doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com SxS competitions

most of these, at least the ones I attend, are fun competitions, where there might be prizes but that is usually secondary to the enjoyment had by most attendees. A point of contention came up last year with a friend. He wanted to shoot small gauge side event but by using tube inserts rather than a small bore gun. The event management ruled he could use the tubes but it wouldn't count as a small bore. I bring this up because I often shoot 3/4 oz loads in both 20 and 12 ga guns and my friendly competitor in our little get togethers is a 410 purest. He says the load is my choice but I am still shooting 20 or 12 gauge. Since these are just for fun and bragging rights between us two, I have decided to switch the table and shoot 3" 410 loads. I am being fair, right?

Wow, two loaded questions in the same week.

Between friends? You do you.

If you are bringing it to the line for a prize, it’s whatever the shoot captain allows.

I shoot most if not all of the .410 sxs events around the Great Lakes.
I shoot 2 1/2”, 1/2oz loads at 1300fps.

I fully understand that 3”, 3/4oz loads have 50% more payload.

For me,( don’t really care about what others think about the matter), shooting 28 gauge loads in the .410 event is an unfortunate aspect of friendly competition. It puts the shoot manager in a tough spot. Most of these clubs host fun shots as fund raisers, not cut throat competitions.

Coming from FITASC events where the rules are quite strict, and going to a fun shoot and seeing bulging reloads brought into the game, it’s a sore point. But I respect the wishes of the club I am a guest at, and don’t [censored - come on man!].
I am 70/30% confident that if a guy gets dq’d for heavy loads, he won’t come back next year.
That hurts the club more than the other competitors.

It makes you practice more.

I gave up years ago trying to make sense of some of the local rules/restrictions that are put into place for S X S shoots. But, I came to it from a NSCA background. That doesn't help. It only taints your perspective. For example, many S X S shoots allow no gun or ammunition malfunctions. A misfire is a lost bird on the scorecard. NSCA allows three per hundred.

No matter to me, however. As long as everyone else has to shoot by the same rules as me I'm good with most all of it. If 1/2 oz loads are not specified for .410 by all means use whatever you're happy with.

I love S X S shoots where they give handicaps for sub gauges competing against 12 bores. I show up with a .410 and start out ahead!

My club had a 410 shoot last October. I was behind getting this going. When I was getting things set up with the club owner we had agreed 3" shells would be allowed. Then some guys from the local Skeet club complained that would be like shooting a 28 gauge.
So at the last moment they changed the rules to 2 1/2" only.
After I had bought a flat of 3" shells.

We have a nice sbs club in Houston, you can shoot any gauge that you want as long as the barrels are of the proper specs. Side by Side bbls. Come down and shoot with us, no issues.

John
Quality Arms
Houston

From all the videos re .410 compeition shoots in England, it appears 3" shells there may be the norm in their tournaments...

this is mostly just to bust my friends balls. He is a top shot, only shoots 410 and even when I shoot 3/4 oz in 20 ga I might beat him 1 out of ten times.

It’s a solid discussion
In my view, it’s more about load size than barrel bore.

But in general, Shoot more, more often!

Welllllll…….. do you want to be fair or just have fun?
If I were setting up the tourney, I’d specify maximum loads for each gauge and allow the shooter to use whatever sxs they wanted to accomplish that. If they wanted to use tubes in a larger gauge gun so be it. Handicaps for sub gauge guns seen reasonable (to a point). Short range targets showing lots of belly are no issue for most sub gauge shooters so the course would need to include some targets that would at least test the limits of the smaller gauges.
That’s my thoughts.

Oh yeah …….. I’d require low gun target address too!😀

The system I have competed under, as regards subgauge handicaps, is 16 ga. - 3 birds, 20 ga. - 5 birds, 28 ga. - 10 birds, and .410 bore - 20 birds. I have won a shoot like this with a.410. The HOA prize was a flat of shells of your choice. When I was asked what I wanted I replied "Well, .410s of course!"