Mossberg 410 pump any good?

rem74283

rem74283

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Hamilton Area, Ontario
Hey all, I was in Sail in Burlington with my son the ther day and saw they have the mossberg pumps in 410 and 20g for $350.
They were out of the 410's and told them to call me when they get some in. Thinking this would be a good repeater for my almost 10 year old son. He has a single shot right now.

I figured with the screw in chokes it would be a good grouse gun for myself either way.

Thoughts?
 
I had one when I was kid and it is still going strong at my buddies place.
I gave it to them for a wedding present back in .......................... the late seventies.
Rattles a wee bit more now than new, but I'm surprised these aren't a classic by now.

Screw in chokes................huh?
 
I love the 410 for small game but for a youth or new shooter a 20 get is a lot easier to hit stuff with. And a pump is a great platform to learn on for sure.
 
ought my son a Mossberg 500 410 pump and he outgrew it very fast. Further, a 410 bore is in my opinion a poor choice for a young person or novice. Sure they have light recoil but hitting flying game consistently with the aforementioned takes a pro. Further, Ammo is fiercely expensive performance is limited to 25 yards or so. At 12 I bought my boy a weatherby SA-08 20 and he's never looked back. Short of it...get your kid a 20.
 
dutchhunter said:
I love the 410 for small game but for a youth or new shooter a 20 get is a lot easier to hit stuff with. And a pump is a great platform to learn on for sure.
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M12shooter said:
ought my son a Mossberg 500 410 pump and he outgrew it very fast. Further, a 410 bore is in my opinion a poor choice for a young person or novice. Sure they have light recoil but hitting flying game consistently with the aforementioned takes a pro. Further, Ammo is fiercely expensive performance is limited to 25 yards or so. At 12 I bought my boy a weatherby SA-08 20 and he's never looked back. Short of it...get your kid a 20.
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These guys have the right idea. A 20ga will provide years of good use, whereas the kid will want to upgrade from the 410 at some point in the not-so-distant future. Plus its an unforgiving gun for a seasoned vet, let alone a young shooter.

Plus, the 20ga is way more versatile. I wouldn't hesitate to use a 20ga on ducks or geese at appropriate ranges, and a 20ga slug is nothing to scoff at either for deer hunting.

If hes currently shooting a 410 single shot, then upping him to a 20ga pump with light target loads shouldn't be a big jump in recoil due to the additional gun weight. Although depending on the size of your kid, the additional weight of a pump gun might be too much to carry for a long time.
 
He's a small kid. I'm taking him out to shot the single 410 weds for the first time. I'm going to let him shoot some low 7's to get the feel for shooting at a moving target and get him out shooting in general. I don't want to make him gun shy by putting a 20g in his hands too soon. If they made a cheaper 28g pump then I would buy that for sure.

As for the cost, I reload my own 410 for about $55 a flat.
 
I love my Mossberg .410 pump, as others have stated not the best for wing shooting for a new shooter,,, however, that being said, it would be a fantastic gun for your son to get the feel of a shotgun without the recoil of the 20g,, when he has gotten to the point where you feel he is ready for a 20, then you have yourself a sweet little .410 for rabbit and grouse :) it's a win/ win situation lol
Ammo isn't cheap, and it's a bit loose and sloppy, but it works every time.
God forbid the situation ever arose, but if an intruder was in our home, it would also be the first gun my wife would grab, and those PDX shells make a nice mess at close range
 
rem74283 said:
He's a small kid. I'm taking him out to shot the single 410 weds for the first time. I'm going to let him shoot some low 7's to get the feel for shooting at a moving target and get him out shooting in general. I don't want to make him gun shy by putting a 20g in his hands too soon. If they made a cheaper 28g pump then I would buy that for sure.

As for the cost, I reload my own 410 for about $55 a flat.
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Maybe just keep him with the 410 single for a bit then? Get him used to that, then look at upgrading. The single shot will force them to learn to make the first shot count because he won't have a quick follow up.

Personally I don't like the 410, other than to get someone into shooting a shotgun whos too small for anything else, and for that reason I wouldn't buy one for your stated purpose. A half oz of shot doesn't give me much confidence, and the 3" loads pushing 11/16ths of an oz are not a huge difference from a 7/8ths 20ga.

Oh, and if you can reload 20ga, then you could just make some powderpuff loads that shoot like the 410 for now until he can handle bigger stuff. Thats what I would do (I would even buy the stuff for 20ga reloading if necessary, over buying a 410 pump for my kid)

Now, if this is all just a clever excuse to get yourself a 410 pump gun, then by all means, buy away. lol
 
edgy said:
I love my Mossberg .410 pump, as others have stated not the best for wing shooting for a new shooter,,, however, that being said, it would be a fantastic gun for your son to get the feel of a shotgun without the recoil of the 20g,, when he has gotten to the point where you feel he is ready for a 20, then you have yourself a sweet little .410 for rabbit and grouse :) it's a win/ win situation lol
Ammo isn't cheap, and it's a bit loose and sloppy, but it works every time.
God forbid the situation ever arose, but if an intruder was in our home, it would also be the first gun my wife would grab, and those PDX shells make a nice mess at close range
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This is what I was thinking. If it didn't pan out I'd still have myself a 410 to hunt with.

Even if I started reloading 20g to make a lighter load for him, right now the weight of a 20g pump would be too much. Like I said he's a small kid. The 410 pump may even be to heavy for him in the beginning. I just wanted to jump on what I thought was a decent price.

The single shot 410 has a full choke so it's very much a starter gun just to get him shooting. I like that the mossberg has the screw in chokes because it makes it available for other types of shooting/hunting.
 
The pump action Mossy 410 does not have screw in chokes. It is choked at full. I've owned two of them, they're a lot of fun, and I think perfect for a ten year old. $350 is a good price too, in fact buy the 20 gauge as well. If he grows out of the 410, you will be able to sell it for what you paid.
 
memaquay said:
The pump action Mossy 410 does not have screw in chokes. It is choked at full. I've owned two of them, they're a lot of fun, and I think perfect for a ten year old. $350 is a good price too, in fact buy the 20 gauge as well. If he grows out of the 410, you will be able to sell it for what you paid.
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I'll have to look into that. I was told it had the chokes.
 
The 410 is 6.25lbs, the 20ga 7lbs.

One thing to consider is if its not a youth model, the stock will be WAYYYYYY to big for him. 13 7/8" length of pull. I think the 410 has a 24" barrel vs the 28" of the 12/20s, so that should help in that respect at least.

As for chokes, looking at the Mossberg website, I can only see one model with interchangeable chokes in 410, and Im guessing its not your son's cup of tea. (Although I bet my 5 year old would rock it!)

50354-catalog-new-color.png


http://www.mossberg.com/product/510-youth-mini-super-bantam-muddy-girl-all-purpose-50354/
 
Suther said:
The 410 is 6.25lbs, the 20ga 7lbs.

One thing to consider is if its not a youth model, the stock will be WAYYYYYY to big for him. 13 7/8" length of pull. I think the 410 has a 24" barrel vs the 28" of the 12/20s, so that should help in that respect at least.

As for chokes, looking at the Mossberg website, I can only see one model with interchangeable chokes in 410, and Im guessing its not your son's cup of tea. (Although I bet my 5 year old would rock it!)

50354-catalog-new-color.png


http://www.mossberg.com/product/510-youth-mini-super-bantam-muddy-girl-all-purpose-50354/
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I thought about getting him that 510 with the shims. It would fit him better for sure. Are you saying the 510 mini bantam has the screw in chokes?
 
rem74283 said:
Hahaha. I didn't notice the pink in the camo.
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For a smaller kid, I would go with this one. http://www.mossberg.com/product/510-youth-mini-super-bantam-all-purpose-field-50485/

20ga, 5lbs, 10.5" or 11.5" length of pull w/spacer. Just buy or make some light recoiling loads to start. They make 20ga shells with 3/4oz shot at around 1000fps, those should be pretty mild.

For a slightly bigger kid, I would go with this one. http://www.mossberg.com/product/500-youth-super-bantam-all-purpose-54210/

Its got a bit longer barrel, and a bit longer stock (12", 13" w/spacer)

How easy either of those models are to find in Canada, I couldn't say (but I'm pretty sure I have seen them around before)

You could also buy the 410 pump and change (or cut) the stock on it, but that will make it front end heavy with a 24" barrel. The youth ones use 18.5" and 22" barrels.
 
I have two girls, both of which I take along on hunting and clay adventures. My oldest is 11, soon to be 12 and she very comfortably shoots the Mossberg 500 youth model in 20 gauge using Winchester's AA low recoil/low noise shells. I now regularly take her to sporting clay competitions and she can go 200 rounds in a day; while tired by the end this is not a problem for her and her description of the event will be "super-fun dad!". Squirrels are no longer a challenge for her, and pigeons on the wing don't fair much better.

I recently made the mistake of putting that gun/load combo into the hands of my youngest who is 18 months younger than her older sister. After two shells to try it she was so adverse to the recoil she would not try the Mossberg 510 mini in .410 that I picked up out of guilt later that same day. It took me several weeks to get her to finally try it; last weekend we had success. The success started out on a small jungle lane I set up with balloons and static clays, and she had so much fun she asked to go to the clay range where easily broke her first aerial birds, albeit we only tried an easy hanging incomer, a somewhat lazy straight/away, and a slow crossing rabbit. We have a video we made of the jungle lane - we were going to wait until she went on her first squirrel outing, but I'll see if she's ok with me posting it so you can see her relative size and how she handles the gun.

My experience is that for small kids there is a huge difference between the 20 gauge youth model and the 510 mini. If your 10 year old is on the smaller side, I would unhesitatingly recommend the 510 mini in .410 for a year or two before moving up to the 20 gauge youth model. It will not take them long to grow into the 20 gauge, but if they are not quite ready it can be a super negative experience that is difficult to overcome.

Cheers,

Brobee
 
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Brobee said:
I have two girls, both of which I take along on hunting and clay adventures. My oldest is 11, soon to be 12 and she very comfortably shoots the Mossberg 500 youth model in 20 gauge using Winchester's AA low recoil/low noise shells. I now regularly take her to sporting clay competitions and she can go 200 rounds in a day; while tired by the end this is not a problem for her and her description of the event will be "super-fun dad!". Squirrels are no longer a challenge for her, and pigeons on the wing don't fair much better.

I recently made the mistake of putting that gun/load combo into the hands of my youngest who is 18 months younger than her older sister. After two shells to try it she was so adverse to the recoil she would not try the Mossberg 510 mini in .410 that I picked up out of guilt later that same day. It took me several weeks to get her to finally try it; last weekend we had success. The success started out on a small jungle lane I set up with balloons and static clays, and she had so much fun she asked to go to the clay range where easily broke her first aerial birds, albeit we only tried an easy hanging incomer, a somewhat lazy straight/away, and a slow crossing rabbit. We have a video we made of the jungle lane - we were going to wait until she went on her first squirrel outing, but I'll see if she's ok with me posting it so you can see her relative size and how she handles the gun.

My experience is that for small kids there is a huge difference between the 20 gauge youth model and the 510 mini. If your 10 year old is on the smaller side, I would unhesitatingly recommend the 510 mini in .410 for a year or two before moving up to the 20 gauge youth model. It will not take them long to grow into the 20 gauge, but if they are not quite ready it can be a super negative experience that is difficult to overcome.

Cheers,

Brobee
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This is exactly why I started this thread. I don't want to make him gun shy.
 
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