Purely my opinion. In a factory or machine shop...the more operations that can be completed from one 'setup' the better, time is money. If you can place the barrel in the jig, .410 and 20 ga and perform all the necessary machine operations without removing it...you have saved a LOT of time which equals money. Additionally, if you were to measure the receiver block and water table, I bet you'd discover the receiver is identical for 20ga and .410. So if you slenderize the .410 bbl...what are you going to do with the sharp edges now showing on the receiver block/water table? Re machine the receiver smaller? no way. Follow the money.
H&R built single shots in 22 and 17 rimfires, various centerfire rifle cartridges from 22 Hornet to 45/70, and shotguns from 9mm shot to 410, 32, 28, 20, 16,12, and 10ga. All on the same size frame. Steven/Savage did the same with fewer rifle cartridges offered.
One size OD with many different sizes of ID all fit on the same size receiver meant one set of internal parts, one size stocks and maybe two or three various forend contours to accommodate the larger or smaller barrel channels.
Generally they were made to be cheap and profitable, not necessarily well balanced or svelte.
Agree with above, but there's another angle. The "thick" .410 barrel applies to most any gun. Winchester 42s have tremendous wall thickness, as do Mossbergs and 870s.
Greener's 'Rule of 96' (ideal gun weight = 96 x payload) works kinda well for 1 oz payloads, marginally for the gifted at 3/4 oz, and not at all with the 1/2 oz .410. Scale barrels and frames as a purist, but at some point shotgunning becomes about hitting flying stuff. A 6# M-42, probably the most .410-scaled repeater ever made, is nicely balanced and a delight to shoot.
Metal at breech end keeps weight between the hands, making for a fast-handling gun. Look up "moment of inertia" as it applies to shotguns.
If you say so; I’ve misplaced my scorecard. Don’t have one, but do have a couple of 20s and have been known to shoot the odd round of clays with a .410 SS.
Didn’t Liz Cheny’s dad shoot his pal with a 28? Didn’t get sufficient penetration IIRC, not uncommon with men his age I hear…..
Gee Dan I thought the gay part was the person in the teal colored shirt waving his hands around like a phag and using his body language to make his points. I guess that happens when you have a speech impediment. 7/8 oz. Of 9's in a 12 gives me a light and lively load for targets without spending 23k pounds for extra barrels. Never saw anything to be done with a 28 that couldn't be done just as well with a 20 and better with significantly less cost involved. Fact is teal shirt laughter lost me while I watched him pull the empties to then throw them on the ground. Most definetly a classy facility and grounds though..mb
NOT a .410, but rather a 28; 28 gauge barrels for a 12ga frame AND forend. Titanium. Weigh the same as the 12ga barrels, so no handling difference.
Only 23k pounds, British pounds that is, for the barrels.
My 93 year old friend/benefactor is sitting on a Beretta combo gun, built on a 12 gauge frame with four barrels - 12, 20, 28, and .410. It looks decidedly odd (weird? ugly?) with the sub-gauge barrels installed, but it works, balances well and works ok.
My best all-time all-aound gun I've had: 20 gauge LC Smith, 28" M/F. The gun that was most magical in my hands for Clays, skeet, doves, grouse: 28 gauge Miroku/Anschutz O/U (on dedicated 28ga. frame), 26" skt1/skt2. Never had a .410 of any stripe that I would call "magical" - but of course I've never owned a single shot .410 so maybe I rushed to judgement....
One interesting thing about the .410 is the SAAMI Maximum Average Pressure for the 3" shells is 13,500 PSI--which is higher than for any other shotshell except the 3-1/2" 12-gauge, where the MAP is 14,000 PSI. All the others range from 11,000 to 12,000.
I doubt this would be much of a factor in thickness of the rear of the barrel, but have always found it interesting....
Yeah, I always found that interesting too. It formed the foundation of my wonderment of why all the extra barrel steel as compared to larger bores which obviously fueled the OP's query at the start of this thread and for which I have no answer, other than one of matching barrel chamber dimensions to a frame designed for larger barrels.