14" Full Choke .410 for hunting?

[time4t]

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[Brutus]

Buddy of mine had a backpacker. He absolutely loved it, everybody else who ever shot it hated it. He used to carry it stuck in his rubber boot while on his quad when we were up moose hunting (unloaded of course). The strange thing with his was the further the target he was shooting at, the lower you had to aim! I know what I just said makes no sense what so ever, but it's true. He was very good with it, I seen him get grouse out to 35-40 yds with it but anyone else I ever seen shoot it, including myself couldn't hit anything with it. I don't know anyone else with one so can't say they were all like his, but this one was the strangest shooting gun I had ever seen.

It is interesting to note, that quite often shotguns with relatively shorter smoothbore barrels tend to spray the pattern a little higher than the front bead position.
I find this lesson relearned over and over again with our shorter (riot length) shotguns.
Example of late, I own a Winchester 1901 in ten gauge with 20 inch cylinder bore barrel.
My experiments with buckshot have tightened up the patterns, but no matter what I do with the powder load, at 14 yards the center of pattern is about 8 inches high.
And all of my bead sight Ithaca riot guns, shoot foster slugs higher than the sight bead at normal shooting distances.

Except for one, my 4 shot M37 DSPS equipped with the LAPD wedge type rear sight, is spot on at 25 yards and 50 yards with fosters/brennekes.

 

[grelmar]

It is interesting to note, that quite often shotguns with relatively shorter smoothbore barrels tend to spray the pattern a little higher than the front bead position.
I find this lesson relearned over and over again with our shorter (riot length) shotguns.
Example of late, I own a Winchester 1901 in ten gauge with 20 inch cylinder bore barrel.
My experiments with buckshot have tightened up the patterns, but no matter what I do with the powder load, at 14 yards the center of pattern is about 8 inches high.
And all of my bead sight Ithaca riot guns, shoot foster slugs higher than the sight bead at normal shooting distances.

Except for one, my 4 shot M37 DSPS equipped with the LAPD wedge type rear sight, is spot on at 25 yards and 50 yards with fosters/brennekes.

This is easy enough to fix with a higher front bead/post. The issue comes down to the sight-plane between the top of the receiver and the top of the barrel, which is lower than the top of the receiver.

With a slightly taller front post, you end up with a level plane between the top of the receiver and the sighting post.

The simplest way to achieve this is with an XS sights Big Dot T (tritium) front post that fits over top of the existing bead. I did this with my shorty 870, and now the Point of Aim matches the Point of Impact very well. With slugs, I can pick off a softball at 25 yards,

This is a 12 gauge, but the same rule applies with .410 shotguns (or any other gauge).

 

[North60]

Thanks for the tip Gremlar, my one 14" you aim at 10 o'clock of target and it's dead centre.

 

[mbogo3]

I took a Cooey 840 3" 12 ga on a trade someone had bobbed off at 21" without a new bead.I kept it for backpacking in the mts.for bear spray.Shot some spruce grouse and a blue simply instinctive point shooting so I guess I'll pony up and have a bead installed.couldn't see the logic money wise of a screw in choke.a Mod or Full would be better for ditch sweeping chickens. Haven't tried slugs or buck just yet.Although it's a SS it is still better than a sharp stick.Perhaps a hideous Poly- Choke.........Harold

 

[BigUglyMan]

A 14" full choke .410 will knock down a gopher at 20 yards with ease using commercial #7.5 shot hunting loads. But that's almost a "breaking point" - the power fall off and widening pattern leads to rapidly diminishing effects after that.

Energy is a function of mass and velocity. It is not effected by the size of the shotgun bore that it came out of.

 

[grelmar]

Energy is a function of mass and velocity. It is not effected by the size of the shotgun bore that it came out of.

Barrel length affects velocity and spread. A shorter barrel will result in a lower projectile velocity, because the gas hasn't had a chance to fully expand before the projectile leaves the barrel.

As the velocity is somewhat lower, the shot will stay with the shotcup for a shorter duration of time, (at higher velocities the shotcup gets "pulled" along in the air pocket of the projectile as a whole, at lower velocities, the shotcup will be affected by the turbulent air around the projectile as a whole, and as it has a lower density, will fall away from the shot) and will begin to spread earlier than with a full length barrel.

14" is still plenty to produce a sufficient velocity for taking small game, but the lower velocity and wider spread reduces the effective distance at which it can be done.