doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com .410 choke constriction

A .410 payload is limited. Even a 3" shell packs 11/16 or in some cases 3/4 ounce of pellets. I think 25 yards is a much more particle distance to pattern a .410 if you are looking at hunting patterns. I have shot a lot of small birds at greater distance but restrict myself to 20-25 yards max on medium size released chukar and pheasant. None wild where I live so they are all pen raised.

30", 24" or 16" patterns are all relative to distance and payload. As to size of pattern it comes down to how big is the density of the pattern, which will humanly kill a bird. A clay target may or may not break with a single hit but live birds almost never die from a single pellet strike. There is always the chance of a golden bb but to rely on such a slime chance is not a sound practice. And risking wounding a bird is not what any of us want.

So I look at 16" patterns as the main point of interest with the extra 3-4" all around as a limited bonus area. So call it 16-24" pattern but much great weight placed on the 16" portion. And don't get wrapped up into percentage like many do. It is evenness of pattern and size of the killing zone which matters. I don't care if the numbers are 50%, 60% or 70%. I want to know if I have a 12", 16", 18" or a 20" effective pattern. To get a real feel for what you have you need to shoot a lot of patterns. But since you are not going to count every little pellet hole that is not that big of a deal. Again it is size not numbers which I care about.

Good points. Shooting lots of patterns is where many folks have a hang up. You can do it on paper, but it's very tedious, at least to me. Invest $150 bucks, much less if you can scrounge the steel, build yourself a 4' X 4' steel pattern plate, and take pics with the cell phone of any patterns you want to save. Probably the most useful shotgunning project I've done since I began reloading.

SRH

Agree on use of a smaller circle. Regardless of choke or distance I've never seen more than 22" of effective pattern diameter using any 3" shell in #7.5 or larger. Actual effective pattern diameter also depends on species. Always used coffee can (the old metal ones!) diam circles for phez, soda cans for grouse, dixie cups for WC. I think a 20" paper would do it. As stated, effective pattern is far more important than pattern percentage/nominal choke.

Also agree 25 yds makes most sense for 2.5" or 3", in the field shot sizes. Best quality 2.5" target loads in #9 and #8.5 can make use of 30 yds through some constrictions.

Some really good advice, and thanks to all.
I have paper that is 30" wide so that is why I stated 30". I will make some targets with 16" and 24" circles and pattern them at 25 yards. If the rain ever stops I will try them and post back here. Thanks again to all.

Shouldn't complain about the rain as the people in the Carolina's and parts of Virginia are still experiencing flooding. God Bless them and my prayers are with them.

You are better off just putting an aim spot on the paper. Then take a price of cardboard and cut out a circle of the size say 16 or 24� and hold it over the pattern. You never center you pattern, in the perfect middle of the paper. This way you get the information you need more precisely by adjusting your cutout over the real pattern. Use a couple pieces of duct tape to hold the cutout in place and step back a few feet to gain perspective. A phone photo gives you a lasting record for later review. Write down shell information along with gun, barrel and date for your records. Patterns loose their information value if you can�t tell one from another later.

I�ve used paper, cardboard and a pattern plate like Stan was referring to earlier. Each works well but wind does not bother the plate at all where it does make changing paper a challenge sometimes. And you can shoot a lot of patterns quickly if all you have to do is reapply your paint surface. But use what you�ve got. Just patterning you gun puts you ahead of 90% of shooters who never do it at all. Just like people who check powder drops with scales are a small percentage of reloaders in shotshells.

Thanks Jon for the information. I will do that instead of drawing circles. Your way makes more sense. I remember reading a long time ago that shooting at any patterning device, circle the area with the most pellets at a given range so long as the pattern was not too far from POI.

When I photograph patterns I prop a small card above the plate with a reference number on it. I record the number on a master sheet with all the pertinent information. Then I transfer the photos to my computer for future reference, and to be able to look at a pattern much enlarged on my monitor.

For example, this is a 3/4 oz. load out the right barrel of my .410 Dickinson at 25 yds.



SRH

I love shooting .410s. Two things to never do with a .410, never open a shell and see how few pellets of 7 1/2 or larger shot are in a 1/2 ounce load. Looking at them you get the feeling so few pellets can never kill a bird. Second is to not freak out about the pattern. Either size, or lack of size, or the holes you see. Every shell will have some flaw in the pattern and if you worry about them you will become hyper perfect in aiming you shot which never works with a .410.

I killed two Dove this year at ridiculous ranges with my .410, without any extreme effort. Smooth swing and shot. Both birds had been slightly hit by other shooters and would have almost certainly flown off to die. We�ve all seen it happen too often. A wasted death. If I had thought about it I either would have concluded the chances were very low or worse I would have tried to be exacting in my shot which with a .410 is a sure miss for me. A .410 can kill a bird at distance, just like a 12 but everything has to come together perfectly. After all shot does not care what size the bore was. 1150-1200 FPS is just as good from a 12 down to a .410. You just don�t get much room for error.

I kill squirrels fairly reliably out to 30-35yd with a Chiappa .22/.410 combination.

I load Winchester HS 3" hulls with #6 plated shot and H-110 for this purpose. I think the plated shot is extremely important to help keep the shot round and prevent fliers, which IMO are an even bigger problem with the 3" "magnums".

I really like #4 for squirrels in the larger gauges, but with the .410 I think it makes the patterns too sparse at longer ranges, hence the #6. (Again, I've just shot printer paper with a scale picture of a squirrel on it, not proper patterning boards. :P )

The gun shoots very tightly, which I appreciate (and is surprisingly well regulated for a cheap gun). I don't have a proper bore gauge to measure the bore and choke with, but it puts most all the shot into about 10" at 25yd (this just shooting at an 8.5x11 sheet of paper to check the regulation when I bought it). Shoots like a turkey choke.

Anyway, that load out of that gun really smacks the snot out of the squirrels, even at the tops of the tallest trees. I am rather fond of that little gun, even though it's pretty crappy.

I don't try to shoot flying animals with it, though. I'm not good enough to want to shoot a .410 at anything airborne other than clays.

I have to ask.

How perfect can a half ounce .410 pattern be?
If the pellets are evenly spread 2� apart, how big can it be expanded to as a max area pattern?