ammunition nomenclature

[Bezoar]

I know marketing hype is king nowadays but can anyone explain the following for me?

38 special short
41 magnum short
41 magnum special
41 special

As far as i can tell the 38 spcl short is just a 125 grain lead roundnose bullet that looks alot like british military bullets for .38 sw

Ive seen 41 special refered to as both a low powered loading for 41 remington magnum. And i have seen it refered to as a 41 mag case shortened down so that a full weight 210gr bullet will fit inside the cylinder of a SAA clone with the same power as regular 41 mag.

Im just curious because its getting ridiculous.

 

[Jim Watson]

.38 Special Short is a Mag-Tech product that is approximately a .38 Short Colt with inside lubricated .358" bullet for use as a sub-load in .38 Special revolvers. I can only conclude that it is so named to minimize confusion for people with little background knowledge.
http://www.magtechammunition.com/store/p14details507.php

In my reading, .41 Special refers to .41 Magnum brass shortened to the 1.16" of .38 and .44 Special. Given loadings are NOT to full magnum power, but seem to run in the velocity range of heavy .38 Special and .44 Special loadings, say 900 fps, with bullet weights appropriate to the .41 caliber, 210 grains +/-. The guns used are mostly rechambered and rebored .357 Magnum revolvers.

There was one intrepid experimenter who shortened .41 Magnum brass to 1.0" but he just used it for light loads in magnum revolvers. He called that a .41 Special but was not in step with the several others using the term.

I have not heard of a .41 magnum short or a .41 magnum special.