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Thread: 41 rimfire smokeless load?

  1. #1
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    41 rimfire smokeless load?

    Looks like I may win a colt number 3 in 41 rimfire. Empty cases are available that use a 22 blank for a primer. Of course black powder can be assembled but was wondering if anyone has loaded these cases with smokeless. Thanks

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy
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    Not reloaded that caliber but many years back I owned and carried a .41 Remington. Back then, early '60's, ammo was available. Copper cased and with that extreme truncated bullet. The loads were obviously smokeless and shot rather well as I recall. I still have a round or so of that stuff but the gun is long (******) long gone.

    Neat piece....quite unlike the modern versions in that it was not overly heavy with that bulky pivot point..........mine did have a solid pivot latch, but several I've handled were cracked. As I recall the round was so slow it took quite a while to 'thunk' when shooting at a solid target at about 30/40 yards........often the bullet would only lightly penetrate and I dug several out of phone poles.

    Whatever y ou do load wise....start VERY small

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    The 41 Short RF was developed for the derringer, ie #3 Colt with an intended low velocity 425 fps using a powder charge of 13gr of black powder. There is no loading data to emulate the BP velocity using smokeless powder. If you REALLY HAVE TO HAVE a smokeless load, personally I would use Bullseye powder and start low with 0.5gr and work up to 425 fps shooting over a chronograph. Good Luck

    For my Stevens Tip Up in 32 Long RF - I use Bullseye for smokeless charges but no recommendations due to these being 2 different calibers and the Tip Up is a rifle charge
    Last edited by John Boy; 10-09-2018 at 02:10 PM.
    Regards
    John

  4. #4
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    At this point I am leaning towards black powder. My plan is to chuck a heel base 41 LC bullet in a drill and shave the blunt round nose to look like the pointed 41 RF short bullet.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
    Chev. William's Avatar
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    Good Luck working a Lead Heeled Bullet in a Three Jaw Drill Chuck!
    Chev. William

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    If you can find this Ideal mold or have it custom made, this is the bullet for the 41 Short RF ...
    Click image for larger version. 

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    386176. This is the old style .41 short Colt's O. L. bullet. No. 1 tool only. Not sized and seated on heel of bullet only. (Heel, 163 - TP is 167)
    Regards
    John

  7. #7
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chev. William View Post
    Good Luck working a Lead Heeled Bullet in a Three Jaw Drill Chuck!
    Chev. William
    Now I’ll have to do it just prove I can!

    The above mold would be great to find and I would use it for cowboy action in 41 long colt as well. I was into a nice Lyman 386178 hollowbase Lyman mold on eBay a couple of days ago and it sold for $219!

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
    Chev. William's Avatar
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    Try Accurate Molds. The .41 is well within his comfort range of Bullet Diameters and weights.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    GONRA modified a commercial collet chuck to modify bullets several years ago.
    Forget the conventional 3 etc. jaw lathe chucks....

  10. #10
    Boolit Master


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    Some of the old Brazilian import 41 short ammo blew up a few antiques cause the used smokeless powder.

    I would be very careful with an old gun as the don't make them anymore.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    I have 12 empty reloadable cases coming from Britain. $40 shipped. Yes, black powder and I already have the crimped blanks they recommend. I have a line on that 41 short colt mold at 160 grains. If I don’t get it, I will still try to shave the long colt heeled bullet of 190 grains into a 145 grain truncated bullet.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    The tried and true formula for TrailBoss is @ 70% of empty space under the bullet.
    You can tweak up/down from there.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by 17nut View Post
    The tried and true formula for TrailBoss is @ 70% of empty space under the bullet.
    You can tweak up/down from there.
    Now that is a very good idea. It appears to me that Trail Boss would be a whole lot better than Bullseye.

  14. #14
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    Great minds think alike as I was thinking the same. The colt number 3 should arrive about the same time the cases do. I have not seen any broken colt 41 unlike the Remington double, so maybe the navy arms smokeless didn’t cause any harm in them. Of course black powder certainly has a good bang effect though.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master
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    Don't Forget the smoke cloud smelling of Sulfur. In the Original Application of self Protection at very close Ranges, the Startle Effect may have played a Big Part in dissuading assaults.

    Chev. William

  16. #16
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    Update. Gun is here and so are the cases. I made (1) truncated bullet from a 195 heel base bullet. Way too much time but I have a plan to make that easier. So I ran a .457 soft lead ball into a .401 bullet sizer. It makes a nice round nose bullet that I used a 41 long colt case to cut a heel into the bullet. I did fire the gun with a 195 grain heel bullet with its “nose” cut off to be around 150 grains. The cartridge only had enough room for about 1.5 grains trail boss as the heel of the 41 long colt bullet is probably way too deep for 41 rimfire. It pierced both sides of a V8 can at 3 feet. I believe I am going to back that off to 1 grain of trail boss or just simply use black powder. I have to remember the 22 blank cartridge also has a charge.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    So I am back from the big Louisville gun show. Didn’t luck out and find a heeled bullet mold for 41 short but I made something else work fine. Fine indeed. Found loaded 41 rimfire ammo for $2 each if I bought all 81 load or $3 ea. I bought them all. So I used the H&C cases from England to load a short crimped 22 blank. The longer CCI crimped blanks leave little room for my heeled bullet. In the pic you can see both kinds. A 25 acp case yields 1.5 grains trailboss so I trimmed it to throw 1.0 grains. I would say I am closer to 90% capacity with my heeled bullet originally intended for 41 long colt at 190 grains. I made one truncated cone bullet but it’s too much work. What is easy is to snip the nose off of the 190 grain bullet to give me a 140 wadcutter which is close to the original weight of 145 I believe for 41 short rimfire. You can see my other experiments that I abandoned. Running both a 44 conical and round ball into a .401 lee sizer. That was easy if the ball is pure lead. The issue I didn’t perfect yet was making a heel onto the “new” 41 bullet. My quick method was to push the bullet into a sharpened 41 long colt case. Out of 6 or 7 attempts, I produced 2 that were cut straight enough to load easily into the chamber. That was the first bullet I fired with maybe about 1.3 grains Trailboss as it still had some space to the seated bullet. It’s important to remember that the blank cartridge also has a charge so for now, I backed off to 1.0 as the long colt bullet has more heel. You can see one charged case in the picture. The bullet goes though a V8 can and lodges about 6” into moist soil in my backyard.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    For some reason my photo won’t load.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master

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    Reviving this old discussion.

    I have a .41 rimfire Colt 3rd model derringer. I have reloadable cases and bullets coming from Europe. I've also made a few trial bullets on the lathe by modifying .41 long colt and .40-70 sharps bullets.

    I'm looking forward to bringing this little guy back to life
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 20210728_095504_copy_567x833.jpg  

  20. #20
    Boolit Master

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    I've ordered some reloadable .41 rimfire cases from Europe. But in the meantime I machined a single case from bar stock so I could try it out. It worked very well. Loaded with 8gr of 3F black powder and a 126gr bullet, it has a pretty stout kick
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 20210730_161155_copy_396x442.jpg   20210730_172655_copy_390x340.jpg   PhotoGrid_Plus_1627733324312_copy_512x512.jpg   PhotoGrid_Plus_1627738673904_copy_512x512.jpg   Screenshot firing .41 rimfire.jpg  


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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check