doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Doubles for young'uns

As most anyone who has followed this board very long knows I am not particularlly fond of .410's. That said however I tend to agree with Chuck H here. In fact I would go even further & say a small person can handle a heavier recoil from a well fitting gun than one which puts them off balance to even hold up. I am not of course advocating excessive recoil, just saying the fit is most important.
Also I will go out on a limb & say that most likely the big drawback often associated with the .410 for a beginner is not so much the gauge as the gun itself. A single bbl'd .410 built on a full size 12ga frame is not a particularly well balanced gun & the hammers are often too much for small hands to handle effectively. Add to that they are most often full choke. Any full choke gun will normally give a higher concentration of its pattern to the central core. Larger gauges with a heavier shot charge may still have a dense enough pattern in the fringes to give a larger "Killing" circle, but not the .410.
Make sure the gun fits & feels right to them, use a choke that will give the best pattern out to 20-25 yds (forget the oft stated Fact that a .410 requires full choke to be effective) & the .410 should be fine for a small person to start with. At this point in time they shouldn't be trying 40-50 yd shots anyway. They can grow into that.

To add to Miller's comment about fullchoked .410's being unnecessary, my NID ejector gun has a cylinder bore in the right (something done by a prior owner to this nice, rare 28" gun) barrel and kills pretty darn reliably on quail out to about 30 yds with a 11/16 oz shell, chukar about the same distance and pheasant about 25 yds (shot sized appropriately, of course). I feel the .410 with a 2 1/2", 1/2 oz load, and a cylinder bore, is about as good as a .410 will get at skeet distances.

perhaps the 50 pounders should stick to their wii shooting games? or perhaps a 9mm glatt bolt action garden gun would be appropriate.

That's been the trend more and more.

I was at a dinner for the extended family Saturday and had my Lab there at my wife's aunt's suggestion. The kids were all playing with my dog and it came up that she was a hunting dog. The father of a few (married my wife's cousin), who had been thru some rough times and abandoned his youngest onto his in-laws after his wife's death, made a comment meant to incite an argument about hunting. I didn't bite. He was an Orange County suburban raised kid and is now in his early 40s. I'm sure he never held a gun and only associates crime with guns. Anyway, the point is: he was raised to believe guns are bad by whatever environment, and now he's raising another generation of gun haters.

I coach youngsters, we had a shooting session last weekend joined by a new boy, 13 years old, he tried my 12 ga 11-87 12 ga with target loads, and it was too much for him too heavy and the recoil was too much.
So he shot my 1100 28 ga and loved it, but we were low on 28 ga shells.
So he tried my Lanber o/u 12 ga with 20 ga Chambermates and 20 ga shells and that was fine he was hitting them really well and no bruising.
I am set up to load 28 ga, and I think I'll get some 12-28 Chambermates for the smaller kids and ladies to use.
I'm involved with the Delta Junior Waterfowl Hunt as the instructor and I just wince when I see a 12 year old with a single shot hammer 12. Delta donated to our group a Turkish semi-auto and we use that as a loaner gun.
My experience is that 12 is about as early with a shotgun, 8 years old and up, a good air rifle or a 22 single shot on cans and targets under close supervision. My 2c, anyway, 30 years of Hunter Ed and training people of all ages.
Mike

Forgot to say, watch for cross-eye dominance as someone said and leave the SXSs until he or she graduates from college! Then buy the Purdey!
Mike

for a nice kid gun, see gunbroker item 226751297, a 20 gauge lefever ds with 25" barrels. makes me wish i was a kid!

Neat, you should not be leary of modifying this one

R.C. Which way are you leaning now??

Mike

Not trying to hijack, but regarding the issue of reducing barrel length and having something other than cylinder choke, does anyone have any suggestions? (see the pics posted on page 2.)

jug chokes?