Two of my .41 caliber Contenders

[crawfish]

The SS gun is a .41GNR#2 by Reeder Custom Guns. The blue is a .41RemMag by BullBerry. The BullBerry gun was my first .41 caliber Contender. I now have 5. Like my signature says.......

[Tommyt]

Real nice looking

[Grey Eagle]

crawfish, how do you like the 41 GNR #2?  What bullets do you use and what kind of velocity and accuracy?

Thanks

[Madmark]

Some nice looking .41's there!!

[crawfish]

crawfish, how do you like the 41 GNR #2?  What bullets do you use and what kind of velocity and accuracy?

Thanks

 I love the .41GNR#2. I have loaded all the way to the 300g SSK and down to the Sierra 170g JHP.  I can get up to 2400fps with the 170g and 1400fps with the 300g (used 4227(not a fun round to shoot even in that big Contender). I have come to my senses and settled on the 250g WFNGC from CPBT or BearTooth at 1287+- out of these. I load all my .41s to that level, having found that the 250g cast at 1100-1250 will blow right through very large animals at 30 or less yards. I don’t need to kill them any deader nor beat myself up with 300g screemers.
I would have to say that my .41 caliber Contenders are about as accurate as you can get in that kind of platform. A 12 inch gong at 500 yards is routine with either of these. The captain of our local volunteer fire department uses my 12 inch .411JDJ to shoot handgun turkey shoots. I’ve never seen him pay out any money but man he sure makes it for the FD.

[haroldclark]

Hey Crawfish,

I recently acquired a 14" 41 mag and haven't decided what to do with it.  I'm 71 years old these days and recoil sensitive, so I have a lot of muzzle brakes.

What make of muzzle brake to you have on the stainless barrel in the picture.

Harold Clark

[crawfish]

The SS gun it the picture is a custom job by Gary Reeder in .41GNR#2 (full length .445Super neck sized to .41 caliber) . Gary has a name for it which escapes me at the moment. BTY the blue gun is a real sweetheart to shoot. If you are a reloader try a 215g lead bullet with 6.5g of Bullseye. I use that load to start my granddaughters. I'd rate it as a no/very low recoil load in those big Contenders.

[haroldclark]

Thanks for the 41 bullet and load.  I am very recoil sensitive and the 6.5 of Unique sounds right up my alley.

[cooper]

Crawfish, I'd like to toss this question to you.

I'm looking to make a 14" Contender in caliber 40/50 Sharps Straight.  I will use both smokeless, and black powder, loads in it.

The case is straight-sided and made from a 30/40 Krag case, cut to a length of  ------I can't remember right now but around 2" or so.  Bore/groove diameter would be .400"/.408".   The critical thing would be the twist.  I'd think it would need to be at least 1-18" for a 400 gr bullet, or maybe 1-20 or 1-22 for a 300 gr.

Do you know what twists the custom makers have, and do you know if they have barrels in .408" (aren't most 41 barrels .410 or .411?)

Any thoughts on how I should go about this?

[crawfish]

There are two people I know that could and would answer your question. One we can't name on here but I'll put his web site in an email if your post to me first. The other is J D Jones of SSK. his URL is :http://www.sskindustries.com/