410 Choke Selection O/U

littleshooter

littleshooter

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Hi Guys,

Looking for some input, I just bought a new 410 o/u Browning Citori. I shoot grouse, chucker, qual and a few phesants. With other o/u I am using modified and improved cylinder. Any other combinations that you have had good luck with? I normally shoot 16 & 12 guage, and was wondering about maybe a full choke on the secondary barrel to give me a bit more reach? Thoughts....

Thanks
 
410 is fine for lighter upland birds but is a total wounder for pheasants. You will see your Ringnecks fly away, but you didn't miss. Hope your dog is really focused on finding wounded runners.
 
Choke it the same or possibly a little tighter.

Don't worry about the .410 haters, they just don't shoot enough.

If you choke your gun too tight you will be handicaping your self. Because more pellets are deform in the higher pressure .410 you will get a more open pattern with equivalent chokes.Some people use larger shot in the more open barrel, grab a few different loads and play with the chokes until you are happy. Keep your shot close ish and enjoy your .410.
 
Hi Guys

Thanks for the information, I don't worry about the 410 haters, I get to shot a lot, with a lot of different gauges. I have ordered a couple of extended Chokes to try, 1 Mod and 1 Improved Modified. I will see how the Chuckers and the Quail like it first. Thanks Again....
 
Buy shells like the Winchester 3" magnums. They reload great and you can get over a dozen loads per hull. The cost of loading .410 is about 15 cents per shell. I try to buy them in entire flats if they go on sale. $4 box reloads compared to $17 box factory loads
 
I do a lot of upland hunting with a 410 and found the ic mod combo to work the best for me. When shooting birds at 30 yrds or less you should not notice any less knock dawn power with the 410.
 
Couldn't resist chiming in on this one as I have alot of experience with a .410. I used a Win 101 OU bored skeet/skeet. Obviously I shot alot of skeet with it. But I also enjoyed shooting partridge with it out the back of the house here, and I used to take it up north on the moose hunt for birds as well.

The old saying goes on a skeet field anyways "that any hit with a .410 is a good hit". That is very true for clay birds. But when it comes to live birds you want to make dead quickly and cleanly the .410 in the 2 1/2" shell configuration I had is only effective out to 20 to 25 yards. I was using my own reloads with copper plated 6's as I found this to be the most effective shot size for what I was doing.

Skeet loads with #9's on partridge standing on the trail at 25yds were totally ineffective in not only killing the bird but even wounding it enough so the dog could grab it. The birds would fly up into a tree and look down at the dog and I with a puzzled look on his face. If the particular bird would tolerate me walking up close (10 to 15 ft) I would pop them in the head/neck. When I skinned them out there would not be one pellet mark on the skin from the first shot. So the little 9's were not even penetrating the feathers at the 25 yd range.

I played with reloading different shot sizes and patterning them out on my range. For my gun and purposes the 6's worked the best. I happen to have a bag of copper plated on hand so I made up 8 boxes. Still have a box left in stock. All the rest of the shells got used on mainly partridge, with several stray cats in my wood shed and one duck falling to the rest. The duck being on the pond across from the house and only about 30 ft up when he went over my head.

The point I want to make very clear is to pattern your gun to see what shot size it digests best and at what range. I know your going to find your "effective" clean kill range is much shorter than what your used to with larger gauges.

On the subject of pheasants and a .410 forget it unless your shooting them in a pen. I have alot of experience shooting pheasants and alot more years than I care to admitt shooting clay targets and ducks. I would not even entertain the thought of taking a .410 pheasant hunting.

Like the fella mentioned here previously if your going to use the .410 on pheasants, you better have a dammed good dog who can chase down cripples and be armed and proficient with at least a 20 ga so he can shoot them properly befroe he fetchs them to you.

A .410 in an experts hands at much closer ranges with proper shot size can kill effectively and be a fun. Miss any of the factors in the above sentence and going to miss and cripple alot of game birds.
 
Thanks again for the information. Should give me some fun things to try. I have being thinking of trying to do some reloading, I have lots of brass, but to be honest I just never considered reloading my 410 or 16 guage shells. There are lots of guys at the club of course, reloading small bore and large stuff, but I have not talk to anyone doing the small guage shotgun shells. Can you point me to a good store to get me setup? I am in the Peterborough area, but I travel quite a bit.....Thanks for your help, Reloading sound like a great hobby to get rapped up in....
 
Littleshooter, I use a .410 Citori also, (and a Citori 16 too). I have used the .410 for ruffed grouse very effectively with 3" 7-1/2's and IC/Mod. In my gun, full choke is too tight for close shots, and no advantage past 30 yds. I try not to shoot at anything past that range.

I have used a .410 very effectively on one hunt for wild pheasants. It was the Browning Model 42 that I inherited from my Dad. Fixed full choke. 3" #6's. One hunt is not strong evidence, but I did cleanly kill 3 big roosters with three shots, no misses no cripples. It can be a fun bore to hunt with, but you MUST be quick on the mount and be willing to let some birds fly away that you could cleanly kill with your 16. I would not consider any other shot sizes than 6 or 7-1/2s for hunting birds with the .410. Bigger will give horrible patterns, smaller is just too small for adequate penetration. Your gun will tell you what it likes if you take the time to pattern it.
On the other subject, the 16 ga. society ( google it) has a lot of info available about hand loading the 16 ga. It is a specialized activity and components are not very available, but i like to load for mine and it does make the 16 more versatile.
Hope that helps!
 
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