41 or 44

T

Tony Perlinski

New member
I have a dilema. I'm looking for a new handgun, my .357 mag. is to small to shoot a lion with in Wyoming. At least I was told .357 max. is the smallest. So, right now i'm leaning towards a 41 mag. I don't really want to get as big as the .480 or .454. Maybe at .480. Anyway, its my understanding that a 41 will run neck in neck with a 44 until you get quite aways down range. Any input you guys could throw my way would be great.
 
The 41 cannot run "neck & neck with the 44. There's too much more room in the 44 case. You can download a 44 to match 41 ballistics but not vice versa. Get a 44 and download it if you want. There's a lot better selection of factory ammo too. With the 44 you also have the option of shooting 44 special loads.
 
I used to carry the 41 mag as a duty weapon....agency rule was that since you had to buy your own weapon, if it needed wheels, you had to pay for those as well.

I loved the 41 mag as an overall weapon. No, it is not quite as much as the 44 mag, which includes not quite as much recoil and not as much muzzle blast, right along with not as much punch down range.

Is it sufficient....ABSOLUTELY. It is very potent and controllable as well.
 
I would opt. for the .44 Mag., The reason is everyone carries .44 Ammo, And the extra power.
Also more bullet choice for reloading.
I have a SBH Bisley in .44 Mag and love it.
My load is 24.0 gr. of H-110 under a Madtech 240SJSP.
Pack's punch and accuracy is 2" and under @ 50yd.
 
I'm a die-hard 480 fan, and when handloaded believe it is a better large game cartridge than the 454. I would take the 44 over the 41 all day long. Once you get one and get accustomed to shooting it, you will be happy with your decision
 
Go with the .41. The .44 has nothing over the .41 until you start shooting the heavy wieghts. If your game is deer and cats there is no reason to put up with the added recoil of the .44. I have .41 in the BH and had a .44 in a SBH, the .41 is twice as enjoyable to shoot. I would bet 9 out of 10 people would agree. Remember the .44 is actually .429 in dia and the .41 is .412
 
twice as enjoyable to shoot=less killing power. are you more worried about enjoying your shot or stopping something in its tracks? if its something that bites back this should be a no-brainer
 
I own both. load for both, and shoot both. I have a ruger super blackhawk and a marlin lever action in 44 mag. I have a S&W model 57 and a blackhawk in 41. Remember Newtons law. For every action there is a exact and opposite reaction. If you load both with a 210 grain bullet the recoil difference will be negligible. where the difference comes in is with factory loadings. You can buy loaded rounds for the 44 taht are heavier than you can buy for the 41. Heavier loads mean more recoil and more downrange energy.
Now to answer your question you have to ask yourself a question. how much recoil can you shoot accurately.
That lion will not know the difference in getting hit with a 210 gr 41 bullet or a 240 44 bullet he will go down with both if fairly hit. But if practicing with the 44 you become recoil sensitive. and blink or flinch when you touch the trigger. then all is lost.
 
.41 Magnum, 265gr. Cast Performance Hard Cast Gas Checked bullets loaded to 1350fps. with Li'l Gun powder. What a pleasure to shoot. I'll never own a .44 Mag! If I need more, I'll chose a .475 Linebaugh.
 
I don't see why you would be undergunned with the 357 mag on a treed cat, but either the 41 or 44 will handle just about any game in the USA . I belive the 44 is a little better than the 41 due just to bullet weight and bore size. As far as the 480 verses the 454 in full powered loads the 454 will walk on the 480 Ruger which is the middle road between the 44 mag and 454 Cas.
 
Bea175--how is a 475 caliber bullet the middle of the road between a 429 and a 454? Please tell me why you think a 454 will "walk all over a 480".
 
There's the new S&W .460 Magnum. Hurls 200 grain bullets at 2,300 fps. And you can shoot .45 Colt or .454 through it. The .45 Colt can be loaded up to .44 Mag velocities. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
You are right Glenn, the 460 is probably the ultimate handgun cartridge today. Good to hear from you, we all appreciate what you are doing. Take care and kick some [beeep]!--2MG
 
In the hands of an able handgunner it shouldn't make much difference on mountain lions, deer or bear @ 50yds or under, given identical barrel lengths. Let's add that old standard, the 45 Colt loaded to its potential in a strong sidearm as well (Ruger/TC). The practical choice, however, will be the 44 Mag because of ammo availability and choice of commercial loads. If you are handloading, however, all three will do a superb job.

When hiking, riding or guiding, I carry a Vaquero 4 5/8" 45 Colt and its loaded with hard cast 300gr bullets or Hornady 250 XTP that have done remarkably well on coyotes, javelina, black bear and deer. If I had a 41 or 44 Mag, I doubt the results would have been too much different.

You mention mountain lions; if you are running them with dogs and shooting treed lion take your choice from any of the three aforementioned cartridges and a host of others as well.

If your interest lies in long distance handgunning on big game, the versatility of a 454 or the whump of a 480 is hard to match but the handgun becomes proportionately larger/heavier. But, from experience, if you are even remotely considering the 500 S&W, make sure you fire one first!! I recommend the 400 gr CorBon load. And aspirin, about 1,500mgs.
 
As for long distance.

This seems a ridiculous argument since the 308 beats all of them. A 5" 10 shot group at 1000 yards and much more energy than any of the above.

Jack
 
Do your own research - specifically look at the downrange ballistics and energy of the Winchester 240 grain platinum tip load verses readily available .44 mag rounds. The only place the .44 mag has an ballistic advantage is with heavy loads and hot-rodded ammo. Neither matters on a cat sized critter.
Where the .44 shines is availability of ammo from almost any sporting goods store or X-mart. If you come prepared with plenty of ammo this is an issue.

Franky, by the one that coming in the gun you want at the best price. If I was going after big dangerous critters such as brown bears the .44 has an advantage because you can load heavier bullets. But then if I was going after the big bears, I wouldn't be packing a .44. From what I have seen, I actually think the .41 has the advantage for deer and likesize game because the 240 grain winnie .41 loading has a ballistic coefficient advantage over the .44 loadings I have seen from Win, Rem, Fed. Sure Buffalo Bor and Cor-bon put out some impressive .44 loading but the price is higher than what I want to pay.

To be honest and at the risk of getting flamed, I feel most people who bad mouth the ballistics of the .41 have no expierience with it and don't know its ballistics or capabilities.
Matt
 
I'm with 17shooter. Tony.
Given normal hunting situations, I for some reason shoot the .41 much better, and if you load your own you have many choices of loads and bullets.

I also agree though that most gun/ammo shops carry little in the way of .41 stuff.

I admit too that those of us that are loyal .41 fans also resist the much larger .44 fan club's opinion of the large gap in potential performance in real life hunting situations, especially regarding long range performance.

My accuracy drops off pretty drastically beyond 30 yards, but many big Ohio whitetails have suffered terminal blood leakage under my tree stands at 10 yards or less using a 210 grain JHP bullet at 1400fps, boom-flop when I do my job.

My 2 cents worth only, flame pants are installed.
 
To echo what several others have posted, up until about 10 years ago, I did a lot of revolver shooting with both an S&W Model 29 6" and an S&W Model 57 6".

In terms of power, there is not a lick of difference in performance within the normal range of bullets between the two cartridges with the exception that the 41 Mag has a little flatter trajectory a litte farther out. There is a better bullet selection for the 44 and heavier bulets are available. In reality, there is not a lot of diference between a .429" bore diameter (44 Mag) and a .410" bore diameter (41 Mag), nor is the recoil difference even very noticeable with heavy loads for each cartridge.

I too would venture to guess that a lot of the 44 shooters have never shot a 41, so have no valid way to compare the two other than what they read.

For whatever reason, the 41 just never caught on and never gained a great deal of popularity when everyone could shoot the same gun as Dirty Harry - the Model 29 - before Dirty Harry discovered the Auto Mag. During the 1970's and 80's, quite a few people were pushing hand gun hunting, and both cartridges were used to bag some very large and dangerous critters.

Either cartridge will work for the intended task mentioned above, and the game will not know the difference.

For those who have great ambitions and believe that tackling large bears, etc. with a 44 Magnum is a sensible thing to do, Skeeter Skelton, a long time advocate of both the 44 and the 41 in the 1970's and 1980's had the best answer I have heard for those folks.

Skelton wrote a monthly question and answer column in Shooting Times magazine. A reader wrote in and asked Skeeter what he would recommend for a heavy 44 Mag load for Brown Bear in Alaska. Skelton gave the reader several very heavy 44 Mag loads, but finished his response with words to the effect that if the reader truly believed he wanted to hunt Brown Bear with a 44 Mag that the best advice Skeeter could give is to use one of the heavy loads recommended - and when the reader ran across a large Brown Bear, to shoot the bear five times and himself once. That advice stuck with me and pretty well sums up what one can expect from a hand gun, even in the 41 and 44 Mag range.

As I got older (I'm still walking and talking and don't wear Depends), I got rid of both my 44 and my 41 Mags, but I still have several 45 Colt chambered DA revolvers and feel they will do all I would ever want to do with a large caliber revolver. To me, wanting to shoot the new S&W 50 caliber revolver ranks right up there on my list of things I want to do before I die with wanting to fall down a long flight of stairs.

Just my take on the discussion. (Fire away with the flames if you feel a need to defend your personal honor.)- BCB /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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Good answer BCB. To me the 44mag is kind of becoming the 30-06 of big game revolvers. There are other bigger, faster rounds now, but the 44's versatility and availability can't be beat. Like the 30-06, it will remain the one all the others are compared to.
 
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