Stevens .410 Handgun ?

[Retired W4]

A friend was telling me of an old family gun. A Stevens .410 that was more of a handgun than anything that took a 2 1/4" shell. Anyone ever heard of these?

[Alpo]

Probably a Steven's tip up.

[wetdog]

Try a search for Stevens number 35 auto-shot .410 smooth bore single shot pistol.

[ancient-one]

When I was about 12 or 13, my best friends Dad had one. We shot it quite a bit but I have no idea of the shell length. It broke open kind of like a single shot shotgun.

[Retired W4]

Originally Posted by wetdog

Try a search for Stevens number 35 auto-shot .410 smooth bore single shot pistol.

That's it. Thanks wetdog.
Looks like H&R had a similar smooth bore.

[Drm50]

I’ve got the pistol grip for a 410 pistol. Don’t know which one, most likely H&R. Not Stevens. Ithaca had a SxS version, Auto Burglar Gun.

[DWalt]

Back in my youth, it wasn't unusual to see those break-open shot-pistols. I wonder about their legality today as they have been classified as AOW under NFA. After all, they were made as handguns. So what's the difference between them vs all of the short shot-pistols sold today which have no NFA restrictions? I guess it has something to do with the 26" length requirement.

[desi2358]

Originally Posted by DWalt

Back in my youth, it wasn't unusual to see those break-open shot-pistols. I wonder about their legality today as they have been classified as AOW under NFA. After all, they were made as handguns. So what's the difference between them vs all of the short shot-pistols sold today which have no NFA restrictions? I guess it has something to do with the 26" length requirement.

Main difference I am aware of is the modern day shot pistols have rifled barrels............. shallow rifling and not much of a twist but enough to get around the letter of the law as written. The original Stevens and H&R shot pistols still fall under the AOW clause as they are smoothbore and have barrels shorter than the mandated 18 inches. They require registration to be legal but I suspect there are a number of them out there that never were registered. I've seen a few of them that people had as family heirlooms, totally unaware of the Federal restrictions.

[DWalt]

Originally Posted by desi2358

Main difference I am aware of is the modern day shot pistols have rifled barrels............. shallow rifling and not much of a twist but enough to get around the letter of the law as written. The original Stevens and H&R shot pistols still fall under the AOW clause as they are smoothbore and have barrels shorter than the mandated 18 inches. They require registration to be legal but I suspect there are a number of them out there that never were registered. I've seen a few of them that people had as family heirlooms, totally unaware of the Federal restrictions.

Unfortunately if they are not already registered, they can't be registered. Unless there is another amnesty.

[mikerjf]

While they are probably AOW, I don't think the 18" applies - that's for shotguns, and these were not manufactured with a shoulder stock and therefore are not shotguns.

Probably being unrifled and less-than-26" OAL makes them AOW, and thus a PITA.

[fiasconva]

Didn't they make one years ago called a Snake Shooter or something with that configuration?

[Sgt911]

Snake charmer, I dont see on from Stevens though

[DWalt]

The Snake Charmer was a .410 break-open single shot. It met the barrel length and overall length requirements to not be a AOW. I remember at one time that H&R offered something similar. I have an old maid neighbor who has a Snake Charmer for her house gun.

[Buford57]

Many moons ago when I was my agency's liaison to ATF an agent and I met a citizen who had inherited such a Stevens from his grandfather and had a question about legality. The agent examined the gun and told the citizen he could not possess a smoothbore pistol. He then removed the barrel, which he handed back to the citizen with instructions to take it one of the area gunsmiths and have it "scratch rifled". He held the receiver for "examination". A month later they met again, the agent reassembled the gun, showed it to me and declared "This is not a smoothbore pistol. It's clearly rifled, isn't it?". He then handed it back to the citizen and we each filed reports stating that on the later date we had met with the citizen, examined his gun and observed that the barrel was rifled.

I'm afraid those days are over and those guys are gone.

I have a Rossi version of the Snake Charmer, which was my mother's house gun once her arthritis was so bad she couldn't manage the trigger pull on a revolver.

[DWalt]

Back in the early 80s I was once in a less than reputable seedy bar in Baton Rouge. They had some security guy who must have weighed 300 sitting on a stool with a Snake Charmer. I didn't stay too long.