WB
.410 shotgun useless?!
Friday, January 26, 2024, 09:28

My son Roman posed the validity of the .410 shotgun lately. I was taken aback as it was such an important part of my early shooting. It was a big deal when you graduated to shooting a "shotgun" even though it was a 67 gauge. (Approx. bore sized balls to equal a yankee pound) I was only 5 yrs. old the first time I discharged a Mossberg bolt action single shot .410. It was a Federal paper 3" shell with #6 shot. The heavy metal Schlitz can was hammered impressively at 25 feet from the full choke. Shotguns were literally a blast.

The origins of the .410 actually go back to the .38/40 and .44/40 shot loads of two centuries past. The .44/40 won out probably due to it's popularity in varied carbine platforms. The .410 is cheap to load for, using half the powder and shot compared to the 20/12 gauge. However at the store don't be shocked if the price for a box of .410 is close to $1.50 a shot!

By 6 I was shooting a 20 gauge some and I remembered it really flattened my shoulder. A less enthusiastic shooter might have been turned away from shooting by the recoil. Roman was about ruined at 6 by me allowing him to shoot a light weight .410. He would not shoot anything but a .22 for a long time. Now he's out of control. The various .410 defense loads and slugs are a bit of a ballistic joke if you are true to yourself. A fellow I hunted with at HHC once time unloaded a 5-shot .410 full of disc loads on a goat from a very close range. He had to borrow a gun to finish the job. (There is more about his Elk and .30-378 WBY. too, finished with a .308) That told me all I needed to know. The "slug" that is shockingly legal in some states for deer is akin to a hot .380 ACP pistol load. So popular today with all the .45/.410 revolvers, and new AR/M94 lever type platforms, what a spread. I agree, a $1000 lever action .410 surely can't be a big seller. But I still think a good .410 has a place on the farm behind the door, ready for service within it's realm of capability. This side of bears or Indian raids it gets it done for small critters.

This is a link to an interesting article on the exact gun we had 60 yrs. ago. It was classified as my "mother's gun". We used it almost exclusively on the farm back then. It was ultimately stolen in 1979. It's pseudo replacement is a Brazilian copy 3-shot I'm currently working on and fabricating all brass cartridges that I can reload with a nail and pencil!

https://www.ssusa.org/content/classic-guns-mossberg-s-model-183-bolt-action-410-shotguns/