41 mag FTX

S

stagpanther

New member
I've been so busy with all the rifles I've bought and built over the past few years--I've largely neglected my various handguns. But a few weeks ago while ordering some bullets I stumbled on 41 mag ftx's--hmmm--those weren't around when I last loaded for my Blackhawk--so I ordered a couple of boxes. They just recently arrived--though my new dimension die cannot seat them to SAAMI spec without a special seater--the cylinder seems to handle them no problem as far as I could go--which was 1.65. I just loaded up some of the ftx's with a very mild load and rushed out the door to see how they would work--at 15 yds 3 of 5 shots were touching though I did manage to pull a couple ruining the over-all group. What a pleasure to shoot. ;)

Anyone have any favorite recipes for the ftx in their revolver?
 
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Interesting. I would have thought they would have made a bullet designed for a rifle or carbine a little heavier... say in the 240-250grn range, particularly for hunting. Be that as it may, I've always had good accuracy out of Hornady bullets, particularly the XTP in the .41, so I'm not surprised the new FTX works well, too.
 
Interesting. I would have thought they would have made a bullet designed for a rifle or carbine a little heavier... say in the 240-250grn range, particularly for hunting. Be that as it may, I've always had good accuracy out of Hornady bullets, particularly the XTP in the .41, so I'm not surprised the new FTX works well, too.
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210 xtp was always my go-to (though I have gobs of other's)--this isn't a whole lot less and generally the ftx's are rifle-purposed as opposed to hand-gun purposed--though that raises the question of effective opening range--though generally the ftx's tend to be on the low side. I haven't been able to get numbers on the opening ranges anywhere. I believe the lighter bullet and higher BC gets an overall more efficient trajectory.
 
"...recipes for the FTX..." You load according to the weight of the bullet, not its construction. An FTX is just another jacketed bullet, but they're made for tube mags.
Doesn't seem to be a lot of 190 grain data around. 1.65" is too long though. SAAMI max for .41 Mag is 1.590".
 
"...recipes for the FTX..." You load according to the weight of the bullet, not its construction. An FTX is just another jacketed bullet, but they're made for tube mags.
Doesn't seem to be a lot of 190 grain data around. 1.65" is too long though. SAAMI max for .41 Mag is 1.590".
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Fair enough--but--given the fact that most of that "excess" is nothing but rubber tip--and the COL is still way short of the cylinder depth, please tell me why one can't use this cartridge as I loaded it safely in a Blackhawk?
 
So I went ahead and loaded up a ladder of charge weights of the ftx's and secured the bullets with a hard factory crimp.


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Things were looking promising though I was having a bit of a problem shooting in high winds and holding the gun steady on the bag. Unfortunately, I only made it to the 3 rd charge weight before the Pentax red-dot decided to commit seppuku and blew itself up (following the tradition of the last one I bought)

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Since I was seating the bullets a bit longer than SAAMI spec I tought I might be sacrificing some velocity--but my average velocity was actually almost 100 fps better than Hornady's data sheet (I'm not sure what they used to test their handgun results).
 

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There's a great punchline to this little saga--notice how in the photo of the ammo tray there's an RCBS seater/crimp die--I forgot I even had this--and it has multiple seater stems for different bullets, and can seat the ftx no problem to SAAMI spec. :D:o:D
 
I don't know if you noticed, but the brass from the FTX ammo is shorter than standard brass and can be difficult to crimp because it's too short for the crimp die to engage it properly. I don't know if this is true of all crimp dies but it can be a problem.
 
I don't know if you noticed, but the brass from the FTX ammo is shorter than standard brass and can be difficult to crimp because it's too short for the crimp die to engage it properly. I don't know if this is true of all crimp dies but it can be a problem.
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You might be thinking of the former 44 mag ftx's that required a shortening of the case?
 
It's been a while, but I believe my .41 factory ammo has slightly shorter brass. I know there is a reason why they do this but can't remember why off the top of my head. I'll dig some out when I get home from work and check it out to be sure.
 
It's been a while, but I believe my .41 factory ammo has slightly shorter brass. I know there is a reason why they do this but can't remember why off the top of my head. I'll dig some out when I get home from work and check it out to be sure.
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The larger 44 fix required a shorter case due to bullet size and crimp location, I believe the biggest risk in a revolver (at least a Blackhawk) is not from the OAL so much as possibility of bullet creep under recoil potentially locking the cylinder up.
 
Jetinteriorguy,

It's the tip. The SAAMI maximum COL for the 41 Mag (1.590") requires a bullet that sticks out no longer than 0.300" beyond the case mouth when using a SAAMI maximum length case (1.290") and the crimp cannelures on most .410" bullets are positioned to achieve this. The pointed tip FTX shape, however, exceeds that, so you'd have the tips sticking out of the chambers on a Smith model 57, IIRC, if you didn't use a shorter case. Stagpanther, however, is shooting a Ruger Blackhawk that looks exactly like mine, right down to the rubber grips (highly recommended for standard grip profile magnum SA's to tame muzzle jump) and it has 1.75" between the recoil shield and back of the barrel, so its cylinder can accommodate cartridges almost that long without bullets protruding.
 
The cheese grater grip just didn’t work for me. I also ended up having to drill and tap the top strap in order to get the weaver mount to stay put. I also did it the trigger job on it to reduce the pull. It’s quite the fun gun.
 
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