I too had a little 22/410 O/U as a kid - got it for my 10th birthday.
Wish I still had it, but unfortunately it was stolen in 1976.

For all you 410 reloaders, I have a couple of hundred wads around here somewhere. Send me a PM if you're interested in them.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

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That 25 yard figure is perfect for the 410. Keeping the yardage under that and paying attention will result in decent ratios for small birds ...even into pheasant. A half ounce of 6's inside 20 yards works on pheasant.... keeping it to those yardages will allow a fair shotgun pointer to get a limit of doves with a box of shells...a bird for every 2 shots is good...even with a 410...but with smaller shot I like 8 1/2s for doves,quail and skeet...Oh if you are reloading use high antimony magnum shot. I've even used nickle plated...but it IS expensive

When I was a teenager, my father let me join the "Adults" into the field, for my first ever Dove hunt, with a Winchester 42 pump and a single box of ammo.
I had a lot to learn about shooting doves on the wing and finally got smart and started sneaking up on them and shooting them out of the orchard's trees, to make the shells count.

A fun shotgun to use and with training and practice, a skilled shooter can
break 40 yard clays and on a good day break clays back at the 27 yard trap handicap line.

It is super fun for a fast swinging, light mount, for Skeet shooting or cotton tails or quail in the fields.

It should be on every shooters "Bucket list" to at least, try one time
at a trap club or a friends in the field, just to see what they are all about.

When I was a little kid, my dad and my uncle would go rabbit hunting and my dad would borrow my uncle’s SxS Ithaca .410. They let me go along but I had to carry the rabbits that they shot. Heck yeah! I think the most I ever had to carry was seven. The cool thing was that the Ithaca shotgun was the first gun that I ever got to shoot. As a result I have always had a soft spot for 410 shotguns!

They have their place, which may vary depending on the user. My brother carries a Taurus Public Defender on his tractor for snakes. When arthritis left my mother unable to handle the trigger on a revolver she kept the Rossi version of a Snake Charmer loaded with the Winchester death frisbee load for home protection. But back to the OPs point, I'd pick something else for LE.

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I need ammo, not a ride.

He sells a lot of guns. He also has good times and times when business is slow. One day we were talking guns in general. He told me that there are two guns that will always sell fairly fast. .22 rimfires and .410s.

Is you department considering using .410 shotguns for patrol?

KSG410 - KelTec

Holds 11 3” magnum shells. With the new Federal 5 pellet 000 it’s the ballistic equivalent of getting hit with 5 9mms simultaneously.

In short, they are devastating.

Plus the .410 has minimal recoil so even the little ladies of the department can handle it. Wouldn’t be a bad choice at all for duty.

With select slug drills your team could utilize Brennekes for anti-vehicular combat if needed.

-Glenn

My wife wanted something for varmint control around the farm and HD when I was away. She didn't like any of my shotguns, to big, heavy, too much recoil. She picked up a youth Mossberg pump .410. First two are #4 buck, followed by three 000 buck. After seeing her shoot, I try hard not to make her mad 🙂