Fox,
I have but one .410, the boy outgrew the gun in perhaps a month, and is thrilled to be up to a 20 gauge. My wife will go to the range and play with us in a very narrow spectrum of conditions-perfect weather, weekend, her house is cleaned, and the laundry mountain is down to a reasonable, for her, level.
Her damn priorities are different than ours. So, it is just the boy and I, usually.
My problem with the .410 is not what it is, per say, but what it isnt. If we could get Chuck, Stan, Ky Jon, and all these guys who are really good with their .410s into a room and get enough bourbon into them for the truth to come out about how much money they had in figuring the science of the .410 out, it would be sobering for the guys feeding them the bourbon.
The curve is steep with the .410, and the price of admission is always higher, for anything involved with it. Im at a point where it isnt the money, well, not always, anyway, but, the time, to chase the .410 fairy, as it were, instead of just unleashing the 16 or 12 gauge tiger, to do its task, cheaper, and more effectively.
Yes, I could put chokes in my cheap little .410 pump. Then, burn daylight, ammunition, time, and money to find out that at around 25 yards, you need to start thinking twice about whether to take that shot at a wild bird ducking into the conifers at the end of his runway.
Or, just bring the 12, and call it good. Im not real good at pondering things in the midst of a Ruffed Grouse flush. I dont bring a bunch of guns to hunt with, either. Usually, just one.
If you got time and money to figure that stuff out, more power to you. Ive got a full time job, a 12 year old, other bad habit hobbies, and not as much time to hunt as Id like.
Our .410 is mostly a fun toy for the range.
Best,
Ted
Enjoyed that post, Ted.
I went to the range today and took the 30" barreled FAIR Iside .410 S x S, with the intention of doing a little quail shooting practice. I decided to go to station 7 on the skeet range and shoot a few low house birds, reasoning that it was about as close to quail flushing as I could find there. I really wanted to see if the "CYL" tube, which is really a "negative" by measurement (-.006") would hit clays hard enough to be useful in the first barrel for a covey rise. I was using 1/2 oz. of 8s, knowing that it was a much less effective game load than my usual WW 3/4 oz. loads .........kinda stacking the deck against myself intentionally.
I was shooting low gun, to replicate a covey rise, and broke the first one about halfway between the two stakes. Maybe someone who shoots more skeet than me knows what that range would be. I then pushed myself to see how quickly I could kill it, from low gun. I was hitting it very hard at the closest stake, which is plenty quick enough for quail. Again, I don't know that distance, either. So, now I know that I can easily kill quail on the covey rise with that gun, with the "CYL" tube and my 3/4 oz. loads.
I already know that with the MOD tube (.012") at 30 yds. I can kill doves graveyard dead. Now, I know the "CYL" tube is useful for close shots. Point is, testing before carrying a gun in the field is prudent, and confidence building.
SRH
