410. Love or hate

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brybenn

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Seems every other small gauge gets a title. Ive had on and offs with the lil 410 over the years. It started well. A gun i could shoot as a child. Couldnt hit much other than pop cans as a child though. Learned to hate the lil cartridge. As i grew and got into clay games and learned alot the challenges of the 410s limitations began to intrigue me.
With the proliferation of new ammo and new market hype for areas the 410 has never seen much love like home defense and turkey hunting the draw has become even stronger.
Im currently owning only one sxs 410 at the moment but that number will grow surely once i locate several models i want. Buying tss this fall will make waterfowling legal with the 410 so im excited to try it
So who loves or hates the 410?
 
My experience was different than many. I got a brand spanking new 410 pump for my 12 th birthday. My dad also picked up a box of clay birds. Right from the first shot, I hit 95% of the clays and continued to do well over the next few years on grouse as well as close ducks. That little 410 taught me to be a decent shot and I still have it. I won't say I have a love for the 410 but as mentioned, know its limitations.
 
I've owned various .410's over the years, but never did use them much. Two of the fellows that I work with have boys about 10 or 11, so now the .410s get a workout. I started reloading for my Ishapore No.1 that is chambered for a proper .410. I use the Federal Upland hulls that the boys have fired off. I just wad them up, powder, primer and two .395 WW balls. Deaner made me a jig out of hardwood to cut the hulls to a certain length so I can also fire them in an original Ishapore .410. Great fun for the boys and the big boys.
 
I have three .410s...a CZ Bobwhite SxS IC/M, a Fausti O/U with choke tubes and an original Winchester M42 full choke. Like them all....especially for a fun round of skeet. Have hunted the SxS a bit and shot a few grouse and a one time opening day limit of SD roosters, all taken about 20 yds away and broadside. Wouldn't try it again, but with 3" #6 SuperX loads the little gun worked well. The roosters get way too wild to hunt them with the .410 after the first time they get flushed.
 
Had a Boito S x S, reamed the chokes out of it and used it for skeet; that was fun!!! Used it for squirrel too. Loved it.
 
Indifferent. There was a cheap Spanish double .410 kicking around the house in my formative years, and I knocked off a lot of grouse and bunnies with it. I watched my brother use it to drop a mallard stone dead at 40 yds, but even in my ignorant youth I knew it was no waterfowl gun. I learned rather quickly that it wasn't necessarily cheaper to shoot than a 12. In those days I used whatever I had ammo for, but by preference I would use a .22 for small game and a 12 for ducks ( rare to see a goose back then ). I'm tempted occasionally to pick up a cheap single shot or a Mossberg in .410, but I'm not sure what niche it would fill.
 
Ammo selection for the 410 is probably more important than with any other shotgun. When it comes to breaking clay targets, you seldom get a break from only one pellet and often you need 3 or 4 pellets minimum to even get a chip.
#7.5 shot is popular with target shooters but a 1/2 oz load in a 410 only has 200 pellets in it compared to a 1 1/8 oz load in a 12 bore which has 450. Logic says that you need more pellets so moving down a size to #8 ups the count in a half oz load to 225 and #9s up the count to 290 pellets. If your limiting your shots to say 40 yards then the heavier pellets are not needed to break targets so the increased pellet count of smaller shot is a great trade off. Not that I advocate #9 shot at 40 yards but it does pretty good under 30 yards so I often carry a mix of #9 and #8 shells.
You can also move up to 11/16 oz loads to increase the payload, for example a 1/2 oz load of #8s has 225 pellets and an 11/16 oz load has 309. The problem is that most 11/16 loads use 1/2 oz wads in a 3 inch hull and the taller shot columns tend to distort more as they travel down the barrel which produces more fliers and more stringing so the patterns suffer and there isn’t a proportionate gain in performance.
 
I use #9s for my skeet reloads as with my mec loader and #7.5s i get bridging and more shot on the floor then in the shells. My sxs is only fixed full chokes so i use 8s f9r any hunting i do with it. Looking for a gun with tubes as more open chokes pattern better with 6s and 7.5s
 
Blockcaver said:
I have three .410s...a CZ Bobwhite SxS IC/M, a Fausti O/U with choke tubes and an original Winchester M42 full choke. Like them all....especially for a fun round of skeet. Have hunted the SxS a bit and shot a few grouse and a one time opening day limit of SD roosters, all taken about 20 yds away and broadside. Wouldn't try it again, but with 3" #6 SuperX loads the little gun worked well. The roosters get way too wild to hunt them with the .410 after the first time they get flushed.
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May i ask which model fausti you have and whether you like it or not. Ive been looking at their line up and the conrad fits me well in 410 but i love the look of the class sl and read that they do in fact make it in 410 on a custom order. My local gunsmith is a dealer for fausti
Huglu 410s are of fixed chokes so theyre out Beretta silver pigeon and franchi aspire are another option at thisnpoint
 
Falconflyer said:
Ammo selection for the 410 is probably more important than with any other shotgun. When it comes to breaking clay targets, you seldom get a break from only one pellet and often you need 3 or 4 pellets minimum to even get a chip.
#7.5 shot is popular with target shooters but a 1/2 oz load in a 410 only has 200 pellets in it compared to a 1 1/8 oz load in a 12 bore which has 450. Logic says that you need more pellets so moving down a size to #8 ups the count in a half oz load to 225 and #9s up the count to 290 pellets. If your limiting your shots to say 40 yards then the heavier pellets are not needed to break targets so the increased pellet count of smaller shot is a great trade off. Not that I advocate #9 shot at 40 yards but it does pretty good under 30 yards so I often carry a mix of #9 and #8 shells.
You can also move up to 11/16 oz loads to increase the payload, for example a 1/2 oz load of #8s has 225 pellets and an 11/16 oz load has 309. The problem is that most 11/16 loads use 1/2 oz wads in a 3 inch hull and the taller shot columns tend to distort more as they travel down the barrel which produces more fliers and more stringing so the patterns suffer and there isn’t a proportionate gain in performance.
Click to expand...

Great info!
 
I used to shoot chickens with a .22, but in the 80s I picked up a singleshot .410. Never went back to .22. The .410 takes their heads off and very few grouse get away. Not only I learned to shoot clays with it, I bought a Mec 650jr reloader press for it and shot a bazillion rounds in the last 40 years.
 
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