doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How many of you started with a .410??

As I said before, I started at age 7 with a Harrington & Richardson .410 single-barrelled hammer gun. My next gun was a model 42. The 42 was a good squirrel killer. I'm pretty sure most of the quail I "killed" with it were actually killed by my dad, shooting at the same time. Minimizing recoil, especially for a girl, is very important. But, so is being able to have some early success breaking clay targets, hence my recommendation of a 20 ga. I still own a .410 and shoot it frequently. I just don't believe it's the best starter gun for a kid.

My first shotgun was an H&R .410 and I don't believe I killed anything with it but maybe a jaybird in the two years I carried it. I started knocking over the occasional running rabbit when Dad moved me up to an H&R single 20 gauge and finally killed my first bird on the wing with a Lefever Nitro Special 16 gauge which I still own.

Destry

My first gun was a twenty gauge. That was small enough for me. I've never hunted with a .410. I always wanted one of those Savage that had the O/U with the .22/.410. But I never could find one I liked. I see them now and they are in pretty rough shape.

My parents didn't believe in those small bore cripplers. There was not a shotgun in the house smaller then a 16-gauge until I ordered a 20-gauge Arrizaga in 1967.

I started with a family hand-me-down H&R single hammer gun, stock cut back to about 12 1/2" for an 8 yr. old. Did ok, though my family let the little guys shoot the "gimmes" ducks over decoys and flushing birds over the dogs. Being REALLY small in stature, Dad bought me a 311 Stevens s/s .410 for my 12th birthday---best growth tonic ever invented, I switched to his Mercury 12 s/s a year later.

I just bought 2 LT 20ga. Remington 1100's for my grandkids. The grandkids are spaced 4 years apart, ages 1-12 and, assuming they all like to shoot, I've supplied them with guns for the next 20 years! One has a youth model 13" stock and I've put a full length plug in the magazine to assure single shot. The other is left with it's original wood stock, about 14". My thought is why burden a child with a marginal gun when you can let them shoot a slightly heavier gun that patterns well and has little recoil if you shoot 3/4 and 7/8 oz. loads? My eldest grandchild is enjoying 5 stand though I don't see Madeline into the "blood sports". The next, an 8 yr. old, gets her first shooting lesson next week when she is visiting from California----that one I expect to be a hunter.

ps. I've still got the 311, am stunned every time I see what they are going for these days!

Steve

Got a Remington bolt action s/s .22 targetmaster and a Montgomery Wards .410 pump on the same X-mas morning at age 9. Hunted everything from squirrels, rabbits, doves, crows, first 4 whitetails and an occasional grouse with that .410. I agree with the poster that said a .410 teaches you to point and not swing. Money was very hard to come by in my household so you either learned how to hit what you were shooting at or... starve.

Moved up to a Remington 11-48 (12) at age 12 and continued the quest to put food on the table until I went off to college. Loved that spring recoil in those 11-48's - very little felt recoil even to a 12 y/o.

I do respectfully disagree with the poster that said you shouldn't introduce a kid to shooting until age 12. By then the video games and sports and peers and life's many other distractions have allready taken over the kid's priorities. My kids (all 5) have been in the woods (started in a bowhunting treestand) by age 4. This early start has kept them all interested in shooting and hunting for more than 12 years (and counting). Never take them when conditions are bad, so as not to leave a bad lasting impression of Mother Nature. But short increments and lots of encouragement helps them get past the fidgets and the loud voices that most start with. I logged 100+ days in the field last year with my kids. Some days we shot something, some we did not. But every one created lasting memories that can never be taken away.

My kids started shooting a Garcia Bronco .410 with 2-1/2" #6 shot at age 6-7 depending on their size. My oldest boy (9) carries a Charles Daly youth 20g pump w/ choke tubes. It really is a sweet gun at only 4lb - 10oz. Dad keeps threatening to carry it while walking up and down those hills in Shawnee State Forest grouse hunting.

To each his own... but I'm a 3rd generation Hunter's Saftey Instructor and I feel that kid's should be introduced to shooting and hunter safety as early as their personalities allow. BB guns first (allthough we treat every gun -BB, Rifle, Shotgun, Squirt or Capgun the same) SAFE is SAFE and once you teach them the rules of safe handling, then the curiosity and temptation of abusing the priviledge is gone. My 5 y/o twins are just starting to read but can quote you the top 10 rules of safe firearms handling verbatim. And not just what they are - but the why's and how's behind each rule. I'm more comfortable in the field with them than alot of adults that I've hunted with.

Single shot .410 and, at 12, I was too thrilled with it to know what a "disadvantage" it was. Rabbits and a few ringnecks fell to it and I wish I still had it. Lee

My father an RCAF flying instructor on the Prairies waiting to go overseas bought me a .22 Mossberg Model 42 and a l2ga JABC in 1940. I still have the Mossberg. I was a pretty good shot for those times when he came home in 1945.

BB-guns were forbidden in our family. My father said children used them carelessly unsupervised, developed bad habits, and he had no intentions of being a chaperone. We learned responsibility, hunted alone straight-away.

Brought my kids and grandchildren up the same way.

Looks like I'm the only one so far that started with a .410 side by side. At age 8 I was given a J. C. Higgins tenite stocked S x S .410. I, like Lee the First, didn't know what a "handicap" I had been placed under by having it. So, happily I accounted for many squirrels, rabbits, quail and doves with it. Was it the best gun to begin with? Probably not. But, it was what I had and I learned to be quite proficient with it, not shooting everything sitting, but on the run and on the wing.
One thing I have often wondered about is that since I started out with a gun that was as hard to master as a .410, and since I shot it a lot for about four years, when I graduated to a twenty guage it seemed so easy to kill doves with it that I regularly out shot grown men on the dove field at the tender age of 12 or 13. No small thing when you have grown up in a culture that places dove shoots in high esteem.
I do not regret having been started on a .410 at all. It just may have turned out to be an advantage in the long run.

Stan

Started with a Mossberg .410 with bolt action and poly choke, still have it has a clip that holds 2 or 3 , don't remember. Still have it looks new.