doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Um, Uh, Too light??

My search for an inexpensive .410 is not bearing fruit.
I’ve windende my search to include a 30’s era Francotte.

Any thought on a 4 lb 10 oz double?

My thoughts are that it will have a strong learning curve.

The proof is in the pudding.

Most people don’t shoot ultralight Shotguns very well.

An ultralight 410 is probably the worst set up for shooting well.

If you like it, buy it.

Unless you are possessing God-given, super clay, target, shooting talents, be happy if your scores equate to half of whatever it is that you normally shoot for starters.

Unless you’re a skeet shooter, then it probably won’t matter because everybody use a sustained lead anyway.

Those are my thoughts.

“Inexpensive” and “.410”combined in the same phrase seem to be a grammatical impossibility, even on this side of the pond where a lead ban in 3 years and a lack of viable non toxic .410 loads should logically be depressing values.

Get an Iver Johnson Skeet-er if you want a shooter. A perfect gun design.

I like shooting my under five pound Francotte .410 just fine. You just have to shoot it a bit, quite a bit.

She can be a humbling mistress.
Definitely a strong resurgence among the retirees at my club.
Enough to where stations were changed to help them with their scores.

I have a 28 ga Francotte that is 4 lbs 11 oz that I like.

Everybody likes them. Lots of people have a hell of a time shooting them well.

Good luck with that, Bob.

Best,
Ted

Yeah, I'll bet it's got no longer than 26" barrels. If I'm wrong it's a rare bird.

I could learn to shoot it just fine, IF the stock dimensions were suitable. Too many people try to learn to shoot a gun that doesn't fit them. Then when they can't, they blame the weight of the gun.

This 'un weighs 4 lbs. 14 oz., and has killed a vast number of game birds. But, I had to learn how to adapt my shooting style to it. You just do not successfully shoot a sub-5 lb. gun the same as you do a 6 1/2 - 7 1/2 lb. gun.



OBTW, you're wanting an "inexpensive .410" and you're including Francottes?

Your definition of inexpensive and mine shore ain't the same.

This has been hashed and rehashed here many times, but deserves repeating. The weight of the gun is far less important, in terms of how easily one can adapt to it, than where that weight/mass is located in the gun itself. Don Amos spun that little .410 pictured above about a year or two after I got it, and got proficient with it. He found that, and I quote him, "It's moment of inertia is almost identical to that of a 12 ga. English game gun". I didn't understand and he explained it to me. When more of the weight/mass is in the extremities of the gun, i.e. the buttstock and the barrels, it increases the effort needed to swing the gun (MOI), or move it around it's center. That is exactly what you need in a very lightweight gun, for it to slow you down in your "move". An English game gun will be heavier in the action but lighter in the barrels and butt, thus causing the MOI to be different than a more "normal" double.

In the case of the gun pictured above the action is a lightweight alloy. This causes more of the percentage of mass to be on the ends and makes it handle better (slower).