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

First rifle was .22 Winchester Model 61 I was taught to shoot at an age so early most would not believe. On my 12th birthday I was allowed to buy a used H&R single shot 16ga, hunting license, box of shot shells (high brass duck and pheasant loads), deer and elk tags - total of $20 of my own money. Developed a nice flinch for a while being belted around by the 5 1/2lb 16ga but did manage to take quite a few birds and to fill both big game tags within 2 weeks using Dad's Model 94 .32 Win Special. Not an ideal shotgun for the average youngster to start on and most couldn't have cocked the hammer anyway. Twenty gauge Miroku Daly SxS with 3/4oz 1100fps loads works pretty well for my grandkids.

Stevens 311 .410 double in gorgeous Tenite. Fortunately I got a 16 ga Sauer double a couple years later so I was able to finally get beyond 25 yds.

311 plastic stock .410,son now has it.Next gun was a Savage 22/410 plastic stock for the trap line. At tweelve moved up to a nylon 66 and a Win.37 in 20 ga. Three of the four guns still in the family.

if the question is "started" shooting, that was with a remington 550 .22 just before i turned 5. couldn't hold it myself but my dad held it and i aimed and pulled the trigger. got a daisy bb gun for my 5th birthday. gold thing with brown wood grain plastic stock (still have it).

if the question is "my first gun" then i fall into the 410 double camp. is an Erbi box lock, aquired at age 9. 20's were the same price but i was afraid of the larger shell. have many times wished Pop had just got the 20 and not given me a choice as i'd at least have a gun chambered for something useful. i hunted with and shot the 410 but found it frustrating. my dad's 1100 20 ga on the other hand was much more satisfying. when i was 13 i got a beretta al-2 12 ga and since that day i've not shot the 410 2 boxes of shells in the intervening decades and don't see a reason to start now. wouldn't get rid of it for the world but it's essentially useless. may be "fun" to use but so what.

with the low recoil options for a 20, there's no reason to start a kid with a 410. gas operated youth stocked 20 - the way to go.

I guess I didn't state whether "...started..." meant 'started shooting' or 'started shooting shotguns'. Actually, it really doesn't matter as this thread has inspired sharing early shooting experiences of all types. All good.

Just for my part, I started hunting as a 'flushing/retrieving dog' at age 6 in 1962, for my father while living in Glasgow, MT. I started shooting about the same time with a brand new Stevens .22 singleshot that my brother and I shared. We used mostly .22 shorts, but when hunting cottontails out by Porcupine Creek or over on the east side of the Fort Peck reservoir, we used longs or long rifles. I didn't get a shotgun nor shoot one until, at 18, I was able to buy a nice late Belgian A-5 Light 12. I still have the Stevens, but the A-5 is long gone. I didn't get a .410 until I traded that A-5 for a 3200 with Kolar tubes. My next .410 was a K-80 with tubes, and the tubes got sold and replace with individual barrels of the same weight as the 12g barrel. My first real hunting .410 was the Nitro below. I now have 4 .410's and I'm considering another.

As a kid I always wanted a .410 but had to wait until adulthood before I finally got one. The first gun I fired was a Crossman CO2 pistol of my Dads when I was about 5-6. My first gun was a Stevens Favorite single shot 22. I was about 10 going on 11 when my older brother brought it home, but gave it to me when he found it had a broken firing pin. I fixed it with a filed down nail and my friends and I shot it for about a month until my Dad finally discovered it worked; at which point the gun “disappeared”. I was 12 when I found a partial box of low brass 12 gauge target loads. Not having a shotgun I built one using a piece of threaded (on one end) 3/4” plumbing pipe as a barrel, a pipe coupling filled 3/4's way up with lead and drilled in the center (for a nail firing pin). A stock carved out of a pine 2X6 and a hinged rod and rubber bands as a firing mechanism finished it off. The thing worked; thankfully my Dad found and confiscated it before I got hurt.
With the advent of the homemade shotgun I think my Dad finally realized I was not to be denied so he purchased a single shot 22 from Sears for me, followed by a single shot 12 gauge Winchester 37 the next year. I finally bought my first .410, a Nitro Special in about 2002 and have really liked .410’s ever since (I don’t care what you naysayer’s have to say about them!). I’ve written here before about what I’ve learned about optimizing .410’ for upland hunting etc so I won’t bore y’all with it again.
Steve

There's a book published by Paladdin publishing about how to make a fully automatic Remington 1100. Just think, a fully automatic .410 Remington 1100. It's a damn shame such a gun would be extemely illegal because I bet shooting it would be a real hoot!
Steve

My best friend Clyde got his .410 the same time I did. His was a bolt action three shot,maybe four. he became my hero when he came home from dear hunting and had bagged a nice doe with his gun and a slug. Later we made our own slugs useing fishing fishing sinkers. On the first shot the bolt seared of part of the reciver and the bolt went it seamed fifty yards. We were very lucky for sure as Clyde had his head up watching the target. Yes there was a butt wooping for both of us and Clydes gun was ruined.Two years later he got a single shot 16ga. with a plastic stock that kicked so much you hated to pull the trigger but it was light afield.

Chuck, Can you tell us a little about the .410 Nitro pictured above? Was it in that configuration when you got it or did you have it redone? It sure doesn't look like mine.

My first gun was a single barrel folding .410 of Belgian origin, It was bored full choke and featured a skeleton stock . My main quarry was the rabbit, which,in England,during the 1950,s prior to mixamatosis,was present in huge numbers. The big bags occurred at harvest time.In those far-off days,corn[Wheat]oats and barley was cut with a binder. As the last passes took place in a field the rabbits would bolt by the score. When ever I was told a particular field was to be cut;I was off to the hardware store to buy a box of shells for my trusty .410. On one memorable day a field yielded over 240 rabbits 19 of which fell to my .410. In passing, I would mention to those concerned with "thin barrel walls",my mentor, who dispatched most of the rabbits used a hammer, damascus barreled 12 G. from which,there appeared from one barrel at every shot "a puff of smoke" eminating from a pin hole in the barrel wall! My origional gun is long-gone; but I was fortunate enough to purchase an identical gun many years ago. I still find it to be a deadly.I have enjoyed teaching my children and grandchildren to shoot with same.