410 and squirrels

[161]

Not really cast hunting but I reopened my interest in the 410. My Dad always said "If you want to discourage a young hunter give them a 410". But I picked up a Stevens model 67 with the tang safety because I'm a lefty, got set up to load for it and been having a ball with it. Up to 20 squirrels with it in the freezer now. Limiting shots to 20/25 yards and loading 3/4 oz of #5 or #6 shot. I made a John Wayne shot today when I squirrel came down the tree behind me. I know if I moved he'd see me so I slowly moved the gun around with my left hand and shot him one handed. Just having fun with the little 410.

[rondog]

I've got an old bolt action .410 with a box magazine, used to be my Grandmas. I need to clean it up and go shoot it. Probably be a great skwerl shooter, but I ain't gots no place to go shoot skwerls!

[dpoe001]

My first gun was a Winchester single shot 410. i couldn't tell you how many squirrels,rabbits,pheasant i got with that gun!Used it from 12 to 16. i still take it out once a year just to make sure.

[starmac]

Dad gave me a 20 gauge for my first gun, but I got a 4.10 and shortened the stock for my sons first. He did well with it, and sure didn't get discouraged. He was growing fast, so it turned into a 20 gauge pump the next christmas. lol

I shoot left handed also, and just picked up my first 410 of my own. An old single shot ithaca lever action break down. lol Mainly grabbed it because I didn't recall ever seeing one like it.

I wish we had squirrels here to hunt with it, but I suspect it will work pretty good for grouse.

[DIRT Farmer]

. My Dad always said "If you want to discourage a young hunter give them a 410".

A lot more kids have been discouraged by the theroy of "go ahead and get them a 12, they will grow into it.
A few years back one of my grandaughters was 12, she really liked my Citori O/U 410. I entered her in a charity sporting clays shoot I was shooting. I cought a lot of flack for not giving her a chance, She understood when to put her full choke tubes in and won the women's shoot. Just let them enjoy shooting first.

[Mauser48]

I have a mossberg 500e in 410. Its a lot of fun to shoot. Im going to attempt to hunt doves with it this season. Great caliber for anybody.

[161]

My first shotgun was a Stevens 94 410, I still have it. I think the thing that kept me away from the 410 was $15.00 a box for shells. I bought a Lane hand tool and a roll crimper. Invested $60.00 but can load shells for about $2.85 a box now. And 3/4 oz does help a little over 11/16 of shot.

[w5pv]

My son killed his first two deer with a a 410 and slugs and untold #'s, squirrels,rabbits, dillers ,other small game and birds.

[starmac]

I'm sure a lot has changed, but I killed a lot of squirrels floating the cuts and bayous feeding the sabine around orange in a homeade piro. I had a lot of fun in those days.

[big bore 99]

I sure don't knock a .410. Started out with a JC Higgins bolt .410 many years ago. Got a lot of squirrels and rabbits with it. I found it to be nearly as powerful than any other, just less shot.

[leeggen]

In 1957 dad bought a Stevens 410 double barrel for my brother and I to use. I now have it and I still love to shoot it. Rabbits, squirrels, quail and others filled the supper table from it.
CD

[LUCKYDAWG13]

my older brother bought me my first hunting gun a Stevens 22/410 over 40 years ago from squirrels ducks and rabbits coons fox
woodchucks still have it

[161]

Didn't get out till about 3:00 worked on the deer blind. 2 1/2 in WW hulls reloaded. Should have had 3 the limit in Iowa but I missed two. Never touched them.
http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o719/Warren_Wethington/20141026_171732_zpscc74930a.jpg (http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/Warren_Wethington/media/20141026_171732_zpscc74930a.jpg.html)

[smoked turkey]

Way to go 161. Boy you are doing some serious bird hunting with your .410. Very interesting comments here. Seems a lot of us had a .410 as a first gun. Mine was a Mossberg bolt action with an internal box magazine and one of those screw on chokes. I sure had a good time with mine but have to say the cost of ammo made shooting it a special occasion. I somehow got rid of that .410, but a while back my brother-in-law brought out one just like my first one. I ofcourse relayed the story about my first gun being one like his and he up and sold it to me. I'll not let this one get away. It is a great little squirrel gun. I have patterned it and I think I could take a turkey with one. I may get enough nerve to try it next year.

[dale2242]

I got a nice fat Ruffed grouse yesterday with my 410.
It is a good truck gun for grouse, quail, and squirrels.
The one dad bought me when I was 8 years old.
I am nearly 73 now......dale

[161]

Fun stories about the 410. Thanks for sharing.

[GooseGestapo]

Several years ago I bought a .410 O/U from Academy Sports. It's a dream gun. Auto ejectors and 5 choke tubes. I've loaded numerous loads for it including cast buck-shot and .40cal slugs. I've killed doves, quail, squirrels, crows, carpenter bee's, and armadillo's with it.
Probably the most "useful" gun I own.
Eventually, I'll probably kill a deer with it, though technically, not legal. But the deer don't know !!!

[Geezer in NH]

Many years ago around 40 or so, I bought a used Savage 22/410. It became my favorite hunting gun in NH. I lived in MA at the time and could not use it legally in that state. (rifled barrel illegal)

I spent every weekend in NH and the wife and I eventually moved to NH. I still use that same gun to hunt every year. When legal waterfowl fell to the mighty 410 every year until steel shot rule came about and have not hunted them since.

My son who is 27 years old also has the same gun and always hunts with it. We hunt to eat our game not just sport.

Several deer have been killed with the 410 slugs as my father owned only a 410 single shot bolt action that worked well for him on them and our combos worked at the opportune time also. (In the last month or so the American Rifleman had an editorial on the use of the 410 for deer.)

Do I recommend the 410 for others, no it is a very special weapon that needs much restraint in it's use. A 20 or a 12 will be best for most.

[NavyVet1959]

I killed many ducks with a single shot .410 in my youth. Pretty sure it was more than I ever killed with a 12 gauge autoloader.

[161]

We can't use the 410 on deer here in Iowa but they have talked about allowing it for youth season.

[NavyVet1959]

We can't use the 410 on deer here in Iowa but they have talked about allowing it for youth season.

The deer I remember seeing in Iowa were noticeably larger than the ones I see around here.

Saw a crazy buck last night around 03:00 as I was driving home through the neighborhood streets. He was in the green space median and started to run away from the direction of my travel. I slowed down to about 15 mph in case he zigged back across the road to my side and sure enough, he did. Next thing I knew, he did it again... And again... And again... And again... On the other hand, the does that I had seen just a couple of minutes earlier just stood on the side of the road, looked at me, and continued eating.

[1Shirt]

Years ago I got out shot by a 15 year old who was shooting a 410 on dove. He had been shooting it since he was 6 years old, and it was the only gun he owned or for that matter wanted. If memory serves me right, he shot a limit of 10 in less than a box, and it took me over a box to get my limit.
1Shirt!

[44 flattop]

I've been using the .410 on grouse, both ruffed and blues, for 40+ years now. I've taken so many, with a 10" T/C pistol too, that I wouldn't even hazard a guess.

[161]

Been shooting it quite a bit. Took today off to go pheasant hunting. Taking the 410.

[geargnasher]

My first centerfire was a Winchester Model 37, you guessed it, in .410. Worked a dollar an hour for my Dad to buy it when I was about nine years old. To this day it's the only shotgun I can reliably hit with. I quit squirrel hunting years ago because I got skittish about shooting .22lr up in the air, but just last year I took it out after squirrels with another member here who was using a flintlock 20-gauge. We bagged a half dozen for the pot in short order, mostly on the run in the canopies of high elm trees, and I thought the old full-choke .410 with #6 shot could not have been a better choice.

I'm not sure if I've bagged more game with that old .410 or with my Benjamin .22 air rifle, but it's been a bunch with each and far more than any other guns I own.

Those are beautiful pheasants, 161, I love the .410 because I either nail it or miss completely, rarely do I ever have injured game escape.

Gear

[ksfowler166]

Never shot a squirrel with anything other than a pellet gun in .177 cal or .22 cal. The again I have only shot them out of my yard. No country squirrels for me.

I do have a Mossberg 183 (I think) bolt action 410ga. Just last weekend I went to the local gun club and shot a round of skeet with it. I of course was shooting singles with it being a bolt action and I scored a 15/25 which I was happy with.

Like many hunter before and since me I started out at eight with a 410ga single shot (Rossi). Oddly enough I did not like shooting it due to the amount of recoil since the gun weighs 3lbs 6.6oz and I was shooting 11/16oz #4 and or #6 shot. Notice I never said my father was the brightest bulb in the box when it comes to shotguns.Though I do remember shooting a couple doves with it by some miracle.

I do also have a pair of gauge reducers for my CZ Ringeck 28ga which last winter I shot with one barrel 28ga and the other 410ga for a preserve chukar hunt. I think that the 410ga gauge is underated and its downfalls over exaggerated. Especially with slugs which when properly loaded can be comparable to a 41 Mag or in some instances even a 45-70.

It is legal to use the 410ga for deer here so I might try my Mossberg with some Brenneke slugs or reloads at some point. Hopefully I can get some of my "less knowledgeable" friends to bet against me.

[220]

Always wanted a 410 when I was a kid but only had rifles, had a few single shot 410's over the years and about 5 years ago when my children were old enough to start shooting I purchased a S/S 410 coach gun.
Probably the best fun gun I have and far more useful than most people give it credit for.
The boy took his first fox with it, pegged out the skin was 62" from nose to tip of tail one 11/16oz load of #4 at around 15y. He carried it on his first fox drive and again accounted for a few using 11/16 #2. Finished off a few that had been peppered by 12ga just need to let them get within range and hit them in the front half.
Inside 25y the 410 can be just as successful as the bigger bores, even better at times on edible game as it doesn't tear them up as much.
I did play with some solid loads but have gone to a 5 OO/SG load that will keep 4 inside 8" at 25y, over 1000ft/lb energy at the muzzle, would be my pick for larger game.
Black powder loads in 3" brass cases formed from 9.3x74r brass are fun on clays and work just as well on suitable sized game. Great fun to break them out shooting a few clays, you soon have a line up of people wanting a shot.

[161]

We went to a preserve last week with the 410s. Guy on the left had a Mossberg, I had the Stevens. His dog is a year and a half and did a great job. My old dog is 13 and did great also. I shot 7 or 8 never missed until the last bird of the day. Birds weren't all shot to pieces like a 12 or 20 ga. would. The guy I hunted with is the only person I ever saw shoot the head off a wild bird. Two different times. He's fast, I told him if he had a 12 ga. he'd still shoot the birds at the same distance and rip them to shreds.
http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o719/Warren_Wethington/20141106_120431_zps51037fc2.jpg (http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/Warren_Wethington/media/20141106_120431_zps51037fc2.jpg.html)

[atr]

I have a .410 single shot break-open with a 3" chamber....I've bagged two deer (smallish black-tails) and more raccoons than I can count. Sometimes smaller is better !