All I'm saying is struggling member of family wanting to fill ice box with feathered game would choose 12ga or 16ga in something like Model 1897. Fewer missed birds means saving of time and ammo. Unless given no options they would gun for Ducks, Geese, Pheasant,......It take lot of them small birds to fill ice box and lot of feather pullin' for little meat. There is nothing wrong in using "Kiddie Gauge" for sport shooting little birds, but it seems kind of pointless for the pot unless all one has available is the "Kiddie Gauge".
Not everyone is poor and struggling like you Jagermeister... and after 8 years of Hope and Change from your Messiah Obama too! Plenty of people have always bought guns in smaller gauges or in higher grades than what is required for bare-bones meat hunting to fill the pot. And plenty of guys have chosen .410 shotguns to start their kids out hunting. Because of demand, there are probably more .410's being built today than 16 gauge guns, but that certainly has nothing to do with overall suitability for meat hunting. You don't own even one lousy double gun, so it is somewhat understandable that you have to worry and fret about wasting a shotshell or two. You also revealed the extent of your ballistics knowledge when you said that the .410 is ill suited for taking game. There are millions of rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, etc. that would say you are wrong again... if they were still able to after being killed with .410 shotguns.
In the years that you've made over 9000 posts here, there have been plenty of threads where guys recounted killing larger birds and game than doves or quail with their .410's, including wild ringnecks and turkeys. Many good shooters choose smaller gauges to add a bit of sport and challenge to their hunting or shooting. So long as they are aware of the limitations and are disciplined enough to limit their ranges to maintain adequate pattern density, they know a few pellets launched at 1200 feet per second have the exact same effect on game or clay targets whether they were fired from a .410 or a 10 gauge. In fact, those individual pellets from the 10 gauge will have much lower velocity and kinetic energy at 50 yards than the same size pellets from the .410 at 25 yards.
