The Wildcat .41 Special

Guns Magazine, Feb, 2001 by John Taffin

Created to surpass the ballistics of the .44, this versatile cartridge is still a favorite among knowledgeable handloaders.

Many shooters are familiar with the histories of the .357 Mag. and the .44 Mag., but not many are familiar with the .41 Mag., also known as the .41 Special.

When the .38 Special was chambered in Smith & Wesson's large-framed sixgun, the Hand Ejector series, the sixgun was the .38/44 Heavy Duty. Experiments soon led the way to the first magnum sixgun cartridge, the .357 Mag. in the specially crafted, finished and fitted Heavy Duty that was simply known as the .357 Mag. in those pre-model-number days.

The .44 Mag. goes back to the 1870s with the .44 S&W American, which then became the .44 Russian when loaded with slightly smaller diameter and inside-lubricated bullets, and which in turn was lengthened to 1.16" to become the .44 Special. After 30 years of heavy loading, the .44 Special evolved into the .44 Mag., the King of Handgun Cartridges. It was in the 1940s that the newest Magnum, the .41, arrived on the scene. While the other two loadings could trace their ancestry way back, the .41 Mag. came about mainly through the efforts of Bill Jordan, formerly of the Border Patrol, and Elmer Keith. It was designed to be a police and defensive cartridge but arrived in full-blown magnum form and in a sixgun too large for most to be willing to carry for all-day duty.

Black Sheep of the Magnums

The .41 Mag. does have a history, but it is not as easily traced as that of the .357 or .44 Mag. The gunwriter, Gordon Boser, like Keith and several others, was a real fan of the .44 Special, but he dreamed of a flatter-shooting sixgun cartridge.

Boser started with a pre-war Colt Single Action Army, re-chambered the cylinder, fitted it with a .404" barrel, and the .401 Special was born. For brass, Boser used .401 Winchester cases cut to 1.2".

Boser, who also later designed the Lyman #401452 for his .401 Special and the .38-40, and #429360 for the .44 Special, used a very hot load in his .401, consisting of 17.5 grs. of #2400 with a 192 gr. bullet. He reported outstanding accuracy up to 150 yards in a fixed-sighted Colt Single Action. That load had to produce well over 1,400 fps in muzzle velocity.

The .41 Mag. arrived as a .41 instead of a .40, probably to prevent anyone from converting old Colt Single Action .38-40s and .41 Long Colts to the new cartridge by simply fitting a new cylinder, or in the case of the .41 Long Colt, courting disaster by simply re-chambering the cylinder. Not only had the .40 become a .41, it was found only in largeframe, heavy sixguns, the Ruger Blackhawk and Smith & Wesson N-frame, nothing like the sleek Colt Single Action Army that housed Boser's pet wildcat.

Handloading The .41

The best wildcats, at least the most enjoyable, are those that are easy to load. For the .41 Special, we simply set the RCBS Trim Pro with a .44 Special case, chuck up a .41 Mag. brass and trim to that length, and then use the Trim Mate Case Prep Center to electronically chamfer the inside of the case mouth and deburr the outside. Both of these machines work quickly and easily. The Trim Mate also contains a primer pocket brush that makes cleaning primer pockets a simple matter.

We have the brass, now we need dies -- which turns out to be quite simple. The newer .41 Mag. three-die sets size and de-prime with the first die and then expand on the second. These work perfectly for both .41 Mag. and .41 Special brass.

The third die, for seating and crimping the .41 Mag., will probably not be able to be turned down far enough to crimp .41 Special brass. We simply found a used .41 Mag. seating die and had a gunsmith trim enough off the bottom of the die to allow proper crimping with the shorter .41 Special brass,

Our favorite bullet for either the .41 Mag. or the .41 Special is Lyman's Keith design, the #410459. This casts out hard at about 220 grs., and is sized to .410" and lubricated for use in either case. For the .41 Mag., we use a full house dose of #2400 for around 1,450 fps. Chambered in these sixguns, the .41 Special is a cartridge for use mainly in the 950 to 1,050 fps range, with 1,200 fps as a possibility that is rarely used.

Seven grains of either Alliant's Unique or Hodgdon's Universal is right at 1,000 fps with the Lyman bullet, and both loads shoot incredibly accurately in the two single-action sixguns. For a little lighter home-cast .41 bullet, we go with RCBS's #41-200 that drops out right at 200 grs.

Cast Lead Jackets

We don't always feel like casting, so our most-used bullets in the .41 Special come from Bull-X and Oregon Trail. Both offer a 215 gr. SWC bullet. For a jacketed bullet we do not go with the conventional jacketed bullets offered by so many companies, but rather the older style three-quarter jacketed bullets from Speer. Copper-cupped so that no lead touches the bore, these soft lead core designs come in both a 200 gr. FP and a 220 gr. FP.

At .41 Special muzzle velocities, conventional jacketed bullets probably won't expand out, but these will. They are the choice for lung shots on smaller, deer-sized critters with the .41 Special. We especially prefer the 200 gr. HP version at 1,050 to 1,100 fps with either 7.0 grs. of Unique or 12.5 grs. of #2400.