The Smith and Wesson Model 41: Rimfire excellence
For the past fifty years, if you wanted a well-made competition grade .22-pistol right out of the box, one of the guns on your short list was Smith and Wesson 41.
After World War 2, S&W was looking to move boldly forward into a new age. The company had been stuck on revolvers for most of their 100-year reign. During the war, they tried to produce an interesting, but failed submachine gun for the military but, true to their past, primarily cranked out .38 and .45ACP caliber wheelguns.
New Smith president, Carl “Swede” Hellstrom, pushed a number of innovative semi-auto handgun designs including the Model 39, which became the first US-made 9mm and was the grandfather of the ‘wonder nine’. Among these new designs was the 1957-vintage Model 41, destined to compete for the 22-rimfire trade.
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