Arkansas Sportsman

Social media offers outlets for all outdoor interests

One asset of social media is that you can find a "community" for all of your hunting and fishing interests.

On Facebook, for example, there is an Arkansas Crappie Fishing Talk page, an Arkansas Hunting page, an Arkansas BASS Nation page and a Mid-Arkansas Gun Owners Discussion Group. The network shut down the Gun Owners page for awhile because it turned into a gun bazaar. It resurfaced as a discussion-only group where members post pictures and information of their guns. Any transactions that might result are conducted elsewhere.

I was delighted to find a page devoted to my favorite handgun cartridge, the .41 Remington Magnum. It's a closed group containing more than 1,600 fellow .41 Mag. Enthusiasts.

This isn't a buying and selling page because .41 aficionados generally don't sell. We love to show off our toys and talk about new grips, trigger jobs, scopes and other modifications. We also share our favorite reloading data, and we post photos of our results on paper targets.

The .41 Magnum community breaks into two distinct camps, and each has offshoots. You've got the Smith & Wesson camp and the Sturm Ruger camp, since they are primary makers of .41 Mag. revolvers. The Smith & Wesson camp branches into the Model 57 and Model 58 camps, as well as a smaller 657 camp.

The Ruger camp branches into the Super Blackhawk and Redhawk camps. Surprisingly, the single-action Super Blackhawk seems to be the most popular model, probably because it is readily available, relatively inexpensive and very well made.

Taurus also made several models in .41 Mag., but Taurus is kind of like the American Motors of the firearms world. It's a niche market, but Taurus owners are loyal.

The Taurus Tracker would be ideal for backpacking or a hunting backup if not for its undersized cylinder that shortens overall cartridge length. That limits reloaders to smaller, lighter bullets than we use in our full-size wheelguns, but that's probably good when you consider the Tracker's light weight. Even with its ported muzzle and its ribbed rubber grip, it's probably very unpleasant to shoot.

Fans of the .41 often cite the .41's "gentle" recoil as an asset over the exponentially more popular .44 Remington Magnum. The .44 is a bit of a fraud because its bullet is actually .429 inches in diameter. The .41 is true to its name.

Their ballistics are similar, but the .44 is capable of handling a slightly heavier bullet with a slightly wider frontal diameter.

I load and shoot a lot of .41 Mag. rounds from a big Smith & Wesson 657, and it is not gentle. That'sprobably because I tend toward heavy charges of hot propellants. One of my buddies calls them "welding" loads. Their muzzle blast is ferocious, and they buck like a rodeo bull. I do not notice a difference between it and a .44 Mag. in a comparable Smith & Wesson frame.

On the other hand, I shot a smaller framed Smith & Wesson .44 at a writer's conference a few years ago that gave me a much different sensation. It was a most traumatic shooting experience. I fired six rounds, but one was quite enough.

Right after that I fired the then-new Smith & Wesson 500, a massive 50-cal. revolver. I expected to be punished, but it was a kitten compared to the small-frame, small-handle .44.

On any firearm forum, there's always at least one guy that can't resist acting superior. Somebody shopping for a new gun will explain how he's narrowed his choices to a Brand A and Brand B, and then he'll solicit advice on which to buy. These exchanges are always lively, and then "that" guy will chime in and suggest Brand X.

Or, somebody will solicit opinions about whether to buy a .270 or a 30-06. "That" guy will butt in and say "Neither! You ought to try the 300 Warbird," or some such.

A couple of those guys troll the .41 Magnum forum, too. Agent provocateurs, I call them.

So, why, you might wonder, am I so fond of the .41 Mag. when the .44 Mag. is more popular, .44 ammo is easier to find and available in more configurations, and there is a lot more reloading data available for the .44?

Because it's different, I guess. Not many people have a .41, so it's a conversation piece.

Plus, when my buds at deer camp sit around the fire talking about their .44s, I can always be "that" guy.

Sports on 08/21/2016

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