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How many of you hunt with a 410

got a buddy that hunts with a Winchester model 42 every once in a while.
I don't

I have an old H & R Topper in 410 I carry to the blind with me loaded with a 3” hand load with copper platted #6’s. I also take my 12 gauge and so far the birds haven’t cooperated for me to use the 410, but if I ever get one inside 20 yds. I’ll use that Topper! This year I killed my bird at 52 paces! The birds did not want to play this year and were tough to call.

I'm setting up an H&R Topper. Haven't sent the barrel out yet. It's still just factory full choke. In messing around on paper..........with 3" lead 7 1/2's it'd kill at 30 yards. With TSS #9's it'd kill at 40. Anxious to have the barrel done. I can't see dumping my trusty 20 gauge for it. But, it'll see some use.

Killed my bird with my model 42 skeet,Super X 7.5 lead at 18 yards this year. This was my Grandfathers shotgun,both of us built in 1959-gun is holding up better than me! Can't get pictures to work..

My kids used a single shot stevens 410 for their first couple yrs, farthest shot was 26 yrds, never had a bird get away. Just used 3” 7 1/2’s. Never tried the expensive 410 ammo, but have heard it extends the range

I bought a Henry, originally for my grandson to use, but when that didn't happen, I set it up for myself with a rail, prism sight, and Turkey tube. As a specialized tool for head-shooting to 40-50 yards with tungsten, it’s fine. Not a great choice IMO, for situations where body-shots might be offered. Now that I have a 20ga O/U set up for me, the .410 will become more of a utility piece/walk around gun. I have a bunch of buckshot, slugs, and other interesting ammo to play with. Nice little gun, and both it and the 20 are very quiet to load and unload.

I sit by a small pond in Ks every early September and shoot incoming doves with either a REM 1100 or a Beretta O/U both in 410.
Two of my brothers are with me, with similar 410s.
We generally limit out, 15 birds each, in an evening shoot.
The shots per bird is higher than bigger gauges, but we do pretty good.

I found, and bought, a pretty nice Winchester 37 in 410 and it came with 3 boxes of 3" shells too! But them my good friend, that let's me hunt his property and is always taking me out fishing on his boat, saw it and asked if it was for sale! Lol! So he has it now and no regrets. Last week we went out on Lake Michigan, on his decked out 21' Skeeter, and came in with 2 nice Rainbow Trout, 1 pretty nice Lake Trout and 1 really nice, over 20 pounds, King Salmon. I'll find another 410 single shot, or not, I enjoy the search as much as the find.

I have a .410 Win 37 that my Dad bought in the ‘50’s. Good rabbit gun; it’s taken it’s share.

I had a .410 Win 101, but traded it.

I’m into 28’s, like them better.

DF

I don’t, and haven’t since I was a kid, but I sure wish I would have followed DF’s lead and kept that H&R single shot my dad got for me when I was about 12.

Thanks again dad.

I took my daughter this year and she used my savage 301 with a blend of 9&10 tss.
Dead bird at about 15 yards.
I took it a few times but never had opportunity to fire it

Been using since before factory TSS loads were available. It works well at normal ranges. The overall pattern diameter is small. So the deficiency of the .410 is it is easier to miss with.

Unless you're setting up an ultralight gun, I don't see the point. You can use a larger gauge for a broader pattern. Mine 410 is under 4 pounds.

Broader pattern isn't really the point of the larger gauge guns. A .410 can throw the standard 30" pattern. Problem is that at longer ranges it's thin enough to throw a trash can through without a scratch from a shot pellet. That's why many of the shotgun experts back in the day reported the best effectiveness of a .410 was under 25-30 yards. A fuller, denser pattern with more pellets is the advantage of the bigger guns. A 3/4 ounce .410 load of #6 shot just isn't going to throw as full a pattern as a two ounce 12 gauge load of #6 shot all things equal. That is the reason for the popularity of the tiny shot sizes like #9 in TSS to compensate for the fewer pellets in the .410. Throwing a cloud of rat shot fills in all the holes and blank spaces in the .410 pattern. TSS miracle mix is dense enough even in the micro size shot to do the work. And that extends the range of the .410.

Do people bother with anything out of a shotgun that is not useful a pattern? There isn't any point to it. People I associate with discuss limits on range in terms of how far a gun will hold a pattern. We mean the limit is the point after which the pattern is not useful it isn't even considered a pattern.

How do you get a fuller, denser pattern? You choke it down. With larger gauges, a useful pattern is made with less choke. The overall pattern diameter is larger. You can choke down a large payload of shot extremely tight, making it as small as .410 if you're not a very good turkey hunter and need to kill them at extreme ranges. For those of us who give the grand bird a sporting chance, there is less need of tighter chokes for longer distances. Even with lead shot, you can open a 2oz load of lead shot up enough to make it hard to miss with. Some folks will even take advantage of a double barrel by using an very open choke or spreader load to open a pattern up for shortest range shooting. You won't do that with a .410. Well, maybe you could with T10s, if you could get your hands on the 1oz load from the one boutique maker. I haven't seen anyone report actually doing it.

That's kind of the thing. Those of us who have been working with TSS and .410s since the very beginning have been riding the cutting edge. This does not relate to standard chokes and loads used for wingshooting. Been having that argument since the nineties with people who want their 30" pattern board experience for wingshooting to extend to the turkey world.

My turkey choked .410 with a handload of T9.5s holds a small pattern past the range at which I'll shoot a turkey. You'd have to see it to believe it. Memory says it's about 18" but that seems fantastic. I'd have to go dig up the target to be sure enough to report. On the other hand, my 20ga with 1 5/8oz T9s with factory full choke is much broader at the same distance with a pattern as dense. With a turkey choke the 20ga is too tight to hunt with at sporting distances.

The reason I bother to relate all this is to encourage people to move to subgauges and lighter payloads. You can keep it sporting and have the advantage of lighter guns and cleaner kills. Also, with TSS you want to stick with lighter loads and smaller shot because the big loads of large shot are lethal farther downrange than you're used to with lead. That's a point to consider if you hunt on public land or around livestock. I have avoided public land in early season and on weekends since TSS factory loads came out.

Only in the instance of the .410, you'll be dealing with a smaller patterns than the same or larger payloads in larger gauges. Mostly larger because unless you can handload, you will be stuck with factory or boutique loads which are heavier.

Or add more shot to the payload. And that's why you are using 9's and not 6's in your .410.

"Riding the cutting edge"

My buddy ran into one of them cutting edge fow tinners in Northern Missouri last year....rolled the turkey and went home without a turkey.

Now that's "cutting edge".

My .410 bird,Winchester model 42 skeet,Super-X # 7.5 lead,18 yards.

I have a stevens 410 with a plastic stock... it has killed everything I shot at.