Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Is a 410 a good deer caliber?

The answer to the original question is no. Will it kill a deer? Yes, but it is not a good choice in my opinion. We have had two deer killed on our place this year that had been previously shot with either buck shot or a small caliber rifle and saw another on a trail camera. One was going to survive until he ran into a 280 Remington. The other was heavily infected and in a lot of trouble. The third one was shot in the hip and only time will tell.

I don't know where the information comes from about the use of the 22lr by poachers, but feel that most around here want the deer dead right there. They tend to shoot it with something that will drop the deer on the spot and even a 22lr to the head is an iffy proposition.

I have never thought much of a head shot on deer since there is a lot that can be messed up without a clean, killing shot. The head move moves almost as much as the tail making it an easy shot to screw up. After seeing a few deer that had the bottom jaw shot off, it is not something I like seeing attempted. I know people say that they can shoot them in the ear at a dead run and not mess up any meat, but to me, it is just a shot that is too easy to screw up.

To me, the idea here is not to prove how great a shot you are by shooting an animal with a marginal firearm, but to cleanly kill an animal with as little chance of him escaping wounded or having him travel so far that recovery is impossible. This also involves having a little respect for the animal.

IF they ar only about #160.00 to buy, I am going to be on the lookout for one. With a light and a lazer, might make for a whale of a bedside gun for my small of frame and non gun person wifey. Certainly eaier for her to hit with and more powerful upon strike than her 38 special snubnose handgun. Shooting times just did a piece on the 410 for defense and said that with the 000 buck loads was a pretty formidable weapon. I would tend to agree on that point.

Still shook, though, from seeing my hero Shrapnel holding one of these plastic and potmetal commie guns

$399 nowadays. I originally bought it for small game. The gas system places the mass of the gun in in the front of the gun, but it isn't muzzle heavy in the normal way. I really don't think it would make a great home defense gun for a petite person. The small Mossberg 510 would probably be better as the Saiga is full size, just low recoil. Although you could go through the 922r hoops and fit a pistol grip and .mil stock but then you have just spent more money than it is really worth.

410 slugs are 1/5th of an ounce which is 437 grains divided by 5 equals 88 grains for the sake of an argument. At 1500 fps it has 440 ft pounds of energy - soft lead.

Use what you like, but I wouldn't.

think you are a little miss informed guy

http://mcb-homis.com/slug_410/slugtest/index.htm