.41 Magnum…..again.

Well, it’s official…I have fallen in love again.  It was my first love, and like my wife, I think God puts the right things back in front of you for a reason.  In this case, it’s the .41 Magnum in its Military & Police form.  I recently picked up a few guns in .41 Magnum, and 1986 came back like it was yesterday.  

It is no secret that I was not raised with guns in the sense that many of my circle of friends were.  I grew up in “The Valley” area of Los Angeles made famous by movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High that was basically my world.  Not a big gun culture.  My dad had given up on hunting before I was any sort of age to participate.  We fished a lot as our outdoors activity.  I was also a kid that could not be in anyway trusted with a BB Gun or anything similar.  My great Uncle passed away when I was twelve and my mom returned home from the funeral with his 4” Model 19 he carried as a police officer in the Canal Zone in Panama where my mom’s side of the family all came from since the Canal was dug.  It was locked in the gun cabinet with my dad’s hunting guns.  The key was “hidden” with the Playboy magazines and every-time my parents were gone for a predictable amount of time I got out that Model 19 and it began my absolute love of S&W police revolvers.  I have that gun to this day and even though my Uncle shot it a ton as a firearms instructor and carried it on horseback while running the Penitentiary in the Canal Zone it looks like new and has been meticulously maintained.  I also kept it immaculate in all those clandestine removals from the gun cabinet.  

Fast forward to 1986.  I turned 21 and had decided on a police career while I was in college.  Due to good influences I bought three things for my 21st birthday with my earnings from working basically full time while attending school with a full schedule.  I bought a Rolex GMT that is on my wrist to this day, a Series 70 Colt Government Model .45 ACP and a Remington 870 Riot Gun.  Learning to shoot with a 1911 was not optimal.  While I liked the 1911, being focused on a police career I wanted a revolver.  I did tons of research and my big college brain concluded that the .41 Magnum was the optimal police and self-defense round.  I located a S&W 4” Model 57 that had every possible option from Magna-Port done.  Porting, action work, hard chrome finish, muzzle crown…the works. I traded the custom 1911 for it.  I built a basketweave duty rig with a Hoyt break front holster with the longest drop and most aggressive muzzle forward cant you could get.  A local San Diego Police officer that became quite a legend in the firearms industry named Roy Huntington started taking me to local police action shooting competitions and got me in with the cops as a Criminal Justice student.  I did well in the matches usually finishing right in the middle.  For a college kid shooting full house Magnum loads with no formal training I was pleased and continued getting better and into the top third of competitors who were mostly shooting light .38 loads.  Roy was an absolute contrarian of the times winning a ton with a 3” Speed Six shooting against a lot of 6” K and L  frames.  I kept that 4” Model 57 for quite awhile.  I eventually figured out that I was in a micro minority of people who thought the .41 Magnum was the absolute greatest cop cartridge ever.  I ended up moving to .357’s and .38 revolvers as that was what every agency I was applying for carried.  Eventually, I ended up starting in a SoCal agency that used .45 Colt Model 25-5’s.  I was back to a 4” N frame S&W, just not in .41 Magnum.  

In the early 1990’s I owned my own police equipment store while I was a full time cop.  One day one of our firearms instructors who was assigned to a DEA task force came in the store with his DEA Agent partner.  My buddy told the DEA agent that I was a big bore revolver lover and to bring in his “car gun” to show me.  Policing is very regional and certain things cops do is very common in many areas that may not be in others.  In SoCal, the car gun was normal.  It was a gun (usually a revolver or DA auto) carried under the left leg while driving.  It was your immediate go to if attacked or needed in the vehicle. In SoCal, vehicle born policing in tight urban areas is what we did.  The DEA Agent brought in a hard chromed S&W Model 58 in .41 Magnum.  It was originally a San Francisco PD gun and marked SFPD.  The DEA Agent had originally been with California Fish And Game.  He carried it as a good backwoods gun working for Fish and Game and then while working in the Marijuana eradication program that Fish and Game Wardens heavily participated in.  The Marijuana task force led him to DEA, and the 58 came with him.  I fell in love with the big heavy barrel and being really clean with fixed sights and a bobbed hammer.  I simply told the agent “pick something else out in the store, this 58 is not leaving”.  I seem to remember that costing me a Sig P228.  That 58 was my “car gun” for at least a decade.  I shot the gun to it being so out of time that it threw as much lead out the side as it did down range.  It was retired for safety reasons but it was truly a beloved companion.  I figured out that with “Model 58” loads that were 210 grain hollowpoints at around 950-1050 fps, these guns were easier to shoot well than with the much higher velocity hunting loads.  During a period of life’s tragedies I had to sell a bunch of guns and all my .41 Magnums except the 58 fell victim because I also had a lot of .44 Magnums and much more ammo.  The 58 was unsafe at that point.  I was contacted by a collector of San Francisco PD guns who wanted it.  He had a 6.5” Model 29-2 that someone had done something to internally and didn’t work.  He offered a trade for two sick guns and we each fix our own.  I ended up taking the trade and that pristine “Dirty Harry .44” is still in the collection with new internals.  A few years later my 58 reappeared with a well known .41 collector I was displaying with at the S&W Collector’s Association show.  He has offered me first dibs if he sells it.  

Recently, I got the .41 Magnum bug again.  First it was a 3” full house MagnaPort 657 owned by a famous gun writer.  For obvious reasons, it came home.  Then a Canadian rescue Model 58. Then it was an Arizona game wardens 4.2” Redhawk that is a fantastic shooter for a solid woods gun.  Then the “One”.  The “One” is a 4” Model 58-1 in .41 Magnum.  These were a rare run of S&W’s “Classic Series” that used square butt 4 screw frames.  I have a couple snub .44 Specials from the series.  I really like them because they are modern guns with the hated S&W lock.  I have lots of lock guns.  They are simply “working guns” for me.  They are what I shoot and abuse to allow me to keep the real classics in good shape. 

I love square butt 3.5-4” barrel N frames.  The ones I really love are no longer are serviceable by S&W and cannot be warranty repaired.  The lock guns can, and I have shot modern lock guns out of time or to the point they needed to be returned to S&W for warranty repair.  For people who carry and shoot these things a lot, it is a good thing.  When I got the 58-1 I like that it is a modern gun with modern internals.  I fitted it up with a set of one off Eagle Checkered Combat Grips that I love the shape and feel of for a square butt N frame.  It handles great and has zero frills.  I have worked with Steve Shields from High Desert Cartridge Company on a recreation of the .41 Magnum Police load.  Steve consulted with me and my good friend Giles Stock who is another retired cop .41 Magnum fan and high level gun nerd. The load uses either a 210 gr. TMJ (training/utility) or XTP hollowpoint (defense/hunting) at around 950 fps.  This load hits dead to the sights with this load with very manageable recoil.  I like the idea of fixed sights, but the gun has to use a load that hits at the correct point of aim.  This one does and I am going to leave it alone.  My plan B if the sights were off was to cut it to 3” and have a custom sight done zeroed to it.  I am not messing with a good thing and it will stay a 4” for now.

Winter in Oklahoma and working a ton has had me carrying a N frame belt gun a bunch lately.  Changing out a 3.5” Model 27-2 for the 58-1 has been easy and I find my self both carrying the 58-1 a bunch in a American Classic Gunleather Legend holster or in its car gun role in an old giant Tommy Gun Pack.  The stock action is really good but it will get some Bryan Eastridge sprinkles inside that should make the action fantastic.  It will also get a lock delete plug. The classic series guns have a big cylinder release I am finding hangs up a little with speed loaders so a modern angled release will replace that.  History has shown that big-bore simple no frills fixed sight S&W N frames are one of those incredibly comforting things in times of danger or facing evil.  I have faced some of the most terrifying situations of my life with an N frame S&W in my hand.  As the times we live in have gotten very interesting, I have circled back as a grizzled old man to the same thing I relied on as a young cop, and I think there is something calming about that.