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S&W Model 58 BY DAN SHIDELER

S&W’s big Model 58 in .41 Magnum still makes for quite a handful.

I have just received a letter from Local #417 of the Brotherhood of Independent Gunwriters & Septic Tank Pumpers (BIGSTP) informing me that my membership in BIGSTP would be terminated if I didn’t write something – anything – about the Smith & Wesson Model 58 in .41 Magnum.

You see, every gunwriter is obligated to write something about the Model 58. It’s a rite of passage, like kissing your first girl or mixing your first dry martini. But what can I possibly say about the Model 58 that hasn’t been said before?

By now, of course, everyone knows the story of the Model 58: how it was introduced in 1964 as the perfect cop gun, the revolver that would pacify the nastiest felon like a 20-lb. sledgehammer coming down on a cockroach. Model 58s are fairly scarce these days, so you might assume that the big revolver fell somewhat short of its stated goal. And you’d be right.

The Model 58 was born during a period of civil unrest, when American police were first realizing that their fuddy-duddy old .38 Special revolvers just weren’t cutting it anymore. Even the .357 Magnum was criticized as being a little on the iffy side. Back then, in a time when a nutcase from the Symbionese Liberation Army (remember them?) might be hiding behind every shrub, it was only natural to want a sidearm that had some oomph.

The logic behind the N-framed, fixed-sight Model 58 and its .41 Magnum chambering was that something in between the “underpowered” .357 Magnum and the overpowered .44 Magnum was needed for police use. Personally, I don’t consider the .357 underpowered. When I worked in the funeral industry 25 years ago, I had occasion to offer my professional services to two ex-criminals (one a rapist, the other a bank robber who made it to the bottom of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list) who were on the receiving end of a couple of .357 loads. At the time I met them, neither of these two gentlemen was in any condition to complain about how underpowered the .357 Magnum was.

I do agree, however, that the .44 Magnum is probably overpowered for police use. I’ve seen a .44 shoot lengthways through a deer, so I imagine that overpenetration could be a bit of a problem unless you could line up four or fi ve bad guys in a row before squeezing off a shot. But rather than load up the .357 or load down the .44, Remington and Smith & Wesson came up with an in-betweener, the .41 Remington Magnum. Surely it would become the last word in law enforcement ordnance if it were chambered in the right gun.

As far as S&W was concerned, the right gun was the Model 58. In many ways it was a throwback to the big .44 and .45 Hand Ejectors of the early twentieth century: a massive, service-gripped N-frame with a fixed blade front sight and a non-adjustable rear sight milled into the topstrap. Why monkey with adjustable sights on a gun intended for up-close use? And to top it off, the Model 58 would feature a four-inch barrel that could be drawn from a holster in the blink of an eye.

Short barrels on magnums look good on paper, but only on paper. I’ve done a lot of shooting with S&W N-frames, and the sight of a four-inch barrel on one still gives me the willies. (My hair is now permanently parted on the right side, thanks to a four-inch Model 29 .44 Magnum that I persisted in shooting one afternoon a few years ago.)

S&W and Remington anticipated that recoil and blast might be a problem with the Model 58, so they cooperatively introduced two .41 Magnum loads for the big new revolver: a 210-gr. lead-bullet version with a muzzle velocity of around 1150 fps and a 210-gr. jacketed version at around 1400 fps. As might be expected, however, sooner or later the high-velocity jacketed load intended for the Model 58’s longer-barreled, adjustable-sighted counterpart, the Model 57, ended up in the Model 58. When police tried the new Model 58 with full-house jacketed loads, the noise and muzzle blast were so ferocious that even old-school troopers found it a bit much. Nevertheless, the Model 58 hung on in S&W’s lineup until 1977, when the semi-auto revolution finally deep-sixed it for good. Total production was around 23,000 units, or about 1750 units per year on average.

So what’s it like to shoot a Model 58? Actually, it’s not that different from shooting a Model 29 in .44 Magnum. Recoil and blast are perceptibly less, but not enough to make much of a difference. Target reacquisition is a tad bit faster, perhaps, but when you touch one off, there’s no doubt that you’re shooting a big, hairy revolver. I’d feel well-turned-out with a Model 58 on my hip this deer season, which is exactly where mine will be come next November.

The Model 58’s fixed sights aren’t as much of a handicap as you might think. With that four-inch barrel, the effect of barrel time in raising point of impact is negligible, so lead loads and jacketed loads all shoot pretty much to the same point of aim. I wouldn’t compete in a tournament with a Model 58, perhaps, but I’m sure that anything I want to shoot with a Model 58 within 30 yards or so is going to end up with a .41-caliber hole in it.

Part of the appeal of the Model 58 is that it was made during a period when S&W’s quality was absolutely second to none. Bluing was as deep and glossy as a freshly-opened can of black enamel paint; cylinder chambers were counterbored; barrels were pinned into place. Now that my hair is gray, I suppose I qualify as an old-timer. As such, I can say without fear of reprisal that I prefer Smith & Wesson’s older, forged-and-milled revolvers of the ‘60s and ‘70s to today’s MIM or stainless-steel ones. There’s no doubt that S&W today makes the fi nest double-action revolvers Today, Model 58s are among the most collectible S&W N-frames, with Excellent-condition examples starting for around $600 and peaking at over a grand for boxed examples. Heady stuff! But then again, all N-frames are escalating rapidly in value. Shockingly so, in my opinion. Even the humblest of the N-frames, the matte-finished Model 28 Highway Patrolman -- which sold for as little as $250 only a year or two ago -- now goes for upwards of $500 for a nice one. It’s worth it, too, in my opinion. generally available, but a nice Bangor Punta-era S&W really takes my breath away.

In general, .41 Magnums do pretty well on the used-gun market -- if you can find the right buyer. Marlin’s early Model 1894 -- the 1980s version, not the 1890s version -- chambered in .41 is eagerly sought-after by Marlin fans, and Ruger’s Redhawk in .41 Magnum is increasingly collectible, too. I’ve seen some examples sell for upwards of $600, which doesn’t really surprise me because there’s something appealing about such a massively over-engineered revolver with a .41-caliber hole in its barrel. (The .357 Redhawk is a nice find, too.)

What does the future hold for the .41 Magnum? Not much, I think. Ammunition will no doubt continue to be manufactured for the foreseeable future -- too many guns out there for it to be dropped -- but I wouldn’t look for too many more new loads. After all, there really isn’t anything the .41 can do that the .44 can’t do even better. Even if you somehow whipped up a 275-grain super-hot load for the .41, it would still play second-fi ddle to the 300-grain .44 Magnum load, and recoil and blast would be almost as fi erce.

As for police use, the .41 Magnum is as dead as Jacob Marley. Modern .40 S&W loads approximate the original .41 Magnum police load, and they’re available in super-capacity autopistols as well. I don’t know of any active-duty police officers who carry revolvers nowadays, no matter how powerful they are. As for sporting use, I can’t imagine why you would take a .41 Magnum deer-hunting if you had a .44 Magnum close at hand.

Unless you prefer the unusual, of course. Unless you like the off-beat. Unless you’re exactly like me.