Jim Taylor
The 41
Thursday, November 06, 2025, 08:41

Back in the late '90's a good friend and fellow Shootist Jack Pender lost the battle with cancer. He requested that John Taffin and I do his funeral, which we did. After the service his son came to us and handed each of us a sixgun, saying, “Dad wanted you to have these.”

The gun he handed me was the Bowen-built .41 Magnum. Jack never had the chance to fire it after it was was built. I was humbled by the gift, to say the least. Jack had sent Bowen a stainless steel worn .44 Magnum Super Blackhawk and requested him to rebuild the gun into a .41 Magnum. The gun was rebuilt from the smallest part on up. New internals carefully fitted; a “3rd screw” in the frame that located a buffer to keep the cylinder bolt from being slammed into the frame when the gun was cocked rapidly; a line-bored cylinder, Bowen's own hand-made barrel that tapered three directions which he calls an “ovate rib.” The barrel was Taylor-Throated. And it was all topped off with Bowen's own design sights. For looks he slotted the trigger and bolt pin to match the hammer screw and the buffer screw. The cylinder pin has a lock screw through it also and will not loosen under recoil.

I had never had a .41 so I set about getting ammo, loading dies, bullets, molds and all the things you need! I soon discovered this was one of the most accurate sixguns I had ever fired! From a rest at 25 yards I fired 5-shot groups that were just over 1/2” center to center! And at 110 yards, sitting down, leaning against a fence post and holding the gun between my knees I shot a 5-shot group that measured 3 3/32” center to center!

I soon discovered I did not care for the Super Blackhawk grip and trigger guard. I sent the gun to Milt Morrison of Qualite' Pistol and Revolver and had him change it to the Ruger Bisley gripframe, trigger and hammer. That made it much nicer for me. Personal preference goes a long way towards being comfortable.

I had Gary Reeder make a new cylinder after I bulged a bolt-stop with some factory loads. (another story) and I had him change the trigger to his “set back” trigger that stays at the rear of the trigger guard instead of coming so far forward as the Ruger New Model trigger does. I really dislike the New Model triggers. The durn things sound like a cap pistol when you dry-fire them. And on heavy recoiling sixguns, the trigger coming forward after firing always took a chunk off my trigger finger! The “set back” trigger cures that. And the stocks on the gun were made by Paul Persinger are of Ebony and are hand-checkered. Paul does excellent work.