S&W 41 best years for quality

[ronsunni]

S&W Mod.41 best years for quality

I would like some information from the S&W 41 gurus. I have decided to look for an S&W Mod.41. The group that I shoot with (were all retired) have strongly advised me to find a pre owned 41 for the quality. Could some one supply me with the best years of production and if possible Serial # to look for.
Thanks for the help.
Ron

 

[Owen]

Uh, British Swine, the M41 is a semi auto .22, and is not available with either rubber grips or stainless.

The .41's are great guns. I have heard that the recent guns are not as accurate or reliable as the older ones (60's and 70's) but I have no real proof.

owen

 

[aircarver]

I have an early 70s Mod. 41 that crowded out a HiStandard as my favorite gun for industrial league .22 shooting that I used to do. It has never missed a beat, and shot better in competition that was, at that time, dominated by HiStandards.

Fit & finish were perfect, a fine example of an era before all S&W's craftsmen retired or died off. It had a preferance for remington standard velocity 22s. I prefer the heavy barrel 5 1/2" to the 'skinny' 7+ " job. More '1911' like.....

Guns are individuals, however. One of my team mates also had an 'era' Mod. 41 that would unexpectedly jam, and trying magazines from my gun, and three trips back to S&W wouldn't cure it. He eventually sold it.

Moral in there somewhare, is examine carefully what you're buying, and try to get an agreement for return it, if it won't pass a firing test.

 

[SnWnMe]

Mine is a mid 90s production. It shoots great. By far my most accurate handgun in spite of my old school K22s. I got a 2003 bbl from Smith recently and now even the functioning of the gun is flawless.

New or old, 41s tend to be finicky guns. You'll find this out in short order after you fire it with different brands of ammo. If not, then consider yourself lucky. Mine loves CCI SV and Green Tag. It shoots a few other brands okay and runs 100% as well.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I bought a Smith & Wesson model 41 new in about 1999. Out of the box, it had a terrible trigger, one magazine out of five that didn't work, major reliability problems, and a rear sight that kept falling off. After a considerable quantity of gunsmithing, it's now a mostly reliable target pistol with a so-so trigger.

It's not a High Standard.

 

[Sunray]

I've had mine for 30 years. It's very particular as to what ammo it will shoot. Some .22 target ammo won't cycle the action. But with the ammo it will shoot, and not all is high priced, it'll shoot better than me all day, every day. I've never seen any postings anywhere that say the new made 41's are anything but great. It's the only semi-auto that Smith makes well. Isn't cheap though.

 

[Graystar]

I bought my M41 in 2001 from a Sportsman's Warehouse that they had just got it in (they kept promising for months, then it finally arrived!) The serial number puts the manufacture time somewhere in 2000/2001. I don't know how many rounds I've put through it. I lost count a while ago.

The gun has been flawless. It simply has never jammed. Both mags work perfectly. The rear sight gives a very good sight picture and has never worked loose or given me any problem. The stock grip feels good to me so I've left it. The trigger is light and breaks clean.

I've decked out my Ruger Mark II Competition with every Volquartsen upgrade, short of an LLV barrel, but my M41 still feels better.

I bought the 7" model with the intention of having the barrel cut down by Lou Lombardi of Falcon Machining Ltd. The 7" model weighs the same as the 5" model. So a cut-down 7" would be lighter, and better balanced once you put a red dot sight on it. However, since then I've developed an affinity for iron sights. Now I wish I had bought the 5" barrel. Good thing is that I can just buy a 5" barrel if I want to.

There are two issues I have with the gun. There really should be some tool to grab and flip open the trigger guard. It hurts to do it by hand, and if you're not careful you could damage the trigger components by inadvertently placing lots of pressure against the trigger as you wrestle with the trigger guard. The other thing that gets me is that you can’t detail strip the slide without replacing the pin that holds it together. S&W sent me a couple pins when I raised the issue with them. But that’s not a solution.

Other than that, I’d say that, knowing what I know now, I would have never bothered with Ruger Mark IIs and would have just bought an M41 from the start.

 

[Khornet]

My 41 made in May 1970

is superb. It is selective about ammo, but so what. I don't have any trouble with the triggerguard takedown, but maybe that's because it's well broken in. It has the 51/2" bull barrel, and is rock-steady in rapid and timed fire.

I have had no difficulty detail-stripping the slide, Graystar. They must have changed something in recent production.

 

[Master Blaster]

I bought one NIB in 1999, 5.5" bull barrel model it has been flawless, and has one of the nicest brown (blued) finishes I have seen on any gun.

The rear sight is held on with 2 screws, since the barrel and the sights dont move when the gun cycles, there has been no detectible loosening of the sights.