S&W model 41?

[818-DVC]

Hi

I have been looking to start shooting "open" rimfire steel. I have several .22 semi auto pistols from the '40's & '50's. Colt woodsman bull barrel or "match target", a high standard, and a couple of 22/45 mkI &mkII's, and my favorite, a S&W model 41. I like it so much and it is so valuable for a .22 that I have reservations about cutting it up. I like the 22/45's but they rarely run a full mag reliably. I'm not breaking up my pair of colts!

I know I can buy a new slide & barrel from Clark that I can cut up, restoring the pistol to it's original condition, and I can buy grips that I can sand to replace the original as well.

I like this gun so much that I don't want to do anyhting to ruin it, but I think they are the coolest and rarest optical rimfire guns out there. I know a few people here have some that Randy or Billy Abbate build for SCSA, but is it "practical"?

Should I leave it alone & look into a buckmark to thrash on and just build a dedicated rimfire gun, or should I just get a tac-sol .22 conversion for my xx11'S

I plan to shoot both limited & optical rimfire auto this august. Would love to be training and shooting matches ASAP.

I have my bad concience on my left telling me to shut up and build the 41. My good conscience says to use a tac-sol or buy a used buckmark cheap and go "buck" wild!

What to do?

JL

JL

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: My son and I use either a Ruger 22/45 that I lightened the barrel on or a Browning Buckmark with a short barrel. They both use Alchin mounts and C-More's. They have been very reliable using Federal ammo from Walmart. They do not like Remington bulk box. The biggest thing with rimfire shooting is getting ammo that works. Once you find some buy lots of it so that your gun will run. The model 41 is a beautiful pistol but the cost was what I was looking at. Most of the ones you see cost over $2000 when they are finished. Another option may be a conversion for your pistol. Tactical Solutions make some good ones. We use 8 mags for each pistol to have spares and ease loading time. You will have to factor that into the cost of a conversion as well. Hope this helps. Thanks, Eric

[818-DVC]

It does help. Thans Eric .

JL

[Rolex]

I use a Ruger MKIII with a 5.5 inch TS barrel,

and a slide ride CMore 6moa. Thing is out standing.

Keep the 41 stock

[Fireant]

Shoot, I have a tricked out 41 with a Bully barrel and cmore. A buddy of mine took his 41 and picked up another barrel and started making chips. It is ugly as hell, but it cut down the weight, and shoots great. Find you an extra barrel, new grips and have at it. But of course I don't have any show queens in my safe.

[818-DVC]

I do. Quite a few collectibles, including this wierd left handed grip 41 that I picked up for $400 at a swap meet 20 odd years ago. I shoot it with the wrong grips and it is truely awesome. It is in LNIB condition. I was told that LH versions are extremely rare, making it more collectible. I'm not going to buy another for $1000+. I'm starting to think it may not be such a great idea, though I simply love my 41 and think it would make the coolest looking steel gun. That's just not practical unless I can fully restore it back to it's original condition. My trigger is under 3#, so aside from stoning and polishing internals, hacking up a Clark slide for $650 Clark will make it run with their slides & barrels, accurize, and perform reliability & trigger job. I know reliability has a lot to do with what you feed it. Though I'm sure it would put a lot of smiles on my face! Last weekend after seeing Gman Barts gun in action, I brought it to a 100 yard range and could hit everything from a string of steel targets 20 yards out as well as the 100 yard strings with the factory bomar and tall post fr sight. It felt like cheating. I tried it with my 6" .40 w minor loads and wasn't nearly as accurate or as fast. What am I thinking? Is this even a possibility?

[dagger10k]

From what I remember, the current rimfire open world champion used a buckmark with a c-more on it. Didn't look like he even changed the barrel.

That's almost exactly the same gun I use, and while I am not nearly that good, I can tell you that the gun is far from uncompetitive. It may not be super nice, but if you are just looking to win, I'd go no further than a Buckmark with a c-more parked on top of it.

[818-DVC]

I have heard this on a few accounts, and that is why I considered it a very viable option. I don't want to win a beauty pageant, but I love my 41and I love what i have seen done to them. I just want to win and not experience too much equipment failure. I have a spare 8moa, so all I need is the buckmark. What model is the hot buckmark for this type of game?

Run it bone stock? I been reading most issues with buckmarks are modifications and cheap bulk ammo. If you leave it alone it seems to be as reliable as a .22 semi auto with great accuracy. Sounds very cost effective too.

[eisenhow]

I like the 22/45's but they rarely run a full mag reliably.

Have you tried a Volquartsen Edge Extractor? My regular MkIII was flawless since new but my 22/45 couldn't get through a mag until I replaced the extractor.

[jkatz44]

I like the 22/45's but they rarely run a full mag reliably.

Have you tried a Volquartsen Edge Extractor? My regular MkIII was flawless since new but my 22/45 couldn't get through a mag until I replaced the extractor.

Mine has worked flawlessly with cheap, bulk Federal ammo and with CCI minimags. BTW, mine is stock with thousands of roundds. It doesn't work well with the bulk Remington ammo.

[818-DVC]

I never modified a ruger mk. I'll have to look into it. I have a 5.5 bull that I wouldn't mind trying to get to run right.

[photoracer]

You could do well with either a Ruger or a Browning. Until you can get close to the top times the gun is not a big part of the equation except for reliability. Unmodified factory guns are generally the best for reliability and a wide range of ammo choices. Now I say that with a grain of salt because we all know that many guns used for competition do need a few things done to improve the workings under heavy and rapid fire use. Of the 3 guns I have, Browning Buckmark, Ruger 22/45, and S&W 22S, the most reliable might be the S&W. Not because it works better because all three work flawlessly as long as I use the correct ammo, but because it rarely cares what kind of ammo is in the mags. But it is heavy, the grips are junk with with few choices, almost no aftermarket parts, and you have to hack off part of the top rail if you want to put a comp on it. The Ruger I won at a Ruger Rimfire match. I've put a VQ comp on it and added the VQ tuning kit to it and it shoots pretty nice. But the ergonomics suck. I hate both the slide release and the safety, the mags don't go in very well even after massaging them some, and the grip sucks. Now I've got a kit to change the grips and I will do that soon, but in reality the only gun I like to shoot all the time is the Buckmark. In the last 3 events I've done the only things that have not gone perfect is a few rounds not firing. I still plan on doing some spring tuning to see if I can get total reliability using standard velocity ammo but it currently feeds and runs CCI Mini-Mags with zero problems.

So mostly I'm trying to tune myself these days.

[calishootr]

I would cringe at 'making chips' on my 41's...but then again, that just me, i have more than 1 MKII, that have been modified for whatever reason, usually a trigger job and some different sights/dots and they run, as for grip angles and mag releases and such, i look at it this way, it isnt a 1911, and never will be, i use it for what it is, a cheap and reliable way to practice and teach newbies, if they are cleaned and lubed, they run like crazy, least for me, my 41's are somewhat tempermental, take standard vel. ammo, which is becoming hard to find or is expensive, my MKII with an alfaro mount/PDP3/trigger job and a box of run of the mill remmy golds??? no probs

[40S&W]

Have a bullseye competition Mod 41 5.5" barrel. Made the following modifications for steel plate competition.

1. Bought 7" barrel and had it cut to 5.5" (7" barrel is lighter than the standard 5.5" barrel). Barrel cut to 5.5" in case I want to add a comp.in the future.

2. Fluted the barrel to lighten the pistol.

3. Had the barrel rear tang removed. Less chance of any ejection problems and lightens the pistol.

4. Installed 1911 style grips. Lightens the pistol also.

5. Had 1911 grips cut & Alum. magwell installed. Easier mag insertion when shooting requires mutiple mag changes.

7. Added basepads to the mags and trimmed the basepads to fit the mags, needed with the magwell.

6. Installed picatinny rail on modified barrel & mounted the Aimpoint COMP XD 7 MOA that I had on the bullseye pistol.

Total cost was $425.00. Shoots flawlessly and accurately, I only shoot CCI Standard Velocity 40 GR. Lead Roundnose. That's why no comp. don't want to deal with the lead buid-up in the comp.

I can return the pistol to its original condition by re-installing all the original parts. No fuss, no muss, no hacking up a Model 41 and it serves dual purposes and I still have my Model 41.

[mark carr]

This gun ran great I shot 15 ruger challenge events last year with no failures threaded barrel michelic comp volquartsen trigger and a c-more

[hanexp]

I have a question similar to the OP. I hope it is appropriate to post it within this thread. I've searched the forum for an answer. Perhaps I didn't search properly. Anyway,

What is the hot optical sight set up for steel open rimfire, if one isn't squeamish about modifying a M41? I have a 5.5" that has already been lightened and the iron sights removed. No concerns about chipping it now. Mine currently has an Ultra Dot mounted. If a C-more is best, what is the best way to mount the C-more? Would a C-more be more practical than say an STS style sight for an open rimfire?

Thanks for your thoughts or any pointers to the info I'm looking for.

[Jaxshooter]

I have a Clark Steel Challenge barrel on my 41 with a C-More and aluminum magwell and Herrett grips. The top of the Clark barrel ends at the breach so there is no chance of brass hitting the top strap of the barrel and jamming. The magwell extends the grip making it nice for big hands. I can put the gun back together to pure stock with either the factory 7" or 5.5" barrel in about 15 minutes.

[mark carr]

Hey hanexp I started last season with a doctor optics sight on my 22/45 it worked good but I prefer the manual brightness adjustment on the c-more I felt it worked a little better when the sun was at your back.

[GrumpyOne]

Don't laugh, but I'm using a S&W M22A with a plain old BSA red dot on it. Shoots accurate enough for steel challenge....

[Merlin Orr]

Don't laugh, but I'm using a S&W M22A with a plain old BSA red dot on it. Shoots accurate enough for steel challenge....

Shot one of these at a match about a month ago and it was not bad, pretty decent actually. Had one FTF and one FTE. The FTE was hung so bad it took numerous slide racks to clear. Probably the cheap ammo more than the inexpensive gun.

[mark carr]

Ya all these 22s take a little bit of experimenting with ammo I lucked out with this one it likes the cheap stuff

[GrumpyOne]

Don't laugh, but I'm using a S&W M22A with a plain old BSA red dot on it. Shoots accurate enough for steel challenge....

Shot one of these at a match about a month ago and it was not bad, pretty decent actually. Had one FTF and one FTE. The FTE was hung so bad it took numerous slide racks to clear. Probably the cheap ammo more than the inexpensive gun.

It's great with CCI mini mags, but bulk ammo pretty much sucks in it.

[mark carr]

Yep my 22/45 likes blazers my 10/22 likes Winchester white 250rd box. My buckmark liked RWS R50 that's why I don't shoot it anymore.

[bobtorre]

I give you Jefes,,, the Terminator

and yes, yes,,, that's my workbench

Edited December 19, 2010 by bobtorre