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The Jericho 941 is a double action, high capacity pistol developed by Israeli Military Industries, and introduced in 1990. Its design is based on the CZ-75 pistol produced by Česká zbrojovka (CZ) of the Czech Republic. The pistol is assembled and finished in Israel from parts from Italy's Tanfoglio. Compared to the CZ pistol the 941 is rather heavier, with a shallower slide that can be harder to pull for some shooters. There is also a polymer framed version available. The introduction of the Jericho 941 also introduced a new caliber to the market, the .41 Action Express (or .41 AE), which was developed in 1986. The .41 AE was a unique rebated rim cartridge designed to use .410 inch (10.25 mm) bullets and duplicate a reduced power police loading of the .41 Magnum. The Jericho originally shipped with two barrels, one for 9 mm Luger and the other for .41 AE. The magazine was designed to feed either round, and since the .41 AE was designed with a rebated rim the same dimensions as that of the 9 mm, the extractor and ejector worked equally well for either cartridge. Soon after its commercial introduction, the .40 S&W was introduced to the market. Ballistically, the .40 S&W was nearly identical to moderate .41 AE loads (the reloading manuals that list the .41 AE generally say to use .40 S&W data), although commercial loadings of .41 AE were somewhat more powerful than the .40 S&W. With the stronger backing of major American firearms and ammunition manufacturers, the .40 S&W quickly pushed the .41 AE out of the market. The Jericho 941 was only on the market for 1 year before the dual 9 mm/.41 AE chambering was dropped, and the pistol was sold as either 9 mm or .40 S&W. A later compact version, the Jericho 945, was chambered in .45 ACP or 9 mm. IMI eventually dropped the "Jericho" name in the American marketplace, and renamed the line of pistols "Baby Eagle", to capitalize on the cosmetic resemblance to IMI's more popular Desert Eagle pistol line.
The .41 AE cartridge
While the .41 AE and the easy caliber conversion it provided was a good idea, the timing was just not right. The .41 AE used the same bullet diameter as the never very popular .41 Magnum, and since the .41 Magnum was primarily a revolver cartridge (though IMI did offer it in the Desert Eagle for a brief time) not all .41 Magnum bullets were suited to an autoloading design. The powerful 10 mm Auto cartridge, which had been suffering from poor acceptance from its start in the early 1980s, was eventually accepted by the FBI in a reduced power, subsonic loading. Smith & Wesson then decided that the 10 mm Auto was too much cartridge for the reduced power loading, and that the .45 ACP sized guns that chambered it were too heavy and bulky; out of this came the .40 S&W, a shortened 10 mm Auto case, designed to fit in a 9 mm sized gun, with a reduced pressure loading that allowed a lighter, easier to shoot gun. The near identical ballistics of the .40 S&W and the .41 AE are a result of convergent evolution in engineering; the .40 S&W starting from 10 mm Auto and moving to a shorter 9 mm length case and matching the ballistics of a reduced 10 mm Auto loading, and the .41 AE starting with a 9 mm and moving to the .41 caliber diameter to match a reduced .41 Magnum load.
In 1988, IMI also developed a 9 mm Action Express, which was a .41 AE necked down to 9 mm. It offered a much larger case capacity than the standard 9 mm case, allowing velocities that matched that of the .357 Magnum when loaded with light bullets. This move anticipated the parallel development of the .357 Sig from the .40 S&W in 1994.
While the .41 AE was doomed by circumstance to obscurity, the concept of using a rebated rim to allow easy cartridge interchangeability was not lost. The .50 Action Express, developed by IMI for the Desert Eagle pistol, uses a similar rebated rim that is the same diameter as the .44 Magnum. This allows a caliber change with replacement of just the barrel and magazine. Bottlenecked pistol cartridges, which also allow caliber changes with just a barrel change, have also started become available; Sturm Ruger made a limited edition convertible P Series pistol in 9 mm/.30 Luger, Sig Sauer released the 357 Sig, based on the .40 S&W, and Cor-Bon released the .400 Cor-Bon based on the .45 ACP.
Specifications
- Caliber : 9 mm Para, .40S&W, .45ACP, .41AE
- Weight : 920g
- Length : 192 mm
- Barrel length : 96 mm
- Capacity : 16 (9 mm), 12 (.40), 10 (.45) rounds
The Jericho 941 in popular culture
- A modified version of the Jericho 941 was the weapon of choice for Spike Spiegel, protagonist of the anime TV show Cowboy Bebop. In Japan, kits used to be available to convert airsoft replicas of the Jericho to the version used by Spiegel. The Jericho 941 is also featured or included with some Cowboy Bebop merchandise. This ranges from miniature Jerichos that come with some Spike Spiegel figures, to an image of an unmodified Jericho inside the Cowboy Bebop CD box set.
- In the book "Grand Theft" by Timothy Watts, a character named Izzy Feldman uses a 9 mm Jericho.
- In the popular TV show "Walker, Texas Ranger", James Trivette (Clarence Gilyard) uses a 9 mm Jericho.
- In the movie "Ronin (film)", Deirdre (Natascha McElhone) uses a 9 mm Jericho.
External links
- Jericho Guide at isayeret.com - The Israeli Special Forces Database
- Description of the .40 S&W
- Description of the .357 Sig
- Description of the .41 AE
- Description of the 9 mm AE
"Jericho 941"