers showed no signs of pressure and I could lift the fired cases 1/2 way out and release the extractor and they would all fall back into the cylinder. You could safely bring the charge up but it was 19 degrees when I finished so I like a big safety margin for warmer weather. Accuracy showed good promise at 2.125" for the 10-shots @ 25 yards. An added bonus was this load was almost the same POI as what I had my revolver zeroed for. Sectional density for this bullet is .204 making it a great hunting round. I am very pleased with the mold and the load. It may be one worth trying if you are looking for a mold.