Years back I got out of .44 Magnums. I didn’t reload, I wasn’t hunting and commercial ammo had gotten too bloody expensive to shoot them for pleasure. Times change though- I’ve taken up reloading and am hunting again. The property I hunt has a lot of brush and heavy cover- typical shots are 7-20 yards and you almost never get a shot over fifty yards. A handgun seemed a natural choice for the conditions, so I decided it was time to get another .44 Magnum.

A couple of years ago I went looking. The budget was, as always, limited so I expected a long search for something cheap enough but suitable. Nope- first time I walked into Pinto’s there it was- a US Arms Abilene .44 Magnum with a 7-1/2″ ported bull-barrel. It’s in remarkably good condition- the finish looks like it’s made out of black glass, there is no end-play and the cylinder locks up super-tight. The cylinder gap is .002 inches, and when you cock it the clicks are super-sharp and almost musical. Moreover these guns were popular with silhouette shooters for their accuracy and durability. $375? Shut up and take my money!

In the 70’s and 80’s long range silhouette shooting was the big game. In 1972 Sig Himmelmann founded United States Arms and designed the Abilene revolver.  United Sporting Arms and United States Arms were originally one company, but in 1977 the company split, with United sporting arms producing the Seville, and United States Arms producing the Abilene. Unfortunately U.S.Arms did not prosper, and in 1980 Mossberg’s AIG division bought them out. They continued producing the Abilene from parts on hand, and people immediately began noticing quality-control issues. Production stopped when the parts on hand ran out, and the Abilene faded into the past. Though mostly forgotten now, in their day these were a top-quality premium revolver. Now they go cheap because nobody remembers what they are. On the one hand that’s a shame, because these really are superb revolvers. On the other hand it meant I could afford one, so it’s not all bad.

I’d been thinking I’d shorten whatever I got to 4-5/8″ for packability, but I think I’m going to leave this one alone. Despite the bull-barrel it hangs very nicely in the hand. I tried it out at the range and using Sellier & Bellot 240gr. JSPs I was able to shoot a 2-5/8″ off-hand group at 25 yards with one flyer-

Unfortunately I had issues with the Sellier & Bellot ammo- I had a misfire about once per cylinder. The primer strikes looked good, they just didn’t go off until I re-struck them. I tested the gun with primed brass and it got 100% ignition. I’m a little surprised; S&B ammo has been my go-to cheap ammo for years. I suppose anyone can have a bad day, even ammo manufacturers. I said cheap ammo, but this stuff is expensive- after tax it was going to be $40 for a box of suitable ammo. Thor and I (yes, that’s his real name) poked around the store and came up with a set of used RCBS steel dies, a can of case-lube and 100 bullets for total of $55. What the heck, I was going to buy dies anyway.

The bullets are 260 grain HC-LSWCs at about 15 Brinell hardness. This is about right I think; Hard enough to retain weight well but not so hard it acts like FMJ. I loaded this on top of 9.3gr. of Unique with a CCI Large Pistol primer. This ought to get 1175-1200 fps. for around 800ft./lbs. of energy. More than adequate for local Blacktails.

Works a treat- recoil is not trivial but not bad at all; like a stout .357 magnum in a medium-frame revolver.

The gun isn’t perfect- the grips are very fat. This handles recoil well but isn’t all that comfortable in my hand. I narrowed them at the front and center but left the back fat for recoil management. I also refinished the grips with British Tan leather dye and a hand-rubbed wax finish. Much more comfortable. I made a holster for it- nothing fancy, but functional. It’s been hunting with me a couple of times, but no luck yet. Next month I’ll be east of the mountains hunting coyotes, and the Abilene will be coming along.

I really love this gun; great shooter, very good looking and it practically oozes quality. And for the price? Very happy indeed!

Michael Tinker Pearce, 20 February 2020

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Around the turn of the millenium I encountered a most curious creature at my local gun shop; a compact, 5-shot stainless revolver chambered in .41 Magnum. I’m a sucker for a big-bore snubby, and it’s not overstating things to say it was lust at first sight. This was the Taurus Model 415, and I wanted it bad. I did not get it. Finances were tight, the ammo was bloody expensive and… well life and all that.

Flash-forward to early 2020. I walked into McCallen Defense and there, in the case, was a pristine Model 415 at a rather stunningly good price. This was even more stunning when Chris informed me that the gun came with ammunition, new brass and carbide reloading dies! A short ‘shut up and take my money’ later it was all over but waiting for the background check.

I picked up the gun today. Since it came with ammo and Champion Arms indoor range is on the premises, I decided that a little ‘getting acquainted’ session was in order.

The Caliber

.41 Magnum is, to all but hardcore wheelgun fans, a somewhat obscure cartridge these days, so perhaps a bit of history is in order. In the early 1960s several of the big names in handgun circles, namely Elmer Kieth and Bill Jordan, felt that a better police cartridge was needed. Hollow points were not readily available or in use at the time, and they felt that .357 Magnum was not as effective as a service cartridge should be, but that .44 Magnums were large and heavy, and the cartridge was a bit much for the average cop. Mind you, I have not uncovered much in the way of confirmation of their belief that .357 magnum was in any way insufficient , but that’s not really relevant.

These gentlemen, reportedly with some assistance from the renowned gun-detonator Skeeter Skelton, approached Remington with the idea of a .41 caliber cartridge, which could have a ‘mild’ law enforcement load that would propel a 200gr. LSWC at 900 fps., or a more powerful load pushing a 210gr. bullet around 1400 fps.

Remington, perhaps a bit magnum-happy at the time, produced the cartridge, but with a significantly more powerful ‘police’ load. S&W came on board, but rather than the intermediate sized weapon the boys had envisioned, simply chambered their N-frame revolver in the new cartridge. It was a perfect storm of bad implementation of a worthy idea; a cartridge with excessive recoil compare to .38 Special and .357 magnum revolvers but lacking the power of a .44 Magnum, chambered in a gun that was actually slightly heavier than a .44 magnum built on the same frame.

A few agencies adopted this new cartridge, but overall the reception was lukewarm. If Ruger hadn’t promptly chambered their popular Blackhawk revolver in this cartridge and introduced it to sportsmen, the .41 Magnum might have become just another footnote in firearms history. Thompson Center added it to their line of Contender barrels, handloaders explored and expanded the round’s potential. The cartridge was quite capable of taking any North American game, and some favored it because of it’s lighter recoil and flatter trajectory compared to .44 Magnum.

As a result the cartridge has survived, though it has never attained anything resembling the popularity of either .357 or .44 Magnum. As of this writing Smith & Wesson, Charter Arms, and Taurus all offer revolvers in .41 Magnum.

The Gun

Enter the Taurus Model 415. Produced from 1999-2003, it features a drop-forged stainless-steel frame, a 2-1/2″ barrel with a full under-lug and six circular ports in the barrel, flanking the front sight, to assist in managing the gun’s not insubstantial recoil. It is fitted with a Taurus Gripper neoprene grip, which looks a bit odd but is secure and comfortable in the hand, and also helps the shooter to cope with recoil. The gun weighs 30.4 ounces according to my scale, and while Taurus made a Titanium-framed version for masochists, you really wouldn’t want it much lighter than it is. In size it’s a bit larger than a S&W K-frame, but not so much so that it doesn’t fit in my K-frame holster.

The stainless gun is a ‘frosted’ matte silver color, and the fit and finish is very good. The fixed sights are clear and sharp, but the front sight might benefit from a colored surface; I’ll attend to that presently. The double-action trigger is not heavy, quite smooth but not exceptional. The single action has a tiny bit of creep, but I didn’t even notice it until I really looked for it.

The ammunition that came with the gun was Winchester’s 175gr. Silver-tip hollow-point. If my math is close it should be leaving this short barrel in the neighborhood of 900fps., yielding about 315 ft.lbs. of energy. More on that later.

So what’s it like to shoot a short-barreled, medium-frame .41 Magnum? Well, with this ammo it’s a lot like shooting a short-barreled, medium frame .357 Magnum. OK, I won’t kid you; it’s a hoot. There is a definite rush, for me at least. The jets of flame shooting up next to the sight were quite visible in the indoor range and a bit disconcerting on the first shot, but after that I ignored them. Recoil is substantial, but if you are used to shooting powerful revolvers it’s quite manageable. The neoprene Gripper grips do a good job of keeping things from becoming uncomfortable.

Let’s talk about that recoil for a moment, and the ported barrel. Ports do not reduce recoil. If you propel a bullet of x-weight at y-velocity it produces z-recoil, and ports do not change that. What ports do do is to bring the muzzle back on target faster, and on this gun that seemed to work well. I shot a couple cylinders at a brisk pace, then did a full-on rapid-fire string. It was slightly brutal, and while there was no timer in use I think I put five rounds of 41 Magnum on target in roughly the time it takes me to put six .38 Specials downrange.

The gun shoots a little high and right for me, but that could be me as easily as the gun. We’ll see what happens with more practice. I did run a target out to 25 yards, and careful double action shooting produced… well, let us draw the curtains of charity over the group that resulted, and hope that will improve with practice. I’m really pretty sure it was me, not the gun. It usually is…

Make no mistake, this is not a gun for everyone, but it is a gun for me. I only had a few cylinders full to shoot today, but I had an absolute, uh… blast.

But… why?!

When I try to be a sensible adult and apply my years of study and experience, big bore snubbies really don’t make a lot of sense. Oh, I totally adore them, don’t get me wrong. For a companion gun when tromping our local wilderness it arguably has a place; with the right load it will handle anything of the four-legged variety that I am likely to run into, and it’s compact packaging and double-action are an argument in it’s favor in that role.

How about as an EDC? OK, let’s look at that. My 3″ K-frame .38 has a loaded weight that is just shy of two pounds, the Taurus has a loaded weight about 2 ounces heavier. Not much to choose between them there. The Taurus’s grip is noticeably larger, but not too big to accommodate, particularly at this time of year when I normally wear a coat.

The 415 is a fair bit more powerful; the .38 +P HST Micros in my .38 make about 204 ft./lbs. compared to the 315 ft./lbs from the .41. But I am a disciple of The Holy Church of Hit Location, and am unconvinced that five rounds of .41 Magnum will serve me better than six rounds of .38 Special. OK, it’s not that likely they’ll serve me worse, either, but that isn’t an argument for switching.

There is one argument, though- if I am going to use this gun as a sidearm for wilderness excursions I want to be as familiar and comfortable with it as possible. Besides, it already fits my holster… Five-Star Firearms makes an excellent billet-aluminum speed loader for this gun, and as I write this there are two on order, so when those arrive and I’ve had a bit of practice with them I’ll start packing this gun.

When you want something for a long time and finally get it, there’s always a little fear that it will not be all you had hoped. In this case it is, and I’m delighted that I was able to finally pick one up.

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship…

Michael Tinker Pearce, 15 February, 2020

ADDENDA: OK, as Jim Downey has pointed out, my math is NOT correct. I suffered a rush of excrement to the brain and failed to take the length of the cylinder into account as part of the ‘barrel’ for test purposes. Oops.

The revised energy figures are complicated by the muzzle-gap and porting, but my energy figures for both the .41 Magnum Silvertip and the .38 +P HST Micro are about 30-35% low, meaning the Silvertips are likely closer to 400 ft./lbs and the HST is getting more like 275 ft./lbs. I’ll need to chronograph these loads to produce a more exact figure.

Good catch, Jim, and thank you!

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HISTORY

In 1889 Colt jumped-started the new age of revolvers with their New Army/New Navy models. These established the template for the modern double-action revolver was we know it today, with the ability to be fired either double or single action and a swing-out cylinder with it’s own ejector.

Many claim that the swing-out cylinder is Colt’s invention, but this is patently untrue. Some Belgian gun makers were making swing-out cylinder double action revolvers as early as the 1860s, but Colt can certainly be credited for refining this into the revolver we recognize today.

The Navy was quick to adopt Colt’s new revolver, and the Army followed shortly after. Yes, these were the Colt .38s that famously failed to stop charging warriors in the Philippines. This lead to the rapid development of the New Service in larger calibers, though it is unclear that this had the desired effect. These native warriors were hard to stop with a .30-40 Krag rifle, so adding a few hundredths of an inch to pistol bullet was unlikely to have had a significant effect.

Colt continued to develop this revolver, giving a new year/model designation to each upgrade, resulting in one gun with a bewildering variety of model names.

Colt introduced the Army Special in 1908, with an improved mechanism based on the New Service and New pocket models, and it was an instant success with both law enforcement and civilians. This new models was stoutly made and able to handle more powerful cartridges like the .32-20, .38 Special and .41 Colt Long.

This model formed the basis for every medium-framed Colt up to the Python. So few changes were made during this period that some parts from a 1908 Army would function in a Python made nearly a century later.

The Army Special could be had with a blue or nickel finish, with barrels ranging from 4-6 inches. The original grips were hard black rubber, but these were changed to checkered walnut in 1923.

The Army never officially adopted the Army Special. There are some indications that some were purchased as ‘second standard’ revolvers, but I have been unable to verify this. In 1927 Colt changed the name to the Official Police, and it remained popular with law enforcement well into the 1980s.

These are a quite robust revolver; Colt claimed they could fire .38-44 loads, and this claim is to some degree substantiated by the introduction of .357 Magnum models based on the same frame.

CONTEXT

It’s important to judge these guns as artifacts of the period in which they were introduced. 19th Century Americans were slow to embrace double-action triggers on service pistols, though they were common on pocket revolvers, and both Colt and Smith & Wesson had double action service revolvers. In 1908 the orthodoxy for police agencies was that these guns were treated as single-actions, with double-action reserved for point-blank emergency use. It is not surprising then that these guns are at their best when used as such. Any fair review should take this into account.

The New Service revolver was notorious for a heavy double-action trigger pull. The famous Fitz cutting away the front of the trigger guard was not as reckless or dangerous as it seems today; there’s very little likelihood that this trigger can be pulled by anything but a fair amount of deliberate effort! The single-action pull isn’t light either, but there is no creep and very little over-travel.

There were early pioneers of double-action gunfighting, but it was not uncommon for some police departments to treat their revolvers as primarily single actions as late as the 1950s.

REVIEW

Our specific review gun is a 6″ barreled example in .38 Special, manufactured in 1911. Little is left of the original blue finish; there is an overall uniform patina and no evidence of rust or pitting. The timing is excellent, but there is some slight endplay and sideplay in the cylinder. Nothing unsafe, mind you, or even close to it. Certainly not out of the ordinary for a well-used gun of this vintage.

Grips are of the correct type for it’s year of manufacture; no way to tell if they are original to this gun. The bore and forcing cone are excellent; the gun appears to have been well maintained.

The trigger pull is… well, let’s not mince words here. It’s bloody heavy. Heavy enough that a modern trigger gauge couldn’t measure it, placing it at something over 12 lbs. On the other hand it’s glass-smooth, with no stacking, so while it is heavy it’s not difficult to achieve accuracy. This single action pull is also heavy; I’d put it at around 6 lbs., but it has no take-up or creep, and very little over-travel.

The fixed sights are typical for it’s era, that is to say awful. A narrow half-round front sight, and a narrow groove milled into the top of the frame above the hammer. Not easy to pick up quickly, and not very precise; the front sight almost completely fills the rear aperture. The good news is they shoot dead-on to point of aim at 7 yards, and a six-o’clock hold gives good results at 25 yards.

The grip works well for my rather large hand and the gun balances nicely. I was shooting some peppy (but not +P) loads, and while recoil was easily manageable, I found that if I wasn’t paying attention my hand would slide upwards on the grip. I expect that this is owed to the lack of significant re-curve in the back-strap of the grip frame. Once I realized it was an issue it was easy to counter. Your results may vary, of course, depending on your hand.

So, accuracy…

A funny moment in conjunction with that last target. Since I am now a member and have been qualified I can now shoot as rapidly as I like, and on that last target I did. A fellow from another lane saw what I was shooting and did a double take. “You’re shooting a revolver?!” He’d been sure it was a semi-auto. I’m no Jerry Mikulec, but I do alright…

SUMMARY

This is my second Army Special, and that fact alone is revealing; I like these guns. Within their limitations they shoot well and hold up to heavy use. You’d pay twice as much, or more, for a comparable revolver new… though you’d definitely get better sights! Parts are not a problem owing to the longevity of the design, nor are aftermarket grips.

Despite the ultra-optimistic Gunbroker sellers, if you shop around you can probably find a gun in this condition for $275- $400. Nicer guns are liable to run more, and top-end collector pieces with letter, box etc. will probably put you into four-digit prices.

For an affordable fun shooter with some character you could do a lot worse. If the price is right and the gun is sound I can’t think of a single reason not to pick one up, and I doubt you’ll be disappointed if you do.

I ‘Fitzed’ the first Army Special I bought- in fact I bought it for that purpose. Of course a buddy of mine back east fell in love with it, so… Anyway, not going to do that to this one. An idea that does intrigue me is to get a .41 Colt Long barrel and ream the chambers for .41 Special. Might make a fun and interesting gun…

Michael Tinker Pearce, 13 February 2020

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