Making Elmer Fit In
The Lipsey’s .41 Magnum
The .41 Magnum (center) loaded with a Saeco cast slug. On the left
is the same bullet loaded in Starline .41 Special brass; on the right, MP
Molds copy of Hensley & Gibbs #258 loaded in .41 Special brass.
Headstamps on the Starline brass displaying the .41 Magnum and Special.
The newish Lipsey’s Bisley mid-frame flattop .41 Magnum is everything you could ever hope for in a powerful, lightweight, single-action packing pistol — except for one major flaw in my book. The shorter cylinder, necessary for the mid-frame size six-shooter, is too short for .41 Magnum brass loaded with any of “Elmer’s” bullets.
An Elmer Education
Lyman’s fine 410459 .41Magnum bullet is wrongly called Elmer’s bullet. This is not the case and it’s easy to understand, since Elmer designed Lyman 429421, 358429, 452423, and my favorite, 454424, as well as other variants. Lyman snuck in the 410459 shortly after the .41 magnum came out, wanting people to believe it was Elmer’s design. Who wouldn’t? Anything “Elmer” had a terrific draw, especially when it came to cast bullets.
However, Elmer did design a few .41 Mag bullets. One was for Hensley & Gibbs, called the #258. It has all of Elmer’s criteria — namely three driving bands of the same width with square grease groove. The #258 weighs around 230 grains, depending on the alloy.
Elmer’s other cast bullet design was for Santa Anita Engineering Company, commonly known as Saeco. It’s a SWC design weighing 235 grains from WW alloy, but with a thinner front driving band. I got lucky, winning a 4-cavity Saeco mold in this design on one of the bidding sites years ago.
Starline to the Rescue
Okay, nice history review, now what? We know Keith-style slugs are too long for Lipsey’s .41 Magnum; that is, unless we use some Special brass. This solves the problem.
Fortunately, Starline Brass makes .41 Special brass. Elmer mentioned the possibility of a .41 Special as early as 1955 in his book, “Sixguns,” but it fell on deaf ears. I guess gunsmith Hamilton Bowen can be credited with bringing out the .41 Special sometime in the late 1980s for some of his custom guns, which fired 200 grain slugs at 900 fps.
The .41 Special never became a factory-accepted cartridge, but savvy shooters had custom guns made for the cartridge and handloaded for it.
The Garmin chronograph is both easy and convenient to use. Here is the final synopsis of Tank’s load of 11 grains of Power Pistol with the powder coated #258.
Tank’s Turn
Given my addiction to cast lead bullets, particularly “Keith” lead bullets, I have the above molds. My thinking is simple. If I have a bullet mold, I have an unlimited supply of bullets. The mold easily pays for itself over time. While most want easy shooting loads for .41 Special and are required for some of the lighter custom guns they are shot in, I wanted loads in true Elmer style. Loads carrying authority, reaching Elmer’s favorite velocity of 1,200 fps for handguns. Since I was shooting these “magnum” loads in a .41 Magnum, I had nothing to worry about for my gun.
With my powder coated Keith’s, this velocity wasn’t hard to obtain with sane pressures from the Lipsey’s mid-frame. All loads extracted easily, primers weren’t cratered, and they were pleasant shooting. These loads are for .41 Magnum guns only!
An example of why .41 Special is needed for the mid-frame with Keith bullets.
Let’s Get Loaded
The first bullets I loaded were the Saeco slugs, because they were the first bullets I managed to find in my cluttered and stuffed handloading room. The two powders I thought would be good for this project were Unique and Power Pistol from Alliant Powder. I worked up to 10 grains of Unique and 11 grains of Power Pistol, using Winchester large pistol primers for all loads.
All cartridges were assembled on my Lee Precision Classic Turret press using shortened .41 Magnum Lee dies, which were special ordered. Lee provides this service for a nominal fee.
Velocity with the Saeco slugs using 10 grains of Unique was dead on 1,200 fps out of the 5.5” barreled Lipsey mid-frame. The 11 grains of Power Pistol averaged 1,237 fps.
The MP Molds Keith slugs, which are a true copy of the Hensley & Gibbs #258, were next. Velocities ran 1,220 fps with 10 grains of Unique and 1,248 fps with 11 grains of Power Pistol. I didn’t have any Lyman 410459 bullets on hand, but I’m sure velocity-wise they’ll shoot close to what the Saeco and #258 slugs did.
The accuracy was very good, going under 2” at 25 yards with my forearms rested on sandbags. If I had to pick just one powder, Power Pistol would get the nod. My gun seemed to like it better, shooting just a tad tighter than the Unique loads. Plus, Power Pistol seems to be easier to find these days.
Skinner Sights makes a dandy ballistic nylon carrying
case to protect and keep your Garmin chronograph in order.
Handloading Success
This is a prime example of handloading answering the call for a specific problem. In this case, it solved the ability to shoot Elmer’s slugs in a fine, compact mid-frame packing pistol in the guise of a Bisley flattop. It makes an already cool gun cooler by giving it the ability to shoot traditional slugs. Plus, it just seems right. Elmer is smiling down upon us.
