Thread: .41 vs .44
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Old January 2, 2013, 10:15 AM   #72
Mike Irwin
Join Date: April 13, 2000
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 36,327
Every time I've purchased cast .41 bullets they have been LESS expensive, per box, than the cast bullets I buy for my .44.


Because there's less raw material in the box of .41 bullets, IF you buy the traditional bullet for each -- 210-215 gr. bullet for the .41 Mag., and 235-240 gr. for .44 Mag.

Regarding cost of brass...

I decided to go to Starline to see what the huge difference in price would be were I to purchase 1,000 pieces each of .44 Mag. brass and .41 Mag. brass...

1000 pieces of .44 Mag. brass are $167.50.

Kind of salty, but Starline is good brass.

Interesting enough, .41 Magnum brass is $167.50 for 1,000 pieces.

If, as with bullets, you take overall cost being based on the amount of raw material, then yes, the .41 Mag. brass is more exensive.

But that is, for cases at least, a silly way of looking at it because cases are not consumables.

And, when you go to Graf and Sons at the retail level? The prices on brass from Remington and Winchester are identical between the two cartridges.

The case has also been made that good, once fired brass is available in .44 Mag.

That is very true, and that would bring the price down in the .44s favor, but would it bring it down that much?

I sincerely doubt it, and if you're at that point where you're having to worry about whether or not you can afford new vs once fired brass, you've got bigger issues to worry about.

Finally, the last 200 pieces of .41 Mag brass I bought?

Once fired. $17 per hundred, IIRC.

At a gun show.

So yeah, it's out there. You have to look for it, but it's out there.

Realistically, though, and virtually every way I figure it, the difference in cost between reloaded .41 Mag. and .44 Mag. is CENTS per box, and as often as not, favors the .41 Magnum because of lower cost of "standard" weight lead projectiles.

All of that said, in reading back through this entire thread, a couple of things are clearly evident:

1. People are really wedded to their choice of cartridge, be it .41 Mag. or .44 Mag.

2. People will go to great lengths to explain, categorize, and rationalize why their choice is the superior choice, even if it's a position that is highly debatable.

3. That when you add 1 and 2 together, the result is that this is one of the silliest damned threads I've seen in a long time.

Mike Irwin is offline  
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