I can't get over a couple of furriners letting their little spaniel run loose on a sporting clays course. Thanks for closed captions since I didn't understand a word those guys were saying.

Shooting a 7 pound .410 built on a 20 gauge frame doesn’t really do anything for me.
There are a number of YouTube channels populated by Italians that shoot .410 only.

I would very much like to hear how PALUNC’s first visit to the range with his new 410 went, however.

How did it go?

I once owned a .410 Citori that weighed more than my 20 gauge Beretta Onyx. I shot it pretty well, but agree that it was just too heavy to justify keeping it.

If you need a seven pound .410 you are not interested in shooting a .410. That would be almost as much fun as carting a nine plus pound O/U with Briley tubes in it. I always thought they should have put a weight restriction on Skeet guns. Nothing over 7.5 pounds. But longer barrels and tubes sold a lot of new guns. Never liked a 28/.410 set where the .410 was half a pound heavier than the 28.

As soon as he said that, I quit caring. Browning .410’s always weighed more than their 20’s.
Stuffing 3/4 oz of shot in a 3” .410 doesn’t interest me either.

There’s an Italian channel where he shoots xtra xtra full .410 on decoying pigeons.
It’s interesting because of the precision with which he delivers the small payload.
He’s a phenomenal shot.
I enjoy watching that.


I hope PALUNC had a great outing with his new gun.

Just yesterday I watched the movie Secretariat. John Malkovich played Lucian Lauren. In the beginning of the movie he is so pathetic at golf, he took his golf clubs and chucked them high into the air and into the garbage can and screamed- FORE.!! That's what comes to mind when I think about me shooting a .410 shotgun. That's what I'd be doing with it. Ha-ha!! LOL.

It’s not something to be afraid of.
Shooting the .410 can make you a much better gunner.

A good .410 shooter becomes a good judge of distance, becomes excellent at seeing the line, at tracking the bird and consistent in their shooting technique. Fail in anyone of these things and you will be inconsistent at best and more likely a bad .410 shooter. You will be good one shot and bad the next. You can not let the little .410 get into your head. Shoot it aggressively and confidently. I always say that the center of my .410 pattern is about the size of a large dinner plate and will kill any bird I hit with it. I just need to put the plate in the right spot.

That is the key to doing well with the .410, believing in it's ability. When that dinner plate sized core is put in the right spot it is every bit as deadly as the core of a pattern from a larger gauge. Density delivered on target, with enough energy per pellet, is what kills birds and breaks targets. Put enough pellets int he target and it's yours, regardless the gauge. As I have said so many times before, it doesn't matter what bore size delivers the goods. If the density and pellet energy is there it's a done deal. Keeping the range to 30 yds. (maybe a hair more in some instances) and less ensures you can do that.

Clapper,

I take it that you are referring to Carlo Rizzini who preaches delivery of 16 to 18 grams with full and full chokes.

Obviously it works for him, but for us lesser mortals I suspect that if we are keeping ranges down to 30 yards or less we will be better off with more open chokes which can still deliver sufficient but more even pattern density with small shot at the range.

W.D.M. Bell impressed onlookers with the height at which he was consistently bringing down Cormorants flighting off the top of a high African waterfall.

When they asked about his gun, he explained that he was just burning off unreliable solids in his 6.5mm Mannlicher Schoenauer

I have found that regular practice with the .410 improves your shooting of the larger gauges.
You can work on something with no recoil, and if reloading, 30% lower cartridge cost.

It’s a bit of a surprise when you break a target unexpectedly with a larger payload that you knew was a miss with the .410
That’s a good measure of how shooting the .410 aids in accuracy.

My 410 shooting experience, well I would say maybe a little under 50% today. I was using the little Arrieta with 27" barrels and it has CYL and IC chokes. Made some surprising shots but disappointed myself with missing some easy shots. One serious issue was with the shells I was trying to use. RC 2 1/2 - 7 1/2 shot.
They would not seem to seat good in the extractors and I had constant issues with closing the gun. That disappoints me as I have two flats of them. As far as the rest of RC shells I have bought they were great.

FORE!!!

Well, that’s a good start.
I’m sure you quickly figured out that there are a lot of moving parts when first learning to shoot a light .410 well.

There’s a sense of pride and accomplishment that also shows up as your skill rises.