doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 3" .410 reloading

I'm shooting an increasing number of 3" 410 shells and thinking of reloading 3" 410.

The likely hull may be the Winchester. It comes with a star crimp in the 3" 3/4 oz load my friend seems pleased with. I figure a star crimp keeps it simpler.

I have a PW Platinum 2000 in .410 and it's setup for AA 2 1/2" shells currently. I also have a PW 900 in 12g. Will either of these presses accomodate a 3" shell?

They'd be kind of a loose fit in the 12 ga. loader.

Hello

I would suggest you call these folks and ask them.

http://www.reloaders.com/

Should be a easy conversion with your present 2 1/2 inch machine.

Let us know what they say

Mike

Jim,
I'm thinking of using Lil' Skeeters to take up the slack.

Mike,
I called. The lady said no, I need a 375 to load 3". 'seems pretty unbeleiveable that they'd make a machine to load 2 3/4" and not have enough adjustment for a 3" shell. Are there any of you 'goosers' out there using a PW to load 3"?

Chuck,
Have you tried reloading 410s with bismuth? It seems logical that the harder shot would be less likely to deform as much on its trip down the barrel. Yes it would be expensive, but it might be worth the expense for hunting loads. Just maybe you could actually get a respectibly tight 40 yard pattern.
Steve

I've seen some VERY reasonable prices on 375 loaders, recently. They are a fine, single stage machine. I had one. Also very good for a .410 because of the support(no wobble) given by the sizing die. I wouldn't want to adjust a PW progressive for a few 3 inchers, even if you could. And then start all over again when going back to the 2-1/2" shells.

Jim,
I'm not shooting any targets with .410, so I think I would just leave it setup with 3". I'm going to have to look at the press and see if there's enough adjustment.

It sounds odd, now that I've said it. I'm shooting larger gauges (20g mostly and some 28g now) at targets and game birds with .410

A couple of years ago when I was thinking about hunting with the .410 I loaded some shells with "Nice Shot" in 7 1/2s.

They did improve the pattern quite a bit, I think it was about 15% improvement.

Pete

It's horror for me to lose a cripple. It rarely happens with my dog. I had a bad day on ducks over decoys with a 20ga 30 years ago and went back to 12s for at least 10 years before returning to 20s again with satisfactory results.

But .410s? I always thought of them as for experts on birds. The above and previous threads leaves an impression with me that there's serious shooting by growing numbers of hunters using 410s. What's going on, please?

It seems chancey to me.

King,
I'm not a waterfowler, and would not propose a 410 for that use, mainly because I know so little about waterfowling and the birds themselves.

I'm finding that for dove and quail, my bag is filled at only a slightly reduced rate as when using a 20g (I haven't used a 12g on dove and quail in so long, I would only be guessing on my effectiveness with a 12g). I'm also finding that I feel much more reward with the .410 even with bagging slightly less birds. I don't think I'm an expert shooter in any sense of the word.

A couple friends that use the .410 for upland with me, are both good shooters and one may be exceptional. I consider myself a good shooter among most hunters, but among this group, I'm sure I'm toward the middle of the pack.