Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Lever Action shotgun?

They made a 410 barrel to fit a takedown rifle. It only worked as a single shot, as the magazine wasn’t big enough for the shells. I have one I’d let the kids shoot clay pigeons with when they were little.

Winchester 9410

Marlin had a run of these made in the early 2000's prior to the sale to Remington. Podnuh of mine has/had one. Neat piece. Only took 2-1/2" shells though.

Doesn't Henry make one ?

Hal

I had one of those for a couple of years. It shot good, and worked well.

Then one day after Winchester went bankrupt I was at a local gunshow and saw the prices a couple of those had on them... Wow! Like 4 times what I paid for mine, and mine was much nicer, with the box and fancy walnut.

Went home and got my 9410 and went back to the gunshow and walked around with it... Sure enough, I had someone make me an offer I couldn't refuse!

The Ranch Boss has several 1887 Winchesters. One is really nice. I loaded her up some of those Magtech fuul brass cases with Holy Black and both bird and buck shot.

The 1887 is one winchester I do NOT care to work on.

Oldest Brother ended up with Grandpa's Winchester lever action shotgun.

Kinda a Pizzer , being the youngest, and missing out on the COOL stuff!

Virgil B.

Stockholder Marlin

I was only aware of the more current production.......

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1016532840

More current

2008 mfg date

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1013412201

yep......

prob more to select from than Marlin

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1004016810

I handled one off the rack back when they first done the production run on the Winchester 9410. I could kick my own ass for not buying it then and there ($400?). I’m still looking for a straight stock model for my grandson to use. But ya, as you say… prices are out of sight!

Spencer made a pump a few years before the 1887 came out, but it was not very successful. They're a weird top ejecting thing, and not very robustly designed.

I had a 9410 for a bit, but mine was a jamomatic, so I didn't hang onto it very long. It was fun when it worked, but getting more than 2-3 rounds through it without jamming was a long odds bet.

They were a cool looking gun. The several I’ve looked over were basket cases. Not well taken care of.

Same. I have only seen a couple firsthand, and neither were shootably functional pieces.

I know a little about the Win. 9410 backstory.

At the time USRAC had a production engineer in the New Haven plant that had been messing around with the concept of converting a model 94 into a ..410 shotgun, and had some good success in doing so, but it wouldn't feed a few brands of shells. Upper management at Browning (Browning was the licensee from Olin for the Winchester line of firearms), didn't think it was worth the trouble and didn't see a market for them.

However, a new product guy was brought in and during his first visit to the New Haven plant he was shown the prototype, and as he had known about the Marlin 410 lever from 1929, he thought that there was a market for it. So his job was to convince management there was a market, and to work with the engineers in getting the initial specs and to solve the jamming issues.

Why a 410 lever: Of all the models, calibers, commemoratives and variations of model 94s that were produced over the 100+ years of production, none of them were shotguns. That alone would make a 9410 of interest to Winchester collectors. Secondly, there had been a market from conservation groups like DU, QU, NWTF, QDMA for guns that chapters could raffle off or auction, and they were looking for something that attracted interest. It was pretty evident that none of their members owned a .410 lever shotgun so that was another market possibility. Lastly there are some guns that are just fun to shoot, with limited practicality. While it could not be made to shoot 3" shells, at the time there were substantially more 2.5" shell variations and ammo sales than the 3", typically skeet loads. If they were to increase sales of the model 94, they couldn't rely on .30-30's and .44's.

The engineering issue related to shell choices was solved by adding a magnetized bolt face to assist the extractor, which fixed the issues with 99percent of the shells on the market.. Activ shotshells with their all plastic case was the only one that didn't extract.

In testing, it was found that with modern shotshells a fixed choke with the slighted constriction would throw actual full choke patterns so the first production featured the fixed chokes. Also as the barrel didn't have rifling and used all but a handful of small parts, the production cost was contained. It also shot .410 slugs pretty well, even though they lacked energy relative to other gauges.

Later models would use replaceable chokes, not because of better performance, but based on perceptions of shooters. USRAC would produce various runs changing up barrel lengths, magazine lengths, stock styles, and sights, and changed from crossbolt safeties to tang safeties.

Anecdotally, there were a lot of stories of Skeet Range Officer's freaking out when a shooter would show up to the range with what looked like a .30-30.

It's a fun gun to shoot and its cool to see the grin on a shooter's face the first time they shoot one.

True story---
My BIL, had one that he quail hunted with a few times.
He and his friend decided to go duck hunting at Rodman Reservoir, in a Gheenoe,,, yep turned it over and lost the 9410 and 2 Benelli's.
Some bass fishermen pulled them out and helped right the Gheenoe.

oof...they call that the Dolf Lungren edition

kaywoodie;
Good morning my cyber friend, I hope that you're all getting decent weather this morning and in all ways possible you're well.

When I was a kid in very rural Saskatchewan, the first thing we'd talk about at anyone's house on a visit was what guns might be around. There were, as one might imagine, always some or at least one.

A friend's brother in law had a Winchester 1887 in 10 gauge which still worked, but was seldom used as we couldn't find any shells for it. This would have been the early '70's and as I recall even 16 gauge was tough to come by.

If this comes through for me - and I can't tell because of some interesting computer issues I'm having - but anyways John Horton Slaughter seemed to do alright with a lever shotgun.



All the best to you all down there sir and good hunting.

Dwayne

Seems like I recall reading somewhere the 10 ga was the most popular back in the days of black powder shells. The reproductions are mostly 12 ga.