What gun fires Peters .41 SDA?

L

Lee C

Inactive
Hello, I came across some of this ammunition in a neighbors garage. She asked me to get rid of it. I am curious as to what gun fires these bullets.
Thanks for your time! Lee
 
Peters was bought out by Remington in the 1930's, so you have some very old ammo there. I've never heard of that particular cartridge, however. Do you have pictures of it? It might actually be quite valuable - I saw an empty box of Peters .410 shotshells selling for over $700 on one site.
 
Colt had a prototype .41 caliber in 1932 that never made it to market...

http://www.sixguns.com/tests/tt41spec.htm

In 1932, Fred Moore was the factory superintendent at Colt's and did experimental work with a new cartridge which was designed to be a better man stopper than the .38 Special. Remember, this is three years before the advent of the .357 Magnum. The Colt Official Police revolver was chambered for the .41 Colt Special and three variations of ammunition were tried using 210 grain bullets at 810, 925, and 1150 feet per second. The last loading was used in the larger framed Colt New Service. Remington supplied the ammunition and the latter was made long enough so that it would not chamber in the shorter cylindered Official Police. If you should happen to run across a .41 Magnum cartridge without a headstamp, chances are very good that you have the very rare .41 Colt Special.
Click to expand...

This would be before the Peters-Remington buyout.

Can you post a pic of the brass... perhaps the headstamp?
 
First, while Remington bought out Peters in the early 1930's, they continued to use the Peters brand into at least the 1960's, and still do in a way since the R-P headstamp stands for Remington-Peters.

As for .41 caliber, there have been several, including the .41 rimfire used in the old derringers and some revolvers. The most common was probably the .41 Colt, a center fire round that was very popular. In fact, it was the fourth most popular caliber in the Colt SAA, right behind .45 Colt, .44-40 and .38-40. Many Colt guns were made for the .41, including the Model 1877, Model 1878, and the New Service.

Any .41 cartridge (except .41 Magnum) is collectible. As ammunition, note that the .41 Colt is now being used in the Cowboy sports and a box can run as high as $70 wholesale.

Jim
 
I thought the linked article at old ammo.com was excellent. It seems that the prevailing theory in revolvers during the early cartridge era was to have the heaviest bullet that could be managed in a given frame size but only at a moderate velocity (more or less). Many people still seem to feel that way. But progress took two paths.

The small caliber, high velocity approach appeared even before 1900. The magnum approach came later. Even so, some gun writers in the 1950s suggested the perfect police or handgun cartridge was around .40 caliber but the velocities usually quoted sure sounded like magnum loads. Of course, all those guys were tougher than we are. Plain lead bullets were always assumed and even 200 grains for a .38 S&W and .38 Special were thought best.

Of course, the .45 ACP remains popular and is clearly in the traditional mold. But there are those who want to magnumize it, too.

I suspect that a lot of the older Colt .41 revolvers, especially the S.A.A., were converted to other calibers.
 
Dogtown Tom is absolutely correct, they're .41 Short Colt cartridges.

The Short Colt is an OLD cartridge, dating back to, IIRC, around 1875, and was apparently intended for cartridge conversion revolvers.

It was not, however, very popular and only a very few revolvers ever chambered it.

Colt New Line revolvers may have been specifically chambered for the .41 SC centerfire.


Jim,

the .41 Colt you are talking about is the Long cartridge, originally introduced around 1877 for either the Lightning or Thunderer revolver (can never remember which one). It was quite a bit more potent than the .41 Short Colt and did achieve quite a bit of popularity.
 
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