Sinsinati .410 20" or 28"

[stefK]

Looking to pick up a Sinsinati .410 single shot and have a choice between the 28" or 20" barrel. Kinda leaning towards the 20" as I'm thiniking it will be a

nice size little truck shot gun or to toss in the pack for an afternoon hike in the bush for grouse. Just wondering if an 8" differnence in barrel length will

compromise distance....I'm kinda thinking it won't, but wouldn't miid having a few members chime in for guidance. Thanks!

 

[Superbrad]

I have a similar gun (same gun but made for another company), in 20 gauge with the 20 inch barrel.... I use it for exactiy as you describe, toss in the truck when cruising the back roads or strap to the quad when cruising around....

You will lose some accuracy over the 28 inch barrel, but it's kind of a toss up in my books as I only use mine for critters of opportunity, where I would have no gun if it weren't there.....

 

[grelmar]

I have a REALLY short, 12.5inch barrel .410 (the Warrior style from Corwin Arms, with an extractor instead of ejector) that I use mostly on gophers. Very effective out to about 10 yards or so, after that the pattern opens up a bit much and the velocity of the pellets isn't great. At 15 yards it still gets them, but at that distance I'm using a .22 instead. Most of my .22s are scoped, and it can be hard to put a scope on something as small as a gopher at under 10 yards, so the short .410 is handy to have beside me in the quad for that.

While grouse are bigger than gophers, they aren't much tougher.

So long as you're sticking to small game at close ranges, 20" should be fine. I wouldn't even try any shots past 15 yards, though.