.410 slugs

[auburnboattail]

I am 50+ and have been hunting since I was about 8 and I have only known shotgun for whitetail.So I think Indiana has been shotgun only a long time

[kudu]

45 colt can be shot from 410

Do not try to shoot a .45LC in a .410 shotgun, it will go KA-BOOM. Yes they will chamber fine, but try to push that .45 caliber bullet down a .400 shotgun bore and it will mess something up big.

How long has it been since you can't use rifles on deer in Indiana? What in the hell.

It's been that way in Indiana at least 50 years, my dad doesn't know when it came about either. For a while I don't believe most of the state even had a deer season they were so rare. My grandpa used to tell about a deer that stayed with the herd of milk cows when he was a boy in the 1920's, it was the only one they had ever seen for several years running. Southern Michigan is also a shotgun only deer area.

In Indiana we can hunt squirrels with anything we want, a .50BMG is legal if we want to use it, but we can't use a rifle for deer hunting.

[guisseppi]

But hunting anything bigger than a quail/rabbit with a .410 seems a bit, well, odd

I have a friend (Steve) in Ohio that owns a Game Bird hunt club.. Every February I make the trip from Florida to Ohio and do a bit of Pheasant / Quail / Partridge hunting with him.. There is a little saying at the hunt club that goes like this: Use a 12Ga because you have to.. A 16 Ga to give the bird a chance.. A 20 Ga. because you can.. a 28 Ga. because your good .. and a .410 to show off!!! Personally I use a Browning Sweet 16 because I just love to shoot that gun...

[auburnboattail]

While .410 is not my choice for whitetail.
I do frequently use it for rabbit, quail and squirrel,dove.
I have not been successful on pheasant with 410

[jsflagstad]

I have shot a few Pheasant, Ruffed Grouse (Partridge) and many clay pigeons with my .410 pistol (Thompson Contender .410/45 Colt). For deer, I handload the 45 Colt up to 1625 feet per second with a 250 grain Hornady XTP JHP, plenty of power (1400+ fpe). I ran the numbers on the .410 slugs that I have and got considerably lower figures than some of you are stating. I cut one of the slugs apart and weighed the projectile at 90 grains. On the chronograph in juniors single shot they averaged right about at 1000 fps, so on the calculator they are yielding just short of 200 fpe. I decided to not let junior shoot a deer with these and got him a 50 cal muzzle loader instead.

JSF

[Richard47]

My daughter has killed 2 deer with a 410 slug. 22/410 has rifle sights and very little recoil. Both deer at about 30 yds, one shot kills and they both dropped right away. 30 yd shots. She didn't like recoil but is a dead shot with this thing.

We still have to use shotguns, she was small and I was in the stand to back her up. But I would not recommend a 410. An SKS would have been perfect, but alas, not legal.

She's bigger now and uses a 12 auto.

[Abby]

I was just "up home" (Michigan) and was offering congrats to...(what's the term for a cousin's child? Is that a second cousin?). Anyway, she'd dropped a very nice 8 pt this year (her first year hunting).

I asked what she was using.

".410"

I, of course, complimented her, saying it must have been a very nice shot. She shrugged and replied, "well, he was like 15 feet away."

Interesting to me because I'd never heard of anyone actually using the .410 on whitetails. I've used the 20 with success, but I don't think I'd be comfy with the little slug. But, apparently, they DO work.

Now, if we could just outlaw those annoying kids shooting great big deer their first year out...

[jsflagstad]

I think a gun that would sell like hot cakes for "Juniors First Gun" types would be a budget priced rifled .410 single shot with iron sights and provisions for a scope mount and heres the best part: the ability to shoot up to full house 454 Casull loads, and of course with that the ability to shoot 45 Long Colt would be there as well. Use the .410 birdshot for fowl, clays and small game, the 45 LC for deer and such and the 454 Casull for deer on up to anything else that walks around North America (elk, grizzly, polar bear, etc...).

Now sure, the 454 Casull wouldn't be the best for junior to start out with but that's where the 45 LC comes in. That is a dandy little cartridge that packs some good power with little recoil.

As I was writing this I thought that this gun may be available in a Thompson Encore. I am not sure if they make a 454 Casull rifle barrel but they might, and I guess I'm not sure if they did would it accept .410 shot shells? With that said, I guess it wouldn't fit my first bullet point as being value priced.

So what do you guys think? Would it sell? I'd buy one today! Anyone out there work for Rossi, NEF or Mossberg? Those are the companys that I could see pulling something like this off...

JSF

[kudu]

The thing about switching .45LC and.410 shells is the gun is designed around the pistol cartridge. Contender barrels are .45LC and can fire .410 shells with the added choke device to restrict the shot down to about .405 diameter. A .45LC cannot be shot while the choke device is installed without ruining the barrel. I have shot skeet with the Contender, and it is FUN, but you cannot get anything but an OPEN pattern out of the barrel. The Contender barrel is also rifled, which adds to open shot patterns.

I think a gun that would sell like hot cakes for "Juniors First Gun" types would be a budget priced rifled .410 single shot with iron sights and provisions for a scope mount and heres the best part: the ability to shoot up to full house 454 Casull loads, and of course with that the ability to shoot 45 Long Colt would be there as well.

To make the gun accurate, it would need a fully rifled barrel in .451 to run .45LC and .454 Casull rounds. It will still theoretically shoot .410 shells, shot or slug, slugs usually mic out at about .400-.405, shot will be bouncing down th ebarrel and rifling, even with an added choke tube to control a shot a shot pattern, leading will be a severe problem.