Would one of the more knowledgable members here be so kind as to give an approximate value of a Charles Hellis back action, exposed hammer SxS .410 shotgun with 28" steel barrels and straight grip. I am looking at one now and don,t have a clue as to what to offer as the owner, who inherited it is in the same quandry. Thank you all in advance. Sorry, no pics. Have a great Fourth of July. Jim D.

Hi Jim,
I believe Its pretty much impossible to give any real ideas as to value without a few good pics.
It's like as If the owner offered to sell you the gun in a sack, but you couldn't look @ it until you'd bought it, how much would you offer him for it?...do you see what I mean?
Happy Independence day to you & all as well.
Get some pics man!!!
cheers
Franc

Two things to look at closely with the older English .410's. A great many were made with 2" chambers as the 2 1/2" cartridge didn't really become available until around 1912/13. Some may have had the chambers lengthened without re-proof. Check the Proof marks. If chamber length isn't mentioned then it is a 2". 2" cartridges in Britain are no problem to obtain but may be scarce in the U.S. The other thing is that they were no often cleaned properly in the barrels and would have been made and used in the era of the corrosive primer.

Hard to value without close examination. Double .410's always fetch a premium over the larger guages. Lagopus.....

Some of us make 2" "FourTen" cases out of .444 Marlin brass. They need to be treated like any other brass cased shotshell, and the loads worked up very carefully "from the bottom" because there is little load information available. The brass lasts forever; I'm still using the original 18 that someone left on the rifle bench at my gun club and have reloaded them at least 5 times each.

Or IS there tested loading data out there? Anybody know of a source for 2" plastic or brass .410 reload recipes?

Mike A.,
Interesting, I use 444 cases(full length)in my .410 pistol(with papers, so don't send the BATF) to shoot carpenter bees.I load 3.5gr bullseye,two wads cut from a meat tray, filled almost to the top with ground walnut hull polishing media(could use grits), another wad,seal with carpenter's glue.This is a "magnum"load that does a really good job, but doesn't damage the underside of a tin roof.
Mike

Interesting DIY "insecticide"! And walnut shells are both "recyled" and non-toxic--SO VERY GREEN!

Ah, the inventive genius of handloaders!

There's a Charles Hellis .410 3" for sale on GI now for close to $12k to give you an idea. It's a boxlock that looks almost new. Kevin's of Thomasville has the gun and they are notoriously high priced. Heavy for a .410 at over 6 lbs. I don't know how this gun would compare in value to a back action sidelock, but these .410's are pretty rare. If this gun Kevin's has we're a 12 ga, I'd think about $4k would be tops what I would pay. A .410, well....???? BTW Hellis made some very nice guns. I used to own a 12b which unfortunately was recently stolen and although a medium grade boxlock, the internals were very robust and polished to a very high degree. It was a very good gun IMHO.