Taurus Titanium Tracker

American Handgunner, March, 2001 by John Taffin

It would be easy to say all the bases were covered by the mid-'50s. However, in the early '60s, there were those who felt we needed a new cartridge, mainly for police use. They felt the .38 Special was still inadequate, we did not have the bullets we have today for the .357 Magnum, the 1911 .45 Auto had not yet been accepted for police use, and the .44 Magnum was too powerful.

Men like Bill Jordan felt we needed a .40 caliber sixgun and load for police use. Their idea was a good one, but good things went astray when it hit the drawing board. The resulting sixgun and load, called the .41 Magnum, proved to be another excellent outdoorsman's combination, but was a little too much for peace officer use.

The new guns, Smith & Wesson's top-of-the-line Model 57, which was simply a Model 29 in the new .41 Magnum chambering, as well as the slightly less bulky and not so finally finished Model 58 Military & Police, were simply too big and too heavy for most peace-officers to be willing to carry all day.

Two versions of .41 Magnum ammunition were offered in 1964, a full-house Magnum version with a 210 gr. jacketed bullet at a full 1,500 fps, and a lead-bullet load at less than 1,000 fps.

Over the next 30 years, the .41 Magnum was chambered in sixguns by Smith & Wesson and also by Ruger, in both the Blackhawk and Bisley Models. Smith also offered under-lugged barrel versions, while Colt never saw fit to chamber any of their production guns in .41 Magnum.