I am thinking of getting a shotgun in 410 for small game. This is incase the world goes to ****. I already have a good supply of 410 for use in my Governor and a couple Charles Daly's Honchos. The shot gun would provide a backup option for hunting where a 22lr is not practical.

I’ve had a Stevens 410 single shot for over 40 yrs. Never let me down on squirrels, grouse, and occasional rabbit. Just understand and respect it’s limitations compared to 12 & 20ga.

^^^^This. My first gun was a Stevens single shot (still have it), and quickly learned that 25 yards is about it, even with full choke and #4 or #6 shot and 3" shells.

If you don’t want to spend much, Mossberg pumps have a decent reputation. Mine has been working fine with my 2-1/2” reloads. I have to be honest and say I’ve never used it with 3” magnums.

I thought about buying one of the imported autoloaders but was advised against it. I decided to take that advice. It came from a fellow who runs a sporting clays range. He sees just about every imaginable shotgun from the least expensive on up, and he knows what works reliably and what is “questionable.”

I see that you already have ammunition, but realize the .410 is not really much of a hunting shotgun. If you keep your shots on small game inside 25-yards it is OK, but a 28 or a 20 is a much better hunting shotgun. I’m sure others will disagree with that, but I have had considerable experience with the .410 and that’s my opinion. I use the little Mossberg mainly for pest elimination, not hunting.

The older Remington 870 .410s are generally pretty decent shotguns, but they are VERY pricey nowadays. You can pretty much buy three new Mossbergs for the same money as an older Remington.

Finally, pattern whatever you buy. With a gun this small, you need to know WHERE it shoots and what shot size works well in your barrel. My recent production Mossberg shoots very flat for me. If I were using it for wingshooting, I’d want to try to get it shooting a bit higher.

All this is JMHO. Good luck with whatever you buy.

If you can...............

try to get 7 1/2 lead pellets, since they have higher energy than the smaller 8's and 9's and will bag more game, over all.

A great load if you know it's limits.

I grew up hunting with a Winchester model 42 but I believe they have gotten pricey too. I second looking at a Mossberg

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My Savage Model 24 DL in .22/.410 put plenty of cottontail rabbits in my game bag back when I was a young teenager.

I currently have a Stevens Model 555 .410 O/U that I picked up for a decent price several years ago. I've taken it out after jack rabbits and it does a great job. It has five choke tubes which makes it pretty versatile.

Can't remember what I paid for it, but if I recall correctly, it wasn't a bad price...and it's a neat little gun.

EDIT:
Oh my heck!!! I just checked the current price of the Stevens Model 555 in .410. Needless to say, I was shocked!!! You might not want to get it. It ain't cheap...and I know for a fact I didn't pay anything close to the current asking price.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

I have a stevens M-30 pump I use for home defense as well as for small game. It came to me with a 28" ribbed barrel and I've added a 26" round barrel cut down to 18+ inches for HD. If you can find one it should not cost you more than about $250.00

A .410 is one of the great small shotguns for small game if you can find one.
A 20 Ga. is another option.

I like them both.

I was thinking about the Savage O/U combo as Mule Packer mentioned. Savage actually has the newer model which is probably a little easier to find in the model 42.

I have a Browning 42 from the 1990s and my grandfather’s Winchester 42 from the 1930s. If the SHTF, might as well go out with class.

These are my first choice when seeking birds and small game, never to be sold or traded. Going to family when I’m gone.

I love my .410s.

I have a 50’s vintage Stevens 410 22LR over and under. It has taken lots of rabbits and ptarmigan. Savage makes one in a take down version. Also available in 22 magnum.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

My first shotgun was my late granddaddy's Stevens .22 LR/.410 with the Tenite stock. My grandmother told me that he bought the gun at the beginning of WW II to keep the bunnies out of his garden.

Back in the day, I took rabbits and squirrels with it.

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WAR EAGLE!

...I would recommend you TryBeforeYouBuy on that one...it is nothing compared to the original 24s and it is just cheaply made...

I have two 24 DLs in .22 Magnum/20 gauge that are great game getters...and have a FourTenner insert for using .410 shells. That said I recently purchased a Chiappa Double Badger in .22 LR/.410 and it is now my going camping gun... Great FO sights and very nicely made...and was less than $400...

The Mossberg 500 pumps are also excellent...

Bob

This is one I just picked up.
It's an old Mossberg 183 D C
It's a bolt action with internal magazine.

It can take different screw on chokes.
The one on it is full and throws a very nice tight pattern.

I think it may make a better hunting implement vs a single shot and can be found for around the same price.

Price was 150

The can was 22 yards away.

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Paul
S&WCA #2726

Most vintage .410’s are pretty pricey these days. I keep a Springfield M6 around for this purpose (just in case rifle). It’s a survival rifle with a .22 barrel on top and .410 on bottom, break action, barrel selectable hammer, ammo storage in the stock. All M6’s have gone up in price but are solid in construction. The lever style trigger is something to get used too. However there are newly manufactured and redesigned examples with a standard trigger and a variety of calibers.


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I'm a big fan of 410 2 1/2 inch shells. You can fit quite a few in a pocket.

My long term in the woods gun is a Savage 24C (Camper) that is 22LR/20 gauge, it has a 20" barrel with Modified choke. I keep it in a tool box with a cleaning kit, 100 round pack of CCI Mini-mags and two ammo cases that hold twenty 20 gauge shells. I carry an assortment of ammo: 5-Slugs, 5-No 4 Buck, 5-#4 bird shot, and 5-#7.5 bird shot.

A similar set up could be done with a 410, but it would be more bulky.

Ivan

Here's my RIA single shot .410 alongside the Governor. It's a very good (inexpensive) shooter.

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Cabela's has this Charles Daly Triple Crown in .410 that I am oddly attracted too...but I get confused. Is it a side-by-side? is it an over-under?

Charles Daly // Triple Crown 3 Barrel Shotgun .410/26"BBL

I have a Rossi side x side in .410 that's one of my favorite small game getters. When Arkansas Game & Fish increased the daily squirrel limit from 8 to 12 I was using this .410 the first time I got the new limit in one morning.

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I use my Dad's NEF single shot
.410 to dispatch red squirrels.

Great little shotgun.

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BTDT, Got The T-Shirt

Thank's for the input, guess I will be visiting some gun shops and see whats available. I have been leaning towards a simple single shot, I don't expect to use it very much, just preparing for the paranoia in my family. Also needed a poor excuse to visit some gun shops and have an idea what to look and ask for.

One of the classiest guns made for under a thousand bucks and you can buy these at Academy Sports for under $500. I have a SXS 20 gauge that has bagged many pheasants, quail, dove, and turkey and it is beautiful, elegant, and only weighs 5-1/2 lbs. The .410 weighs 3.3 lbs!

Yildiz .410 Side-By-Side Break-Open Shotgun | Academy

Yep a 410 brings back some fond memories. My old bolt single shot cost around $40-45 new back in the 60s from Sears. J.C. Higgins I believe. Made for fun when I was young. Am sure the Remington 1100 would be a blast too. Best of luck.

My dad gave me a used 410/22 over under for my 12th birthday in 1968. I still have it. I still use it.
In the spirit of this thread, mine is probably the best 410 to have. Should the market run out of meat, I can take my old Savage out to the woods behind my house (called by some a "park") and shoot din-din, using either barrel.

If things got really bad I could break it down and carry it about on my bicycle and no one would be the wiser. I could probably find a pickleball bag or something like that to hide it in.

And I just so happen to have a 410 Lee Loader lying about.

Don't hunt much anymore but the Mossberg.410 has become the go to shotgun for varmint control on the homestead. Have a hankering for a Henry lever shotgun but they're not cheap. I can see the utility in a combo gun.

lots of nice turkish o/u and sxs available lately
savage
tristar cz hugle etc.

As long as you understand the limitations of a 410, it is a great small game gun. I use mine for almost all of the upland game birds up to pheasants in size. If you reload, it is absolutely the most economical gauge out there.

Most of my game shooting is over pointing bird dogs, so the range is usually only up to about 30 yards at the shot. Over the years I've used a Winchester 42, Remington 1100 and a Charles Daley skeet grade over and under.

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Keep your powder dry.

Henry makes a few options in a single shot .410, much cheaper than their lever gun .410s, although I'd be tempted by those as well.

YES!
I got to handle one of these a couple months ago. For looking as clunky as it does, it point really well; If I had the funds, I'd buy one.

I have a skeletonized Bronco single-shot .410.

Very simple but works fine on rabbits and the
occasional grouse.
They are not as cheap as they used to be but
can still be found here and there.

Have an newer OU in .410 made in Turkey. Haven't taken anything
but clay targets, and tin cans, with it so far.

I can recommend the NEF Survivor in .410/45 Colt. It's a single shot break open that fires both .410 shells and .45 Colt cartridges, so it's probably a perfect compliment to your revolver. You can store some ammo in the fore end and butt stock too. I bought one about 25 years ago and still have it.

They were also sold under the H&R brand. I don't think either are made anymore, so you will have to go used.

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My sgntr is mor thn 30 chrctrs

I love 410 too. I shoot skeet and doves with mine. First was a Yildiz 410 O/U from Academy Sports. Second was a Remingto 870. Third was a Tristar G2 Viper. All have held up well in 6 years of shooting them. I make my own shoot and with a "pinch" of powder the 410 is cheap to reload and good to go.

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I have two Winchester model 42's. One is full choke, and it patterns too tight for real hunting. It would create a loss of meat in a rabbit at under 30 yards. The modified choke is my fun shooting dove gun. When I was a teenager on the Rio Grande River in TX, I would get under a large mesquite tree on the riverbank and get 15 doves with 15 shells as they flew about 30 feet above me.

I enjoy a contender 410 carbine and pistol. Also have a CZ double and a Browning 42.


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I have a Remington Sportsman 48 in 410 bore I use for bunny's and tree rats. They are very well made if you can find one.

love my 410 870 wingmaster but I usually use my mossburg 500 410 gauge great on rabbits and squirrels.

I have a 15” vent rib 410 barrel on my Encore. Great fun for squirrels and trap.

I remember when all the gun writers cursed the 410. Mine always worked fine.

Someone at my club is selling a SxS for $400. It is tempting.

Always lusted after a 42(I shoot mdl 12's) but the big $$$ has kept me away.

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S&W Accumulator

Mike, I got the Full Choke in mid 1960's for less than $75.00 and picked up the Modified Choke in the early 1970's from a fellow Marine that was transferring to HI for about $175.00. Back then 410 ammo was the least expensive shotgun ammo to buy. Now it cost more than 12ga ammo.

I have 2 Model 42's at this time. Both pre-war Skeet guns.
Finish challenged, one with aftermarket wood that doesn't match and the other w/o wood.

The one that is shootable is enjoyable to use. I load 2 1/2" shells for it.
I started reloading for 410 when I previously owned a Browning '42'.
That was a very nice gun as well. I would recommend that gun to anyone wanting a nice pump 410.
Likely pretty pricey now, but most any 410 will be.

Many shooters are handicapped when using a 410 just because they have been told over and over that 'it's just a 410' and it doesn't have the power of the bigger gauges.

That can get into your head.
But the velocity of the 410 is the same as the 12, 16 or 20 gauges..
right there at 1200fps.
The shot is traveling at the same speed.
There is just less of it in the payload that's all.

So you use a smaller shot size like #8 to increase the # of individual bb's in the pattern.
For hunting you will likely want to use larger shot, but again keep in mind that there will be very few pellets in the load.

Then limit your max distance to less than what you would take with the larger gauges do to the thinning out of the pattern at those longer distances....less bb's to fill in the same dia pattern circle.

Also you will do well to carefully pattern a 410 on paper.
The small bore is very touchy as to different loads, shot sizes, choke, shell mfg, ect.

Most single shot and inexpensive Sxs 410's are choked Full in some marketing idea to increase the range of the small bore.
Many are even Full+ and that can wreck the patterns with some loads.
Mod or even IC will often give a much more even pattern.

Patterns can vary wildly in a 410 from one OTC shell to another.
410 factory ammo is the most expensive to buy.
Reloading can really help you get the most from the 410 plus it makes it very inexpensive to load your own.

A little Springfield Savage 67-B pump that I obtained for my grandson. Turns out his dad got him a 20 gauge. I will hold on to it.

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1601 (ret)

My choices:
STEVENS .301 single shot- cheap, easy to use, reliable.
MOSSBERG 500- versatile, pump action, tried and true.
Stoeger side by side, break action. Tried and true, reliable, 100% more rounds than the Stevens, easy to use

I'm not a big 410 fan for a hunting gun, but I agree if you stick to very close range, you can do o.k.

I'll go along with the other recommending a Mossberg if you want a repeater.

Hey weatherby I have the same Mossberg bolt 410 from the 70s it has c-lect choke on it. A great little 410. I also have a Winchester steelbit single barrel 410.

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I brought a Mossberg Silver Reserve 2 over/under home today, according to the sticker on the box it was packed 10/18/2016. Cost was just under $800 after taxes, seems to weigh a lot less than the others that were available, and it looks like the grease in the barrels is a little dusty. Think I will do some gun cleaning this afternoon, too hot to work outside.

Sorry no pictures, I don't have a hosting service.

I got a Savage 59A tube fed bolt action .410 on Christmas morning when I was 11. Christmas afternoon my dad was throwing clays so I could get the feel of it, and the next morning we were off to find pheasant. It proved too warm to get them to sit tight and not run off, but I did come home with a few quail and a couple of rabbits. I used it until I was old enough to by my own 20 ga., and then continued to use it because the only way I could miss with it was if I was blindfolded and facing the wrong direction. I used it so much that I wore the lug off the shell lifter. I just finally got it fixed 33 years later. "I'm not as good as I once was, but..." It sure brings back memories. When I get home, I'm digging out of the safe again, just because.