Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 99 .410 for deer? Crazy?

What about respect for the deer? You have an obligation to shoot any animal with enough of a weapon to over come the possibility of the hunters poor aim and bullet placement to produce as clean a kill as possible. 410 slug is not that weapon and the idea should be dropped. IMHO

Rod:

Opened a can of worms didn't ya?

From what I have seen of your posts here...I'd judge you to be an experienced and ethical hunter.

You know what you can do and what you can't do. Use your own judgment.

Randy

I would say if you can stick a deer with surgical accuracy at 25-30 yds. you could probably pull it off. I also think it would be chancy. If in a survival situation I wouldn't hesitate, but if just for bragging rights maybe not. It boils down to the really poor projectile characteristics as mentioned earlier. I think you'll find that it's about like shooting a .38 Special (or a bit less)- a far cry from a .357 or .38/40.

The guys I goose hunt with pulled a stunt with.410's last season. We decided to each of us shoot at least one Canada Goose with every gauge shotgun. The 10, 12, 16 and 20 gauge kills were average kills. The ones we shot with 28's and .410's died hard. I felt pretty bad for a couple of them. We agreed that we proved the point that pretty much any gun will kill anything but we also agreed to keep the sub gauges out of our goose pits. (I normally shoot 12ga. handloads of 1 1/8- 1 3/8 oz. of Nice Shot- non tox that weighs close to lead. The .410's were 5/8oz. of #2's, 11/16oz. of #4's- Bismuth. All we could squeeze into the tiny hulls.)

I must confess to being curious about how you make out.

Rod:

Pretty bored tonight so did a little quick research on the federal website for ya.

.410 1/4 oz slugs delivers 574ft/lbs of energy at 25 yards.

357 magnum 140 grain Barnes bullet delivers 546ft/lbs at 25 yards.

41 mags deliver in the low 600's at 25 yards and 44 mags in the low 700's

Take it for what it is worth.

Honestly, don't think I would want to get hit with any of them.

Randy

http://mcb-homis.com/slug_410/
This link might help.

Thanks for the info Randy and Polecat. I'm headed to my cabin for the weekend and I'm planning to do some shooting, including some slug testing with the 99 takedown. I fitted it with a Lyman tang sight this evening; this should give me all the accuracy the barrel is capable of.

I haven't decided yet whether to use this on deer or not, but if I do, rest assured that it will be a close range proposition. I hunted with longbows and recurves for many years and I'm used to letting deer beyond 25 yards walk.

Rod

I have an M6 in 410-22 Hornet that I have tested pretty extensively. The 1/5 oz slugs from Win and Rem are very frangible. The 1/4 oz Federal is not great but does better. It also shoots well from a full choke. None of these penetrate really well on wet newsprint but the Federal is the best by a fair margin. Not only are they really light for caliber but the darn things are soft and expand.

I have seen tests of a Brenneke slug which is much tougher and penetrates better than these Forster slugs.

I am not a huge fan as I would choose the 22 Hornet on deer over the .410 barrel. In a survivalo situation I'd do it but not otherwise.

Many of the people voicing their opnion have never used a 410 and are just guessing as to the performance of the slug. my brother and I have taken many bucks and other deer with a 410 and never had a single problem. we also took Quail, Phesants ,grouse, rabbits, squirrel, and a couple turkeys.

I have taken deer with my Pa 45 cal muzzle loader with round ball softlead at 80 to 100 yds with no problems.never had a chance to take a Bear but would if it was legal and I came upon one.

PS: you can get Brenneck slugs for it. also 2 1/2 inch work fine..

I'm no ballistics or hunting expert but IIRC the ballistics on the 410 are very similar to the .45 cal pistol. Your parameters sound very ethical to me.

Except for the weight, construction and sectional density of the bullet. The 17 rem has even better ballistics but the same problem - penetration. But some folks report spectacular results on deer with the 17 so...

My personal minimum is for deer a 20 gauge... not that it can't be done otherwise, just my personal opinion.

All this talk has made me even more curious. I'm headed to the bench this weekend with the 99 and three brands of slugs I picked up (Winchester, Remington, and Federal). I hope the Federals will group, as they are a tad bit heavier (1/4 oz vs 1/5 oz). I'll report the results when I get back next week.

Rod

All this talk has made me thirsty!

Friday night...quitn' time!

Randy

I say go for it if it is legal in your state and you stay within your parameters. In Nebraska only 20 ga. slugs and larger are legal for hunting big game. Of courese most deer hunting here is done with rifles rather than shotguns but that might change in the eastern half of the state in the near future. Looking forward to seeing pictures.