Revolvers you wish they made, but they don't ...

[The Heretic]

I have a 5" Rhino in .40 that I really enjoy, but would like if they made a 4" Rhino 8-shot in .327 Mag. But I'd shoot .32 H&R Mags thru it.

I am thinking about the Rhinos in .40 & 9mm. Wish they made one in 10mm.

 

[joneb]

Sort of says it all. What wheelguns would you like that simply are not made?

A 25 Hornet in .257" diameter

 

[drstrangelove]

1. The firing version on the Blade Runner PKD
2. An integrally suppressed DA (Maxim Version) revolver with an advancing cylinder to seal the cone blast.
3. SWs without Hillary Hole
4. New Colt Pythons with the Old Colt trigger
5. A stainless Colt SAA beefed up to handle Ruger loads
6. Night sights standard in every carry revolver

 

[joneb]

A 25 Hornet in .257" diameter

This is something I have thought might be worth a look, I can see a Ruger Single Six Bisley some day chambered in 25 Hornet. Maybe a seven shot

 

[TTSX]

I'll add a Super Redhawk with an 8" barrel full underlug, not that weird looking pipe thing they stick in the end of the Alaskan models.

 

[DeanMk]

....Colt New Service in .45 Colt and a "1917" version in .45 Auto Rim....5" barrels and fully adjustable sights on both.

 

[Nosferatu]

.41 Magnum L-Frame

 

[RX-79G]

A revolver scaled to .41 Magnum. N is too big, L too small, apparently.

 

[DeanMk]

A revolver scaled to .41 Magnum. N is too big, L too small, apparently.

Why is .41 Mag too big for the L frame?
The L frame was designed to meet the public request for a K-frame in .44 cal.
K-frame is too small for that, so they developed the L frame for that express purpose.
.41 Mag should work just fine in an L frame.

 

[RX-79G]

Why is .41 Mag too big for the L frame?
The L frame was designed to meet the public request for a K-frame in .44 cal.
K-frame is too small for that, so they developed the L frame for that express purpose.
.41 Mag should work just fine in an L frame.

I meant that the N frame is scaled to larger cases than .41, since it goes to .45. A six shot .41 could be much smaller - nearly L frame size.

Or, you could put 7 shots of .41 in an N. My math says it is close, but easily doable if they do the trick they did with the 8 shot N frames.

 

[DeanMk]

Then why say "L too small, apparently"?
It sounds like you're saying the L frame is too small for the .41 magnum. Its not.
I think you still might only be held to 5 shots, but its still doable.

 

[RX-79G]

Then why say "L too small, apparently"?
It sounds like you're saying the L frame is too small for the .41 magnum. Its not.
I think you still might only be held to 5 shots, but its still doable.

Obviously any gun that fits .44 mag will fit .41 with room to spare. But .41 was created to work in a smaller gun, so you would hope you could do better than the size/capacity of Model 69. If the L frame cylinder had been a hair bigger it would have fit 6 rounds of .41 mag.

 

[Biblethumpncop]

This was the gun I always wished had made it into production.

 

[DeanMk]

.41 was created to work in a smaller gun...

No, it wasn't.
It was invented to be the ultimate police sidearm round.
In the 1960's, they were happy with the power of the .357, but the bullet was too light. It wasn't very effective in an Anti-Material role.
The .41 was an attempt to bring a larger, more capable bullet into the fray, while maintaining the power of the .357.
The problem was, the round was offered in two variations; a police load and a hunting load.
The hunting load was very powerful (210 gr. jacket bullet @ 1500mv).
The police round was milder, which made it more controllable (210 gr. LSWCGC @1050MV).
Instead of specifying the police round to LEO's, they were allowed to buy whichever round they wanted and most chose the more powerful round.
There were complaints of the "overly powerful" new guns being too hard to handle and most officers just went back to their model 28's, even after departments had figured out their error and switched to the police round.
Thus the round failed in its intended role but has lived on through the private sector (although the police load was offered for many years and I understand is a very capable round in a 4" Model 57 that is also quite comfortable to shoot).

 

[DeanMk]

This was the gun I always wished had made it into production.

View attachment 1195442

Very interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of a Detonics revolver.
Also interesting to note is Detonic's main office address.
The Seattle Tower is our ode to The Chrysler buiding in NYC.
It's very much that Art Deco "spire". It's only 29 stories tall and is pretty much hidden in the skyline now, but its a really cool building, inside and out.

 

[RX-79G]

No, it wasn't.
It was invented to be the ultimate police sidearm round.
In the 1960's, they were happy with the power of the .357, but the bullet was too light. It wasn't very effective in an Anti-Material role.
The .41 was an attempt to bring a larger, more capable bullet into the fray, while maintaining the power of the .357.
The problem was, the round was offered in two variations; a police load and a hunting load.
The hunting load was very powerful (210 gr. jacket bullet @ 1500mv).
The police round was milder, which made it more controllable (210 gr. LSWCGC @1050MV).
Instead of specifying the police round to LEO's, they were allowed to buy whichever round they wanted and most chose the more powerful round.
There were complaints of the "overly powerful" new guns being too hard to handle and most officers just went back to their model 28's, even after departments had figured out their error and switched to the police round.
Thus the round failed in its intended role but has lived on through the private sector (although the police load was offered for many years and I understand is a very capable round in a 4" Model 57 that is also quite comfortable to shoot).

It was smaller than .44 Magnum so it could be used in a smaller gun than an N frame. Otherwise there isn't much point in having .41, because you can duplicate the ballistics with .44 in any bullet weight. The reduction in diameter was Elmer Keith's idea to get away from N frames into something like what eventually became the L frame, but with larger caliber rounds than .357.

Otherwise, it makes no sense. "44 Magnum Light" or ".44 Special +P" would have been ballisticly identical to any load the police wished to carry in a large frame revolver. .44 bullets weren't thought to underpenetrate or something that would have made a smaller caliber attractive for terminal ballistics.

 

[RVTECH]

Very interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of a Detonics revolver.

I vaguely remember this from back in the 'day' - like the early 80s maybe?

Top breaks were inherently weak, even with the relatively low power rounds of the early ones and I suspect this was still an issue with a modern design as well.

However it would been a cool concept if it could have been made to work and handle modern rounds.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

If made with today's metals and designs I would think someone could come up with one that would withstand today's ammo. Maybe a minuter doubles rifle or Greener crossbolt lock. Whether they could sell enough guns to make it economically feasible is another matter.

 

[po18guy]

Since Merwin Hulbert & Co. are long gone, I would like a Charter Arms "Pocket Army" 3-inch chambered in .44-40. OK, dual cylinder with the Bulldog .44 Special cylinder.

 

[DeanMk]

It was smaller than .44 Magnum so it could be used in a smaller gun than an N frame. Otherwise there isn't much point in having .41, because you can duplicate the ballistics with .44 in any bullet weight. The reduction in diameter was Elmer Keith's idea to get away from N frames into something like what eventually became the L frame, but with larger caliber rounds than .357.

Otherwise, it makes no sense. "44 Magnum Light" or ".44 Special +P" would have been ballisticly identical to any load the police wished to carry in a large frame revolver. .44 bullets weren't thought to underpenetrate or something that would have made a smaller caliber attractive for terminal ballistics.

The problem wasn't the size of the revolver. Cops had been carrying model 28's for years and had no qualms about it.
The problem was the .357 bullet was too light to fully encompass the intended job, thus the need for a larger caliber round.
What they needed was a more capable bullet.
So why not duplicate it as a .44? That would be the load Skeeter Skelton developed for the Model 24 he carried as a Def County Sheriff.
However, one can also reduce recoil by going to a lighter bullet.
So the trick here is to develop a magnum round that uses a more capable bullet than the .357, while being more controllable than the .44.
Skeeter thought he had the answer with the load most refer to these days as "The Skeeter Load", in the .44 Special.
Remington knew that the days of any "Special" round being viable for police work were numbered (although it would be many years later before the venerable .38 Special was finally retired from police duty).
Their answer was to build a Magnum round in a "tweener" caliber and thus, it would house a more useful bullet.
(38 + 44) / 2 = 41.
...and The .41 Remington Magnum is born.
They couldn't chamber the .41 mag in a smaller frame, because at the time, the next smaller frame was the K-frame and S&W was of the opinion that .38 caliber was as large as one could go in that frame.
This is why the L-frame was developed. To fit larger caliber rounds into a smaller gun than the N-frame.
However, that didn't happen until longer after the .41 failed in its intended role.