Everything is relative. As a child I was trusted with a BB gun when I was 8. Learned to shoot with it and actually killed a number of squirrels some quail on the ground and other small game, including a lot of songbirds I am sorry to say. I was keenly conscious of its limitations.
At 10 I entered the firearms world with a Stevens .410 single. The first time I shot a tin can with it I realized I had all the firepower in the world in comparison with the BB gun. Naturally, as I grew older I became aware of the limitations of the .410, and longed for a bigger gun.
Now in my declining years, I have been forced to reconnect with the .410 beginnings of my shooting experience. Open heart surgery earlier this year made shooting a 12ga a bad idea due to recoil and a healing chest wound. My biggest recovery goal was to build my strength up to be able to hunt turkeys this Spring.
Gil Stacy had introduced me to his .410 tungsten super shot loads and I became convinced that they would be effective enough for use on a Gobbler. I patterned a few loads through an old Lefever Nitro Special and found they did not blow up my gun and that they placed a multitude of #9 shot exactly where I looked in a full choke pattern at 25 yards.
I've spent the Spring turkey season carrying that gun and those loads. Full circle you might say...Geo
