What to do with a Bolt Action .410?

[possom813]

I rescued an old Mossberg bolt .410 from a pawnshop yesterday.

I figure I got it at a good price to play with it for a while.

What can I do with it?

I don't need another .410, and the kids are shooting youth 20ga's.

My dad always wanted a a bolt or single shot .410 to shoot .41 magnum out of(not sure if that's feasible), but the .45 colt seems doable.

I just don't have much experience in the .410 area. I think it would be a neat and cheap plinker if I could run .41mag or .45colt cast reloads through it with a bit of trail boss. Make it a sub 50 yard plinker(probably sub 20 yards )


Anyways, what say you?

[pipehand]

I guess I'm the first one up, so I've gotta say no way to the 41 mag, and the 45 LC is a no go. The 41 mag is operating at 3x the pressure of what that shotgun was intended for. Even though there are guns that are designed to shoot 45 and 410, their dimensions are really 45LC with a hybrid chamber that allows the use of 410. The 45 LC ain't gonna fit, unless someone got to hogging out the factory chamber. Also, most 410's come with a full choke to achieve useable shot patterns at 25 yards. That choke is often in the .386" range. See why a solid .452" boolit isn't a good idea?

I have a couple of 410 single shots, and I really do want to start loading for them. I'm thinking of making the investment in some RMC 3" cases for what little shooting I actually do with a 410. I tried some of the new buckshot loads from Federal that were intended to be shot in a Judge, and was pleased with the patterns.

[Bullshop Junior]

I used to have a little 410, and I made full leanth brass cases from 405 wincheter and then loaded them up with round balls, and they worked quite well. 44/40 cases fit in mine as well with a little base sizing

[Hogtamer]

Federal makes a 3" load w/5 000 buck pellets that shoots amazingly well out of full choke.

[Bullshop Junior]

Federal makes a 3" load w/5 000 buck pellets that shoots amazingly well out of full choke.

At about 2.50 each. Factory 410 is expancive.

[possom813]

Well, I guess it may be a buckshot gun then

I have 2 or 3 different buckshot molds. I believe I have 00, 0, and 4 shot, I think.

But no go on the .410 rifle Oh well, it was a neat idea, while it lasted

[flounderman]

You can get brass .410 cases and load them without special tools. 10 cases, a dowel. a long nail, and you're in business. You can punch wads from a cardboard juice container, or get a handful of gas checks the right size. They probably make a hollow base .410 slug mold. I have a AA .410 empty and I don't know why they couldn't be loaded just like the brass cases. Glue the over shot wad in place instead of crimping and the cases would last a long time.

[mac60]

There used to be a web site devoted to the .410 bore shotgun (can't recall the name). There was something on the site about a project someone did with a gun such as yours. He shortened the barrel so there was no choke constriction and experimented with .41 cal. boolits (.410" dia.) seated in a plastic .410 hull (can't remember if it was 2 1/2" or 3"). The boolits were 210 grains. Since 210 gr. is roughly 1/2 oz. (0.48 oz actually), he reasoned that a charge suitable for a 1/2 oz. lead shot load would do nicely. If I remember correctly, accuracy wasn't too bad. I rummaged around and found some .41 cal. boolits I bought many years ago.

Attachment 94425

I have some "stump" wads from bpi. The nose profile of the boolit is a nice fit in the wad. With a little hot glue it's in there and not coming out.

Attachment 94426

Attachment 94427

The attached wad would probably aid in stability. I'd load this in a 2 1/2" hull with a charge suitable for a 1/2 oz. shot load. The only .410 shotgun I have is a Mossberg pump w/full choke - I really don't want to shoot this load through a full choke. I've looked around and believe it or not I haven't seen a .410 bolt shotgun. As soon as I do I'm gonna experiment with it. Just food for thought.

[bikerbeans]

possum,

Another way to get a weight forward slug for your 410 is to load a .358 bullet nose first into a 410 shot cup. You could hot melt glue to attempt to get the bullet and cup to stay together. I tried this method with a 158g .358" LSWC, don't remember the powder charge but it was H110, and could hit a pie plate at 25 yards. I had a 410 H&R single shot that had the choke portion of the barrel cutoff.

BB

[aspangler]

Just buy one of the adapters that are available and shoot 357 / 38 in it. BTW I have one of those Mossberg 173's and it shoots great for rabbit and bushytails. Dad got me the thing for my 12th Christmas.

[Hogtamer]

Got one for christmas in 1965....made a snake charmer with it a few years back, sawed off the barrel to just beyond legal - cut stock off leaving enough wood to fashion a pistol grip. Cottonmouths that get a little frisky when fishing in rivers and creeks with a lot of overhanging limbs get the "point and pull" treatment with # 6 shot. and i don't use this word much, but those federal 000 loads are awesome and not nearly expensive as you might think...in Georgia anyway.

[kenyerian]

here is a youtube link to using 444marlin brass for 410 shot shells. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Y_MnkLpDU and here is one to make them with 303 british http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tj8MhyatCI

[429421Cowboy]

Personally, I would love to have a little bolt gun like yours to experiment with till I got a good buck and a good shot load, just to have for a general truck gun since I now live in the middle of mountain grouse heaven and the would be prefect for sniping them!

[plumberroy]

9mm case, drop of flux, 60 grains of lead shot heat till lead melted and bonded to brass ( to get weight to 1/4 oz) paper patched the cases with sketching paper made cork wads and hard card wads with 7/16th hollow punch H110 minimun for 1/2 oz shot load
powder, hard card, cork wads, hard card case crimp I put it together wirh a lee loader (no press)
The one that tumbled the lead came loose later loads with flux didn't have this problem. group is at 25 yards never followed up on this load
Roy

[bikerbeans]

A bit of a hijack, but this thread got me thinking (never a good thing) again about loading for the 410 smoothbore. I sold my first 410 smoothbore several years ago, so today when I found a 410 H&R Pardner barrel for sale I grabbed it. Another slug gun to play with, nothing better than that.

BB

[leeggen]

I use my not so good 40 cal (401145swc) boolits. If you roll them between 2 steel plates to about 391 seat on top of wad over powder with a little cream of wheat between and a top wad over the slug they shoot reasonably well. Use same powder as for 410 shotgun loads.
here is a web sight you might like--http://www.endtimesreport.com/410reloading.html
CD

[turbo1889]

Just buy a 0.395" round ball mold, track of the wolf has that size in a Lee six banger mold block. Three of them cast from good hard alloy make a dandy of a "Tri-Ball" load for the 410-bore. Just use a suitable powder charge with a stack of nitro cards over the powder (however many makes for the over all height to work out for crimping) with a single nitro card in-between the bottom and middle ball and the middle and top ball and it works out beautifully. If you leave out the nitro cards in-between the balls it throws a lot larger pattern, with them in the load it makes for a really tight pattern. Perfect load for any kind of four legged non-winged game all the way up to deer, that ball size is massive in buckshot terms and is off the scale even bigger then OOOO buckshot size and can rightly be considered as OOOOO buckshot (penta-aught-buck, which is bigger then quad-aught-buck, which is bigger then triple-aught-buck, which is bigger then double-aught-buck, which is bigger then single-aught buck and mere single-aught-buck is in some heavy buckshot deer hunting states (southern state swamp and marsh lands mostly) is considered the minimum ethical size for deer, your four full sizes over minimum !!!).

I personally like 2400 and Lil-Gun for powder in those loads (use the 11/16oz. lead shot load data as a starting place) and usually use Circly-Fly brand name nitro cards of the slightly larger 0.430" size over the powder for a good tight seal and normal 0.410" size for the two cards that go in-between the balls to tighten the patterns. Best universally applicable, simple, reliable, devastating, heavy-hitting load for the 410 smooth bore shotgun out there and unless your trying to push your range out beyond normal shotgun ranges is better then a slug load in most cases.