.410 Range

I just bought my 7 year old a single shot .410.

What is the effective range for game like squirrel?

With a slug, what is the effective range for deer?

I’d say within 25 yards for squirrel.

We can use anything smaller than 20 gauge for deer.

I find it depends on the length of the barrel and the choke of course.Got a single shot rossi that will take down partridge at 40-45 yards consistently.
I have a chiappa double badger with a short barrel and a good tight choke,good for 30 yards maybe 35.

I don't think the slug would have much punch after 50 yards.I'm guessing on that as I never killed anything with a 410 slug.
A 20ga slug has plenty of momentum at 60 and would easily take down a deer.

100 grain slug at 1800 fps ought to be lethal to 25 yards or so. see if he can hit a pop can at that distance. if he can, he can hit the heart at that range. draw a circle on a piece of cardboard about the size of a fifty cent piece. what ever distance you can get 3 #6 pellets into the circle is your squirrel range. 410's kick. kid is liable to start flinching. might want to let him squirrel hunt with a 22 cricket or something.

Make sure it can throw a slug accurately...we had a russian made single shot that couldnt hit a deer with a slug if you had it jammed against the deer.

You need to pattern the gun to know what it will do. A 3" shell in .410 has 11/16 oz. of shot. I would start with #7-1/2 size shot. That is the smallest shot size I would recommend for squirrels. The smaller shot will give you a higher pellet count in the pattern. This is important because the shot charge is so small. A squirrels vitals are not that big and the higher shot count will fill the pattern to make sure kills. It's your job to find the maximum distance you can confidently make sure kills and only shoot inside that range.
When the squirrel is much closer, you can hold off just a little to keep from filling the meat full of shot. This takes a little practice to know how far off to hold. The idea is to rake the squirrel with an edge of the pattern.
When they are really close and profiled, you can just aim at the end of the nose.
Good luck to you and your son. Sitting together squirrel hunting is a completely controllable type of hunting and is a great way to start a youngster out.

Of course we are going to pattern the gun. At his age a 20 gauge is just too heavy to hold steady.

I'm not sure if we would try it for deer. He has been shooting a crossbow from a rest very well, but he cannot shoot it freehand.

Just wanted to hear some others experience as we start to try it out on our own.

He is real excited. I'm not sure he'll even feel the kick when we are hunting.

pattern will give you its range. a 410 shoots pellets the same velocity as a 12 or 20 or 16 or 28 gauge. just not as many. they are known for holes in the pattern also. may need to try more than one brand of ammo.

.410 is a great choice for a first shotgun. I love shooting .410. Never had opportunity to shoot deer with one but if its accurate they should be just fine! What gun did you get him and what choke in it? 3" or only 2 1/2"?

It will kill a coyote stone dead at 25 yards when making a head shot.

I killed one once at about 20 yards on the dead run with a 3" - 7 1/2 shot. Rolled him pretty hard.

Tacticool Cricket Precision









If Dad has a Yeti, his boy should have a CPR.

I hunt with a .410 all the time. I kill squirrels to 35 yards with 3" #6. It doesnt shoot slugs well at all, but it put all 4 buckshot pellets in a 6 inch circle at 30 yards. Id deer hunt with buckshot if my state would let me, but it is slug only with a .410. Of course that is my gun, not yours.

I got a Rossi 3" Modified Choke at Dunham's for $115.

At that price if he only uses it the next few years it was still worth it.

I'm a little surprised at the cost of shells. Why are they almost twice the cost of 20 and 12 ga.?

Crickets are for 5 year olds, his kid is already 7.



Of course you start them out a 2 1/2 with the air rifle.

That CPR is cool but I didn't consult with the wife before this purchase. At $115 she just smiled and shook her head.

perhaps he's too young to pull a trigger on a caliber large enough for deer.

take him along, let him experience the hunt with you.

also, check the regs...not sure if it's legal for deer in PA

That's why he is using the crossbow. Shooting from his rest (Caldwell Field Pod) he is super accurate to 50 yards. We are probably sticking to that for a while yet. I was just curious if anyone used .410 for deer. There is vigorous debate on the subject online. It is legal here in PA but not in some other states.

You will need to patter it to find out. My 870 will keep a tight enough pattern for turkeys out to 25 yards (35-40 for tree rats). My father in law has a H&R and with won't hit much at 25 yards. I shot some slugs out of mine and they were more than accurate enough to kill a deer at 30 yards. Not sure if it is legal in pa tho.

If you would like to see how impressive the 410 can be try some tss loads. Patterns well past 40 yards that will kill a turkey.

The TSS Tungsten Super Shot loads are impressive.

So is the price at about $5 per shot.

When I was a kid my dad bought a H/R single shot .410 and slugs and told me until we had the money for a real rifle that was my deer weapon.Being a smooth bore it didn't print very good groups as you can imagine.I shot my first partridge,and other small game with it but never a deer and I really never felt comfortable with it for that purpose.One day towards the tail end of deer season we were finishing cutting firewood when a spikehorn wandered out into the field.Dad took the gun out of the truck,got a dead rest and knocked him off his feet.He always claimed it was 100 yrd. shot,I wasn't too sure about that but he most definitely bagged that deer with that .410.It may have been the most luckiest shot with a smooth bore and a slug in Michigan that year but I seen it happen.

If you are thinking about giving slugs a try make sure whether or not you can fire slugs through it.

My daughter's Rossi is modified choke so slugs are a no-go.

Sounds obvious, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Mike

Why?

The crossbow would be a more effective weapon than a .410 shooting slugs.

.410 isn't a deer gun. Why consider setting a seven year old up for what is likely to go poorly?
I think it's a bad idea.

I wish it were legal to use them here for deer.

Ask Rossi. Barrel rupture would be my guess.

Mike

Any modern shot gun should shoot foster type slugs even in full choke. I never found anything on Rossi's site or in their owners manual to say different.

I was told by one person that knows his guns and all about reloading. Told me that in 410 full choke that to shoot foster type slugs that way the slug will fit the full choke with out any problems and also it is best to use factory rounds. Do not shoot any solid slugs in a full choke it will mess up your barrel.

we [my brothers] an I kill a lot of deer with 410 slugs,that's all my grandmother used to deer hunt with an she kill more deer than I will ever, she raised 9 kids on deer ,

i love the 410....killed many pheasants and cottontails with one

The slug does not “fit” the full choke. It smashes and deforms in any choke except cylinder. It can and does most often cause bad accuracy. You should never fire a slug through a choked gun and contray to what some are posting on this thread it can cause a barrel rupture on a modern gun. So why take the chance.

A 410 isn't an effective deer rifle. A friend of mine bought his boy a 410 for deer hunting. One morning the boy shot a deer in the front shoulder. The slug hit a bone and never penetrated any vitals. Another person ended up shooting the deer that's how they knew about the 410 slug.

I'd say that's pretty effective.

ADC, call them. They will tell you not to fire slugs.

This is on the Matched Pair setup I bought for my daughter. Other models may be kosher, I don't know.

It's probably erring on the side of caution on their part. But liability being what it is these days...

Mike

Thank you for make it clearer to understand.

It's all going to come down to shot placement, which will depend on the accuracy of the particular gun in question. It has to be tested.

Obviously, if you can kill a deer with a sharp stick (ask any archer), a .410 slug will be enough if it is placed correctly.

I have seen a deer with a 12 gauge slug in the front shoulder that never penetrated to the vitals. Does that mean a 12 gauge is not an effective deer gun? It is all about placement. Put a projectile behind the shoulder through both lungs and the deer will die. Dont matter if it is a 22 or a 50 cal.

This.

We shot crop damage deer with all manner of firearms and bullet styles and it invariably came down to just plunking them through the lungs with whatever was in your hands.

That is what the rifling on the slugs is for. It allows the lead a place to go when it passes through the choke.

You'd you could push a 410 a lot faster than say a .44mag which is legal for straight wall rifle states.

Why mess around with a gun that MIGHT kill a deer when you can buy a 243, 6mm, etc, with little more recoil than a 410? Either of these two rifles with a front shoulder hit will penetrate vitals 90% of time, not 10% of the time a 410 will. My first gun was a 410 when I was 10. It's a real nice bird, small mammal, starter gun, just not a reliable deer gun.

I shot my first two deer with 410 and slugs. My grandpa shot into a flock of turkeys with same gun and dropped two birds with one shot. Sure there are much better options, but all kinds of game can be taken with them.

I love my chiappa 410 under a 22mag.I have bagged lots of "meat for the pot"with that little pea shooter on the trapline.

I have a Stevens 22 / 410 over and under. Love that gun One of the grand sons will be toting It around some day.

The main reason to use a .410 in this situation is because that is what the OP has and asked about.

Regarding reliability, it is still where you hit them...bottom line.

I've killed about 150 whitetails with all manner of implements and I don't shoot them in the shoulder with anything, due to meat loss and the fact that the main mass of the vitals is a bit further back. The heart is tight behind the foreleg, and 1/4 to 1/3rd of the way up, surrounded by lungs. Clip the back edge of the front leg a little low of center and you're in the money.

I see these choreographed outdoor shows where they shoot the deer in the shoulder or high in the back to make a dramatic one shot knockdown for the camera, but they don't show the often-required follow up shot on a squirming animal, nor the bone chips and bullet frags in the 5 or 8 pounds of wasted meat, often backstraps, that went into the trash.

Deer are not at all hard to kill. A 40# bow will send a sharp arrow right through one and kill it dead. Killing 50 deer in a two year period on crop damage permits taught us a lot. We saw that a .22 short CB will shoot straight through a deer's rib cage area and penetrate the heart & lungs. The resulting reaction was very similar to an archery hit animal, but less spooked and quicker to go down.

A .410 slug is 1/4 ounce, or approximately 110 grains. At 1,800 fps muzzle velocity, muzzle energy is 790 fp, and at 50 yards, it's still 650 fp.

A .357 Mag, which most states allow for deer, and is approved by most people who handgun hunt, only develops 1,500 fps with the same weight bullet, for a muzzle energy of 550 fp and 450 at 50 yards.

One could realistically say that the .410 delivers more energy at 50 yards than a .357 at the muzzle....20% more.

But even after discussing that, I've gotta continue to point out that power is not the issue at all, its where we plant the bullet, or arrow.

The biggest limitation with smaller calibers is that you must be more particular in shot placement and just shooting them in the shoulder is not usually ideal with anything.

One of my students hunts elk with both a .260 Remington and with his .300 WinMag. The .300 WinMag's additional penetration capability affords him a lot of shot flexibility, and this is the rifle he chooses for his trophy hunts. He doesn't have to pass up many "reasonable" shots and can shoot one quartering away, for example, or even through the shoulders, and can still expect good results. He uses his .260 for shooting culls at his friend's ranch. He is extremely careful with his shots with such a small bullet, and would decline a quartering away animal or just a shoulder shot, but when he puts it through the ribs, the bullets make it all the way through and kill the elk dead as anything.

Were we given free choice, a small caliber rifle with decent sights or a scope would be an easier tool to use, and certainly affords us a little more shot placement flexibility, but we're not..,

If the OP's child can plant that .410 slug with certainty, it will surely kill a deer. As I had suggested before, the test is how that particular gun shoots slugs and whether it can be depended upon to place them correctly.

BTW, I got my first gun at 10 also, and it was a .410 as well, a double barrel Savage 311. Great little gun, still have it. Hunted almost everything with it, but never shot a deer.

been a lot of deer meat put in peoples freezer by a hunter that picks his shot and shoots careful with a 22 long rifle rimfire. not brain shots either

like I said in my first post if the kid can hit a pop can reliably at 25 yards he can reliably kill a deer at that distance. heck for all I know kid can hit a pop can regular at 30-40-50 yards. then that will be his lethal range.

good post e. shell. more people ought to go hunting rather than regurgitate what somebody selling guns on a tv show or in a magazine said.

I tested slugs out of a single shot 410 that I bought for my daughter, was unable to keep them in a pie plate past about 35 yards. I had no doubt there was enough power to take down a deer with a well placed shot. Biggest problem I found is the single bead on a shotgun is not ideal for pinpoint accuracy when used like a rifle.
I ended up not allowing my kids to use the gun for deer hunting due to the fact that under hunting conditions i was setting them up for disaster.