Shortening .410 barrel

Jager

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I need someone to talk me into or out of shortening the barrel on my CIL 402 single shot .410.
It has a 28" and I was thinking of cutting down to 20 or 22" to make it more "packable" and maybe user friendly for my 10 year old. What kind of effective range would I be left with without a choke? Thoughts? What about 18"?
 
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One could see if a smith could thread it for screw in chokes?
Might not be worth the cost.
Buy the young feller a BPS Micro in 20?
I sure know that I will one day own one.
Your .410 if it's in any kind of shape should take the bite out
of the BPS.
He'll have this for a life time.
 
I agree with Looky. Altering the .410 would not be worth the cost as cut down with no choke your effective range will be short 15 yards max. The boy will become frustrated attempting to effectively hit anything with it. Buy the boy a youth model gun in 20ga. he will actually hit something and gain confidence in his shooting.
 
I need someone to talk me into or out of shortening the barrel on my CIL 402 single shot .410.
It has a 28" and I was thinking of cutting down to 20 or 22" to make it more "packable" and maybe user friendly for my 10 year old. What kind of effective range would I be left with without a choke? Thoughts? What about 18"?

Just buy a Borto Hiker it has a choke on it and it's 13 inch barrel problem solved and it's cheap. Plus when you don't need it to be packable you have the longer range shotgun as well.
 
Thanks for the input so far. I recently inherited this gun and must admit I'm not all that familiar with the .410. When I was 10 yrs old, my dad bought me a savage 24c .22-20gauge that has a 20" barrel and I was just thinking a more compact .410 might fit the bill. I've also been reading alot of threads on truck and pack guns hence my thought process.
 
If you cut off the choke, the gun will be worthless for any game. The cost of machining a new choke will exceed the cost of the gun. I was given an old 20g with the same thing, when the choke was cut off, it couldn't hit a chicken more than 15 feet away it spread so bad.
 
If you cut off the choke, the gun will be worthless for any game. The cost of machining a new choke will exceed the cost of the gun. I was given an old 20g with the same thing, when the choke was cut off, it couldn't hit a chicken more than 15 feet away it spread so bad.

+1,
harrington & Richardson sell decent 1 shot for 150$ or so.
 
Chop it :)

I have an Iver in .410. It was full choke 26"iirc when I bought it for $60 used at Wanstalls. I used the pipe cutter from a brakeline flaring kit and cut to 22". I took around 100 revolutions, but I got her. The inside burr from the cutter was minor and smoothed out after 1 slug. I can hit a 16" gong @100yd no problem(using slugs), without a front sight.
It's the only gun my daughter will shoot and she finds it much more manageable now, she's quite petite. She shoots clays with it and does well.
 
A .410 with bird shot is a rather useless gun for a youngster learning how to shoot... to hit flying objects with a .410 requires some expertise.
 
Not a fan of the .410 for killing anything, but it is okay (only) with a fairly long barrel and a tight choke.

Don't chop it unless you just want to shoot pop cans at 12 yards.
 
Weird. I break alot of skeet targets around 25 yards with a 22" barrel cyl choke. Not recommending you chop yours but you can still retain an effective pattern for small game using a 410 with an open choke and keeping under 20 yds
 
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