Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire what can you do with a 410

Do you have personal experience in this manner?

A good bit, if you have the ammo or can load it. I have a nifty little Henry single set up for turkeys, and laid in ammo before The Crunch. Killing headshots on turkeys with TSS and the proper choke up to 40, Brenneke slugs group well to at least 50, and 5-pellet 000 make a hand-sized pattern at 30 with the modified choke. Obviously it’s a good choice for squirrels and rabbits at sensible range, without mincing them up too badly. Not my choice for much wing-shooting; I’m not that good, and the patterns are pretty thin past 25-30 yards, so not ethical (for me) in my mind.

The Henry wears a Bushnell Lil P Prism for precise aiming with TSS. When ammo becomes more available I want to try it on the rabbit on our clays setup.

Gramma had banty chickens which ran loose all over the farm. When ever she wanted to put one in the kettle, she would pull out her little bolt action 410.

When we grew up on the farm, we hunted pheasant with the neighboring farm owner. He used an 870 in 410, and was always the first to limit out.

Doves. I started with a Savage 24, 22/410 single shot and nailed the first dove I shot at. 😊 I’ve missed a few since then. 😁

My go to grouse truck gun , ammo cost more than 12 GA tho.... back when u could buy ammo .

Dove, quail, and snakes hate my 410.

410 is an experts gauge, not a good beginners or childs gun. Great for rabbits and squirrels. Enjoyable for a good wingshot who can limit his range.
You best shop for a reloading tool, 410 ammo is way overpriced.

I'd sell the ammo and buy another house.

Squill, bunnies, dove, quail, hogs, and azzholes. Probably more if you know your gun and how to use it.

It's good on beer cans and puff ball mushrooms and the like.

I killed my first shotgun-killed bird (an English sparrow) with a .410. I was 11 years old. My buddy's grandfather used to let us run loose at that age with his Savage 24 on their farm (also his late '40's Willys Overland.)

When we were kids one of my other buddy's father always used a .410 rabbit hunting. He claimed the .410 "shot like a rifle" and you could kill rabbits further with that than anything else. Even as a kid, I read enough of the "experts" to know that wasn't true, but he sure killed a lot of rabbits.

My grandmother had an old .22/.410 that she kept by the back door. Any time at night she thought she heard prowlers outside she'd let fly a couple of rounds of .410 out across the horse pasture. (If they got in the house, she always had her H&R top break .32 S&W handy for close-quarter battle. She'd also keep us in .22 shells all summer. My brothers, cousins and I worshipped that woman.

Back in my misguided younger days, my brother and I kept a pack of running hounds and our winter leisure time activity was running coyotes and foxes. One day a guy who'd expressed an interest came with us. We didn't pay much mind to what gun he had, just told him where to go to get on a watch. He killed a red fox ahead of our dogs and, when I saw the hole in it, asked him what gun he was using. He was using a .410 with slugs. We suggested that if he were to take up this sport with us on a regular basis he might consider using a 3" 12 gauge with #4 buck which was our standard coyote running load at that time.

I have a .410 barrel (2 1/2" chamber) for my Savage 99 in .303 Savage. I took the 99 on a Quebec caribou expedition several years back, killed some caribou with the .303 barrel and, after tagging out, spent a good deal of my time wandering/exploring with the .410 barrel on the 99 and collected a goodly number of spruce grouse for the table.

I know it's fashionable to say the .410 isn't a good beginner gun, but I respectfully disagree. You need to teach beginners to limit their distance with any shotgun. Where do we draw some arbitrary limit? You also need to teach them to shoot. It's a lot easier to teach them to shoot with a gun that's not beating them up. My favorite bird gun is a 1620 Merkel. Yes, it fits me, but when I use the 20 gauge barrels to shoot sporting clays or 5 stand with it will have me starting to flinch at much over 50 shots. To say the .410, because of its limited range, is not a beginner's gun, sort of implies that maybe a 3" 12 gauge would be better. Beginners should be shooting under supervision.

That's about all my experience with .410's.

Gettin' better at your shotgun game.

I once did Trap doubles with a .410 it was a tough game, got a 34 on it. was a fun round.

I have found it very efficient at very close range for hogs and dogs. It's amazing what that small amount of bird shot can do bouncing around inside a brain cavity. Never have had an exit wound.

What woodmaster and prairie dog shooter said. Fun little guns, lots of us grew up shooting them for over-simplified reasons not good reasons; utilitarian niche and expert niche, in short. Nothing “wrong” with them, but… it depends.

Have 3-4 of them, so not knocking them.

Halibut!

I reload 444 Marlin cases to shoot out of a 45 colt/ .410 Bond Derringer. I tone them down a bit usually around 13-15 grains of H-110 depending on what size shot/ buckshot that’s the flavor of the day.

My dad bought me a Mossberg 500 in 410 years ago and I have taken it dove hunting one time. I don’t remember how many I put in the bag that day but I do remember it was more than anyone else.

After reading most of this thread, I'm guessing that the first 100 or so squirrels, that I toted out of the woods, died of fright. Dont reckon it had anything to do with the 410 shooting 3" #6's. Add to that the first 25 or so ducks and a handful or two of quail. And dont even think of counting my first deer, I guess he just fell over dead for the hell of it. The 2 1/2" 410 slug that went thru his lungs at about 50 yds, had nothing to do with it.

Naw, 410 aint good for anything. (where's the sarcastic thingy)

I use a Marlin 1895 .410 for homestead chores and home defense. I keep a modified choke in it and shoot #6. I get lots of snakes and skunks with us and our neighbors all having chickens. The .410 shotshells are probably the hardest to find ammo right now. The gun holds 5 rounds if IRC. Whenever I find shells again, I might load them progressively, shell 1-3 #6 and the last 2 shots 000

I bought a single barrel 410 years ago, every time I went into wallyworld I would grab a box of shells. I heard about using 444 Marlin brass, and saw some once fired for sale and grabbed them. Haven't loaded any yet, but I have them.

I have an old Winchester 37 with a choke so tight, it shoots more like a rifle than a shotgun. That was my first gun as a kid and I made shots with that thing that I had no idea how long they were because I didn’t have a basis for comparison. That gun was a squirrel killing Jessie.