doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Why 410 ?

Well said, Skip.

SRH

I started my sons and daughters out with 28 and 20 ga guns. I find early success to be very important for new shooters. Miss too many in a row and you'll think this game is not for me. Too hard. But I had the advantage of multiple guns to work with and reloading got the 20 recoil down to light levels. My kids never complained about recoil. Having to pick up shells maybe. But if all I had for them was a .410 then that's what I would have used. It's better to shoot than not as a kid and I can temper expectation so kids don't quit. It's a game and we need to make it fun.

I did not learn how to flinch with a shotgun. My mistake was to shoot a .458 too much. I had sold some timber and planned on going to Africa to shoot Cape Buff and an Eliphant. Late 60's or early 70 elephants were not in such desperate shape from poaching. In those days I still had all my Model 70s and had a .375 H&H and a slightly used .458. The regs were that the .375 was too small for Elephants so I started shooting the .458. It was too much recoil too shoot too much but being young and dumb I kept trying. After the flinch started it just got worse until I had it like a stutter. Plans for Africa were scrapped. I stopped shooting for more than a year but the flinch was waiting when I returned. It took about 50k .410 shells for the flinch to go mostly away. Another 50k and it was gone. So the .410 to me saved my shooting.

Decades ago I developed a flinch shooting 7mm TCU out of a 10" barrel Thompson Contender in IHMSA competition. A buddy helped me lose it with less than 50K rounds. . Using a .22 barrel, he would load the gun out of my sight. Randomly, he wouldn't load it. I never knew if it was loaded or not when I shot practice rounds with Russ. When I tamed the flinch with the .22 we went to the competition rounds and repeated. The same procedure would work with a shotgun. Ever see a man with a shotgun flinch pull the trigger on an unexpected empty chamber? Gil

That would be Chuck H's brother-in-law Darrel.




That is me on the left, Last Dollar imitating Santy, and Chuck H on the right.




Front row, left to right: Chubby Daryl Halquist, SKB's apprentice, SKB, Chuck H's brother-in-law Darrel, and Chuck H.
Back row, left to right: Joe Wood, Mr. Studer, RockDoc, me, and Last Dollar.



Chuck H, Last Dollar, RockDoc posed with roosters taken by me and my dogs. I don't know the name of the fourth horse's ass.

Thanks, Mike.

SRH

I was shooting IHMSA competition probably about the same time, Gil. A doctor in Aiken, SC had a range where we competed once a month, Dr. Allen Kirschner. I, too, shot a T/C Contender, but in .30-30 Win.. Ed Bradley, from Savannah, used to be there every month. i really enjoyed it, for a time. But, I decided to get serious about it and practiced hard at home one month. The next month I shot a score that was two classes above my class and was disqualified. That was it for me. I never went back. It stuck in my craw that a man would be penalized for improving too much.

SRH

Stan you are very welcome.

A bunch of the "old guys" that shoot I informal skeet with in St. Louis use .410's, just for the fun of it. Some of their AA .410 hulls are adorned with scotch tape to cover the pin-holes for 1 or 2 more firings.

Another younger skeet shooting friend (he's only 71)has a four barrel Kreighoff set. He sometime uses the .410 barrels when we visit a game farm for dog training.

Personally, I don't feel the need for either a .410 or 28 gauge shotgun. I can miss with a 12.

gold40

Chuck H, Last Dollar, RockDoc posed with roosters taken by me and my dogs. I don't know the name of the fourth horse's ass.

Ahh Mike, you have such a way with words... I love your dry sense of humor, even when directed in the wrong direction (such as towards me!).

Steve

Hmmm, Mike, what is the limit on roosters ? You need a lawyer.