I recently got this book about the .41 rimfire short. The author did exhaustive research into the round. He questioned the often cited velocity of 425fps out of a derringer. His research is too much to recant here. But I will say that he tested some of that navy arms ammo. Then took more of it, dumped the smokeless and reloaded with a compressed load of 13gr of 3F. Out of a 3" barreled derringer it averaged just over 600fps. While he does not mention a fireball, I can imagine what it looked like. He also reviewed an autopsy report of a man killed by a .41 rimfire derringer. The bullet's path and damage was extensive. I can see why the book's sub-title is "The deadliest round in the west".

In the interest of safety, I'm making a change to the .22 cal primer. I have been using the little acorn starter pistol blank. It has a very small charge of smokeless to make it go BANG. Its about the eqivalent (sound wise) of a magnum primer. I'm sure it does add a little power too.

I actually have 4 or 5 different blanks I use, depending on the cartridge. I want to try it with no smokeless charge. The acorns, being so small are difficult to open up to dump the powder. So I'm using a taller CCI noise blank. On this, I can clip off the nose and dump the powder. So I've now reloaded my single cartridge with the clipped off and emptied CCI blank.

I'll try again to chronograph it later this week.

I've enjoyed your threads and wanted to thank you for taking the time to share your results.
How did you hold and what did you use to trim the CCI noise blank?
Otto

Thanks.
Otto

The .41 rimfire short collet crimp die and bullets came in last night from Bernie Rowles at Old West Bullet Molds. If you are going to load heel bullets, these are the only way to properly crimp them. I highly recommend these. Bernie makes them to your spec and they are a work of art. His prices and turnaround time are really good. I have 5 of them

The heel on his bullets is around .388"-.391". The cut down .41 long colt bullets I've been using had a .382"- 383" heel. So first I had to make a simple expander plug to open the case mouth. Previously I'd made a .383" plug. Last night I made a .387" plug, but it wasnt quite big enough to get the heel started. So another was made, this time tapering from .387" to .391". This allowed the bullet to seat nicely.

Next I really wanted to see if I could get more powder in the case. Original cartridges were loaded with 11 to 13gr of powder. With my solid head case, I knew 13gr was out of the question. Using a snipped off and emptied noise blank allowed a little more powder space because the powder can go into the empty blank as well as around it. I carefully weighed 11.0gr of Old Eynesford 3F and slowly drop tubed it into the case. It just barely fit! I then compressed it .125" (the bullet heel's depth). 

With the powder compresssed, the bullet was seated with thumb pressure. Then run into the collet crimp die.

I now have one cartridge that duplicates a factory loading.

Very interesting. Thanks for all of this.
Not much room for lube is there?