Should I?...

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I am a Colt SAA and Bisley man, always have been.

However, I horse traded into a NIB Ruger 41 Magnum w/5.5" bbl. Along with it came the complete set of parts for a Bisley grip conversion. A friend was going to do this, and lost interest.

My plan started off innocently enough; ream the cylinder to a tight throat 45 LC, and have my gunsmith make me an octagon barrel and ejector rod housing for. Little smoothing on the action, and a very nice 4.75" bbl packing pistol with bear killing loads. I do NOT own anything in 41M, but this voice in my head keeps whispering what a fine cartridge the 41Mag is.

Help...

Rich

[Armorer]

Man I have that same little voice...and he can get expensive in what he wants. Which is usually EVERYTHING when it come to guns, boolits, scopes, powders...the list goes on and on.

My ¢2
Armorer

[NMBillB]

Rich,
I have a .41mag Ruger Blackhawk, and it's a sweet shooting pistol. Please reconsider what you're about to do. If nothing else, see if you can trade it to someone who'll appreciate that beasty.

[Kskybroom]

Three out of Four Voices In My Head Are Prying For You ...

[mtgrs737]

Sorry, some things prayer can't help! The 41 Magnum IS a Fine cartridge, consider yourself lucky to have it! Listen to the voices.... grasshopper!

[Good Cheer]

Seat the 41 out to the front of that cylinder and then get a 41 single shot rifle chambered to fit the cartridge. Yeehah! Much better use of funds!

[Watergoat]

Horse trades work out strangely sometimes. That's how I got my Glock 32 last summer, on a trade that i just could not pass up. Still not a Glock fan, and I don't like the grip, but I shoot it well. And if it gets scratched or dropped, I don't much care; it was ugly anyway...........

[9.3X62AL]

There's a lot of merit to the idea of a 45 Colt cylinder cut with minimum chamber and throat dimensions. The NICE thing about the Ruger Blackhawk 41s is that they already have very good dimensional integrity, right from the box. Mine have, anyway.

Your gun, so it's your call. For my own part, I'd leave it in 41 Magnum caliber--but I already have dies and moulds to service it.

[Artful]

Well a custom revolver can be a beautiful thing, But before you spend the money to convert I'd at least try it. I don't own a 41 but I have had friends that had the plain jane S&W and Ruger BH's and I even at one point cast several thousand for my one friend who loved a medium plinking load and we'd shoot a coffee can of ammo at a time most days out.

It shoot flat and I didn't see much difference in impact results over my 44 mag. So I say give it a fair trial before you change it.

[EDK]

How many SUPER BLACKHAWKS did I convert to 5.5 inch BISLEYS?
How many of my 357 and 44 VAQUEROS are BISLEYS?
How many of my 22 SUPER SINGLE SIXES are BISLEYS?

You might be better served, regardless of caliber, to keep the 5.5 inch barrel length. Almost all of the above mentioned guns are 5.5 inch (except for the 7.5 inch 44 VAQUEROS WITH HUNTER grip frames) and they work a lot better than the 4.75...for me anyhow.

You could put a DRAGOON or a HUNTER grip frame on the gun. Then you could give the BISLEY parts to your beloved older brother.

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

[BorderBrewer]

Rich,
I have a 5.5" stainless bisley blackhawk from a run that Acusport did a few years back. 41 mag is a great cartridge especially in a bisley. Put the bisley conversion on it and see how you like it.

[Matthew 25]

I think you should leave it as a 41. If a bear comes out and kills you, make it a 45 next time.

[exile]

I have a .41 and like it. My thoughts would be keep it as is and convert something else that needs some TLC to begin with. A .41 single-shot? Where can I find one?

exile

[Bullshop]

..... the 45 is well known as the most perfect balance of all things sought after by those enlightened souls in handgunning. .....
:) handgun only? :)

[Char-Gar]

I have owned one 41 Mag, and it was a Smith and Wesson 57. If was one of the most accurate handguns I have owned and had plenty of power for anything I wanted to shoot. Even so, I sold it in favor of 44 Magnum handguns.

When a man gets a hankering for a custom sixgun, he should not let logic and need stand in his way. Do what brings you joy!

[David LaPell]

Please don't do it. Please from us .41 fans leave it be. There are some very nice .45 Colt revolvers out there. (I know of a near flawless NM Blackhawk in .45 Colt 5 1/2 inch barrel that will cost you the price of the conversion). I have shot and lived and loved many .41 Magnums and .45 Colts, and now instead of trying to figure which I wanted, I have both.

[theperfessor]

A .41 mag w/a 220 gr SWC at 1200+ fps is nothing to sneeze at. I'd leave it alone. We all need to buy new dies and molds from time to time...

[bhn22]

9 out of 10 of the voices in my head think you should convert it to 45 Colt, if that's what you want to do. I've had a couple of 41 mags, and felt that their limited performance was a waste of the necessarily large revolver frames. The 41 is a good cartridge, but you can load down a 44 or 45 to match the .41 level of performance, but the 41 can't come close to the maximum performance of the 44 mag or the 45 Colt. A 45 Colt with a tight, custom chamber is everything a sane man really needs. Now the 41 Special, however...

[Dan Cash]

Convert and you will be sorry. I have both calibers, several of each. Each has its place but if I want something thumped I will pull my six inch nickle Smith .41.

[bhn22]

Ruger probably made tens of thousands of 41 mag Blackhawks. If it were a Redhawk, I'd advise against it, but it's a run of the mill production Blackhawk. It's nothing special. Now a custom 45 Colt Blackhawk, with tight chambers, that's special.

[Bass Ackward]

Well, you have a real problem.

You don't want to build a custom on a gun that has poor construction / alignment. Bits have a tendency to follow holes that are already there. So if the barrel is not correct in the frame or the base pin is off, chambers going in all directions, it will take special care by someone that is aware of the issue to get those things corrected. And sometimes, they still can't be made right.

So why spend big money to build on a set-up that has a better than average chance of coming back to you misaligned with larger holes in it?

Ok then, how do you find out if you have a good / bad gun? Uh huh, and you need the dies and stuff to find that out.

So the decision is made unless you want to spin the wheel.

[Lonerider]

Keep the .41 Ruger, and look for a different platform. I have had the Ruger Blackhawk in the
41. and I regret letting her go. Its a great cartridge and in some ways, I think better then the 44 mag hypes.

You may want to give that conversion to a Bisley grip frame a thought, if you do, I do not thing you will be dissappointed. A 41. Mag in a bisley would be sweet!

But I like the .45 in a ruger also, so I am no help here. I think spending the money to do a conversion to a 45 is a waste of money. If I was you, I would keep the .41 and find a USED .45 Ruger and then have that one tightened up. I believe you would save a pile of money and still accomplish what you want to do. You asked, so thats my thoughts.

Lonerider

[Thumbcocker]

See if someone who loads .41 will let you put a few rounds through it. If it's a tack driver my voices always say "never get rid of a gun that shoots good for you".

[white eagle]

looks as though the suspicions
for the other thread were true

[bhn22]

looks as though the suspicions
for the other thread were true

I noticed that too.

[canyon-ghost]

A .41 mag w/a 220 gr SWC at 1200+ fps is nothing to sneeze at. I'd leave it alone. We all need to buy new dies and molds from time to time...


Tried that, with 220 gr Keith and 15.7 grain of 2400 (starting load), it still shoots 1315 fps!
Where on the big wide internet does it say a 45 kills a bear better than a 41? It doesn't take that much powder to make the 41 Remington Magnum convince anyone that it works for any sized game including bear.
Is it nice? Until she decides to play hard then you'll know it! http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/3rdshooter/contenders/Blackhawk003.jpg

[canyon-ghost]

I have a .41 and like it. My thoughts would be keep it as is and convert something else that needs some TLC to begin with. A .41 single-shot? Where can I find one?



Exile, I got an idea: http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/3rdshooter/contenders/41RemingtonMagnumHandcannon001.jpg

[MT Gianni]

I noticed that too.

It's in the Political section.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I have owned more than a dozen Ruger Blackhawks in 45LC, and examined probably two hundred in SASS shooting. None of them had cylinder throats under .456". Soooooooooo, that .452 boolet expands in the throat to .456-.457", hits the forcing cone, and is swaged back down to fly down a .452" barrel. And then, people wonder why the 45LC is perceived as less accurate than the .44, etc. I did a 44Mag about fifteen years ago, using the same gunsmith, and it shot like a rifle. Ross Seyfried gave me the idea when I was out at his ranch in Rogen, CO, just before he sold out there and moved to LaGrande, OR.

Any of you have a revolver that just does not want to shoot? Push an oversize round ball thru each chamber throat and one down the barrel from the back; and see how much pressure swaging, up and then back down you do. Might scare you. The chamber reamer my gunsmith uses has a chamber big enough to load .454" boolets. His throat mikes .4545". It was ordered that way. The one he did waaaaaaaaaaay back when would shoot a 6-shot group at 50 yds under 1" from a Ransom Rest.

The other thing, Mt Gianni mentioned: where, pray tell, is the Political Section?

[edit]

cordially yours,

Rich

[bhn22]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=50

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

still visible for now...

thanks,

Rich

[Char-Gar]

For the record: I had nothing to do with this thread being sanitized.

45 Nut, has the right to set whatever standards he wants and then enforce them however he wants. I may or may not agree, but I won't challenge him on his right to do so. Over the years, I have found him to be fair in his decisions.

With that, I let this thing go and others can process it however they wish.

[Lonerider]

Hi guys, I am not sure what is going on with this thread and what does political section have anything to do with it?

I am sure it must be something of noteworthy with 3 or 4 of ya talking about something that doesn't have anything to with the 41. mag discussion.


For the record: I had nothing to do with this thread being sanitized.
Chargar, what does this mean?

Still new to castboolits, so I am not up on all the admin. stuff.

Thanks,

Loneider

[Char-Gar]

Lonerider.. A belated welcome to the board you will learn much and rub shoulders with a bunch of good guys. We have out little spats from time to time, but they are as Shakespear said.. "A Tempest In A Teapot.

So pour some lead and go shooting...

[zxcvbob]

So roughly what would it cost to get a new cylinder cut with a minimum-sized .45 Colt chamber reamer (maybe use a .454 Casull reamer) and fitted to a .45 Blackhawk or Bisley? And who could get ahold of Ruger cylinder blanks and cut them? Bowen?

[2 dogs]

My advice is to sit down and shoot it carefully first. You may find you have an exceptionally accurate sixgun. It would be a shame to modify a perfectly good shooter....