In the mid-1960s, Smith & Wesson introduced the .41 Magnum to the handgun world, chambering it in its classic N-frame revolver. Writers of the day heralded the new cartridge by referring to it as the ultimate police round. Interestingly, some of the most famous writers, e.g., Elmer Keith, were not cops but rather serious outdoorsmen. It wasn’t uncommon for law enforcement personnel who endorsed the new .41 for police work to have operated in the open country along the Mexican border.
Perhaps the new magnum would have fared better in the market had the writers focused more on the .41 Mag’s outstanding capabilities as an all-purpose field handgun rather than a standard-issue gun for police departments that operated primarily in urban or suburban environments. These outdoor writers were all accomplished pistol shots and perhaps forgot that the average cop was neither a dedicated nor even accomplished marks-man. The way to upgrade marksmanship is not by dramatically increasing felt recoil! Finally, the police world’s surging interest in and ultimate domination by semi-auto pistols snuffed the .41 Magnum’s potential legacy as the perfect police handgun.
As it turns out, the “middle magnum” is alive and reasonably well today because it generated some devoted followers in the
