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What About The .41 Action Express?
nunn
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,085 ******
I think the .41 Action Express would have been where the .40 Smith & Wesson is now, had the .40 S&W not come along.
What do you all think?
I thought the .41 AE was a heck of an idea. About the same size and ballistics as the .40, but with a rebated rim so that the 9mm extractor will work.
Imagine: You have a 9mm pistol, maybe a Colt Commander, Browning Hi-Power, Smith & Wesson, etc. You can convert it to a .40 caliber round, the .41 AE, by merely changing the barrel and magazine.
There are literally MILLIONS of 9mm pistols out there that could have been converted to a more potent round, and cheaply.
I was going to buy a 9mm Commander just so I could convert it, but the thing just didn't seem to catch on.
It seems the .40 S&W came out about that time and did catch on.
Why?
I think because the .41 would have sold barrels, and the .40 sold GUNS. Gun manufacturers want to sell guns, not parts. Gun manufacturers OWN the mainstream gun periodicals, so the .40 got big press, and the .41 AE was forgotten.
Another good idea down the tubes.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
What do you all think?
I thought the .41 AE was a heck of an idea. About the same size and ballistics as the .40, but with a rebated rim so that the 9mm extractor will work.
Imagine: You have a 9mm pistol, maybe a Colt Commander, Browning Hi-Power, Smith & Wesson, etc. You can convert it to a .40 caliber round, the .41 AE, by merely changing the barrel and magazine.
There are literally MILLIONS of 9mm pistols out there that could have been converted to a more potent round, and cheaply.
I was going to buy a 9mm Commander just so I could convert it, but the thing just didn't seem to catch on.
It seems the .40 S&W came out about that time and did catch on.
Why?
I think because the .41 would have sold barrels, and the .40 sold GUNS. Gun manufacturers want to sell guns, not parts. Gun manufacturers OWN the mainstream gun periodicals, so the .40 got big press, and the .41 AE was forgotten.
Another good idea down the tubes.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
Comments
ATF
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
However, it is much more fun to just convert an UZI to .45 acp where there is a lot more ammo available of different types, along with the bigger and harder hitting power. Cheaper too, than the .41 AE and many more choices.
The .41 AE might now be a "lost opportunity" because of the .40's but in just looking at a .41 AE will quickly change your mind.....UGLY! Just my two cents worth......sure like firing a .45 acp UZI!!!
Fish Shudder at the sound of my Name!
You're right. If the .41AE had anything like the historical luck of the .40S&W, we might all be shooting it instead. The .41AE had its chance in the market, of course, and was overpowered by the popularity of the 9mm at the time -- but that's all. Timing is everything. You know how superficial 'popularity' can be. Anyway, we "backed into" the .40S&W by virtue of a series of events that we all now know about -- the Miami shootout leading to the FBI adoption of the 10mm, which was downloaded to 10mm "lite" and then S&W came up with the .40 concept as "the answer."
The .41AE didn't have those circumstances behind it, leading law enforcement by the nose to a concensus that such a round made more sense than a 9mm and was less hard on smaller officers than a 10mm (which was essentially the .357 for semi-autos, so why they decided it was "too much bullet" is beyond me). So the .41AE did not become THE .40 caliber round, while the .40S&W (which was at first called the .40 Short and Weak) did. There's probably no better reason why the .41AE didn't become the round that replaced the 9mm in law enforcement, than pure luck and circumstance. They're simply not that different.
- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Often the mind believes it is thinking, when it is only passing from one metaphor to the next.
- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
The next step up was the .45, which in many frames, is just too big for a lot of smaller shooters.
The .40 fills a niche nicely. It offers good magazine capacity in a moderate frame size with more power that a 9mm.
The .41 AE would have done the same thing, had luck been on its side.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net