Where's my .410?!

[itsmeCindi]

I love mine. With a .410 I can shoot skeet for hours and it doesn't make me sore, the recoil is almost unnoticable. It's comfortable to carry but still a good self defense weapon if aimed at the right place. If I run into a wild hog for example, a shot to the face probably won't kill it, but I bet it would run it off.

[Pat]

I recommend an over under .410 shotgun/.22 rifle. If you can find a .22 rimfire mag with .410 that might be even better.

I used to have a .410 break open single shot with external hammer, a near miniature of my grand dads 12 ga. It brought home a heap of quail when they were plentiful decades back. As a kid I only had $ for one box of shells at a time so I used #6 for everything, squirrel, rabbit, quail, snakes, whatever. It was full choke so I had to wait and let the quail get out quite a ways before shooting so as to not spoil the meat.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[DocsknotInn]

I have seen those before. As a kid I thought they were really cool. I have not seen one in a store in a very long time. Do you know what brand it is ? Cindy, if you like to shoot clays, or skeet and have a favorite gun that is a larger bore, like a 12 guage, there are insert tubes available as well that convert your gun for range use to a smaller caliber. The better ones are more $$ but Cabelas has some that are very reasonable for fun shooting. The fun thing about this is you can decide if you like a 28 better than a 410 etc. Plus the weight of the bigger framed gun removes even more recoil for you. We usually reccomend starting the ladies with a 20 guage auto loader at the club. Less recoil and a little easier to hit the birds. PS, Did the guys get anything in SC ??? Dave

[GaryM]

Savage used to make O/U shotgun rifle combinations. I've seen .22 rimfire over 20Ga. I know they also made some with higher caliber centerfire cartridges too.

Currently on the market there are some rifle shotgun combos with interchangeable barrels. Not an O/U, but you swap the barrels. Sort of like the Tompson Contender, but a lot cheaper. Can't remember the brand though.

[Pat]

DocksKnotInn, If you were asking me about the overunder, I haven't shopped for one in decades. maybe they are as opbsolete as I am told smooth bore .22 are.

Here is just a bit of trivia for anyone interested who is following this shotgun talk:

Strictly speaking a .410 shotgun is NOT .410 gauge. It is .410 caliber. the .410 is the decimal inch size of the bore. A smooth bore .22 would not be .22 gauge shotgun. The other, popular, shotgun bores are given in gauge numbers.

Now for the meaning of gauge as applied to a shotgun...

Notice how smaller gauge numbers indicate larger bores? An 8 ga (goose gun) is about as large as I think were ever routinely fired from the shoulder. (Don't try that at home Cyndi.)

The gauge is the number of dead soft lead ballls of equal diameter to the bore that it takes to make a pound. This method of sizing predated the widespread means of making accurate measurements to an arbitrary standard like an inch or cubit.

If you had a pound of lead and divided it in half, then in half again, and then a third time, and then a fourth you'd have 16 equal pieces of lead. Form one into a ball and it would be just the size known as 16 gauge. With a little successive approximation and care a gun maker could make a set of balls of any practical gauge. There is no simple direct connection to inches or any unit of length (diameter). For some reason the 0.410 inch bore was designated in inches and is an interesting anomoly in the spectrum of bore size descriptors.

Because of the definition of shotgun sizing, it is universal and unaffected by whether you use English units, metric, furlongs, rods, cubits, or RCH. It is more "elegant" than units based on the distance between the scratches on a platinum irridum bar in Paris or a particular number of lines of the sodium spectrum, or involving lasers or ...

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Gary, There was more than one maker of .22 over .410 as well. I suppose there is a use for interchanging barrels but not for the purpose I had as a young hunter. My weapon of choice was a long barreled .22 single shot bolt action with iron sights. I had a .22 autoloader but it was heavier and wasteful with ammo.

When I hunted with my father, I shot the still or slow moving squirrels and rabbits and he shot the fast ones with a 12 ga single shot. If I had an overunder I would have been an economical game bagging wonder. I would have the ability to take game quietly and inexpensively with the .22 but could have used a more expensive shot shell on a squirrel jumping limb to limb or a rabbit that didn't stop hopping to see who whistled at it. Of course I personally would never miss a still animal but if SOMEONE did and it took off, a quick follow up shot with the shotgun barrel would settle the matter.

It is certainly cold enough to hunt rabbit this morning. BRRRR! After a couple nights with lows of 55 and 48 we dropped to 20 overnight and last night was 5-10. A little thin ice around edges of some of our ponds.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

Pat,

We had a reported 7 degrees here in St. Louis this morning. My outdoor therm. read 4 degrees. However it's not too far from my heat pump, so I think it's somewhat affected by the cold air from the blower.

The unit with interchangable barrels would not be as handy as an O/U. but the cost could be lower for someone who didn't need both at once.

I sent you a PM yesterday. Did you get it?

[GaryM]

Well, a check of my outgoing PM box shows nothing, so I guess I didn't send it after all. Not important anyway.

[Pat]

Gary, hadn't seen it previously but have now sent reply. Sometimes the little flashing envelope doesn't display and I don't know about a PM. Sometimes it displays ONE TIME and goes away if you navigate the site. OH WELL...

One of my outside thermometers is near a kitchen window and the other is a radio link to a automatic setting clock that works off of WWV(B) and has indoor and outdoor thermometer displays. I suspect that under some conditions effluent air from the heat pump outside unit may drift across the remote sensor. That could account for this mornings 5 degree discrepancy. I'll have to put them side by side to be sure.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

Pat,

It's the same as with wristwatches. The man with one watch knows what time it is, the man with two watches is never sure!