Many of the scribes and big bore adherents also bash patterns from .410s, especially in the heavier payloads, by playing the "increased bore scrubbing" and "increased setback damage" cards. Fact is, game birds can't tell the difference. And, after a lifetime of use in the field, I can't either.

If you put the load where it needs to be the bird doesn't know if it was killed with a 3/4 oz. 12 ga. load or a 3/4 oz. .410 load. And, you won't be able to tell the difference either. Writers feed off each other's writings, and hypothetical postulates are perpetuated. Field use, and the pattern plate, proves many of them wrong, wrong, wrong.

JR is exactly right. A 7/8 oz. load is better served today delivered from a 20 than a 12. Unless you own stock in RST, that is.

SRH

May God bless America and those who defend her.