The .41 Colt

Love/Hate

What I hate is the .41 Colt is not exactly a handloading sweetheart. When I first started handloading for a nice Colt SAA .41 in 1982, factory ammo was rarely encountered, reloadable brass and proper bullet molds were almost nonexistent. Finally, having gathered the necessary items, my first handloads would have been embarrassing if anyone else had been present. The pull of the sixgun’s trigger resulted in a “pow” rather than a “bang” and the bullets actually bounced off my half-inch plywood target backboard. We will get back to this later.

Without delving into definite introduction dates, here’s how the .41 Colt story played out. In the 1870s a little pop-gun called Colt’s New Line Pocket revolver was introduced. Its cartridge was .41 Colt with a case length nominally of 0.63″ with 163-grain heel-type lead bullet over 15 grains of black powder. A few years later, along with the revolutionary Colt Model 1877DA, a more powerful .41 Colt load appeared. It had a 0.93″ case with 200-grain heel-type lead bullet and 21 or 22 grains of black powder. This second round gained the moniker “Long” and the former one was then called “Short.” Various sources rate these heel-type bullets as being from 0.401″ to 0.408″ in diameter. The single .41 Short Colt round in my collection has a 0.401″ bullet.

In my opinion, heel-type bullets were the idea of a handloading demon. They have a full diameter upper body with a reduced diameter shank to fit inside the cartridge case. Bullet lube was usually carried in exposed grooves on the full-diameter part. This type of bullet was deadly — not because it was fired from powerful revolvers but because all the crud stuck to the exposed lube, setting up horrible infections if one lodged in a victim’s body. The same crud did nothing beneficial for revolver barrels either.

Another Idea

Sometime in the late 1800s an unknown person involved in ammunition production got a brainstorm. I imagine him thinking, “Why don’t we make the bullet fit inside the case just like .44 S&W Russian and .45 Colt had done since the early 1870s?” The fly in the ointment was this — Colt .41 barrels were 0.400″ to 0.408″ across their rifling grooves and reducing bullets enough to fit inside cartridge cases made them only 0.386″. Of course the Civil War was recent history at the time and the most famous projectile used therein was the Minie Ball. It was a hollow-based, pure lead bullet, undersized in regards to rifle-musket barrels. Minie Balls would slide easily down a rifled barrel. When fired the soft lead “skirts” of the projectile expanded into rifling grooves. The miracle isn’t such a system worked but that it worked so well — to the distress of hundreds of thousands of Civil War soldiers.

And so, another .41 “Long” Colt was born. Cases were made 1.13″ with a deep hollow base in a 200-grain very blunt bullet. Powder charge remained 21/22 grains. By the early 1900s factory loads with smokeless propellants became available.

Back At The Bench

Now back to handloading. In 1982 I managed to find an old Lyman bullet mold #386177. Sadly it was the heel-type design. Also found were “new” .41 Long Colt factory loads in plain white boxes. The supposed story is Winchester made a million rounds in the 1970s for some distributor. They were good — my SAA shot great with them and I got brass for reloading. The handloads giving bouncing bullets carried Bullseye powder. The heel-type bullets just set friction tight over the powder. No crimp was possible. (A friend figured out a possible crimp by altering wire-stripping pliers but that’s another story.) Even fast burning Bullseye would not ignite properly without a crimp even with magnum primers. End of story; the Colt was sold.

My second work with the .41 Colt went much better. (Note: Never have I seen a Colt revolver of any type stamped “.41 Long Colt.”) Along the way I acquired Lyman’s long discontinued bullet mold #386178 for a 200-grain hollowbase 0.386″ bullet. Also a (now defunct) mold maker named Rapine offered a hollowbase 200-grain 0.386″ bullet. My Colt SAA and 1877DA Thunderer shot fine with either bullet.

Full Circle

And then things changed. I decided my vault needed a large assortment of World War II firearms. A dozen years ago all the .41 Colt revolvers and reloading tools were sold to scratch this itch. I should have known better. My favorite song by the late Harry Chapin was “Circle” and it’s exactly what I’ve done. In 2020 I bought two .41 Colts: a fine Colt SAA and another Thunderer, and picked up a spare .41 Colt cylinder for my SAA .38-40.

Also spent were several hundred gun’riter bucks for more reloading tools. The situation is easier now. Starline makes .41 Long Colt brass and a hollowbase mold for 200-grain flat nose bullets arrived five days after ordering. I’m purposefully saving the details of the mold and its maker for another column because ingenuity deserves better than a mere mention.

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