When I was eight years old I wanted a new shotgun more than anything, and I wanted a .410. I’d spent many summer evenings that year breaking clays in the backyard with my grandfather’s weathered old .410 single shot, but I wanted a gun of my very own. And, to my great jubilation, when I went to retrieve my grandfather’s gun for an afternoon squirrel hunt one October afternoon, I found that gun missing, replaced instead by a New England Firearms’ .410 of my very own.
I shot a lot of game with that .410 ranging from fox squirrels to preserve pheasants, and I learned to precisely place that single bead for a near-perfect pattern. Over time, however, I wanted something more. Specifically, a repeating shotgun in 20 gauge that would allow me to hunt deer, ducks, turkeys, and wild pheasants. I eventually saved up for a 20-gauge pump in my early teens (a purchase I made in part to prevent my hunting buddies from making fun of my .410 “kid gun”) and the .410 was relegated to the back of the safe.
For many years my .410 stayed there, but recently it’s been closer to the front of my gun safe because it’s seeing more action than it has at any time since 1988. Over time I’ve come to realize that the .410 is anything but a child’s gun—in fact, it’s a testament to the marksmanship of a shooter that can consistently break clays or kill birds with a .410. But what I’ve realized is that my light, soft-shooting .410 is more capable than I ever imagined.
The Rise of Ultra-Dense Shot We’ve experienced a surge in .410 sales recently, and the reason can largely be summed up in three words: Tungsten Super Shot. Since the lead ban took effect for waterfowl hunting in 1993, hunters have been seeking a non-tox alternative to lead. Affordable and widely available steel was a natural replacement for lead, but steel had a density of just 7.9 g/cc to lead’s 11.3 and that meant it took larger steel pellets to match the energy of lead. Ammo manufacturers created high velocity steel loads to improve lethality, but these hot steel loads hit hard on both ends.
Bismuth was an alternative, and at 9.7 g/cc it’s closer to the density of lead. But bismuth wasn’t perfect, and some of the pellets were so brittle they broke before ever reaching the target. Then a product called Tungsten Super Shot hit the market. It was nontoxic and had a density of 18.3 g/cc, which meant it was extraordinarily dense. In fact, a #9 TSS pellet packed the same energy as a #4 lead pellet when fired at the same velocity. TSS was indeed super shot (and super expensive), but it killed with authority.
The density of TSS means that small pellets pack a bunch of energy, and that was a game-changer for the .410. What hunters (particularly turkey hunters) found was that a 3-inch load of #9 TSS would kill a gobbler cleanly at 40 yards or more, which wasn’t easy to do with some 12-gauge loads. Lightweight .410 single shots started flying off store shelves. I even broke out my old NEF and carried to the turkey woods, something I would never have seriously considered doing during my teen years.
What’s This Mean For The .410? Unlike the 28-gauge, most modern .410 field shotguns come with a 3-inch chamber, and that means you can fire loads through these guns up to 13/16ths ounces, which is heavier than standard 28 gauge loads and on par with light 20-gauge loads. My first experience with .410 shotguns and TSS came in late 2020 while I was sharing a duck blind on Mississippi’s Beaver Dam Lake with Jared Lewis of Apex Ammunition. On a body of water, made famous by Nash Buckingham and his roaring Bo Whoop 12-gauge Fox Double, Lewis was killing mallard after mallard with a Tristar .410 semiauto. These were not crippling shots, either—crossing drakes at 30 yards were folding mid-air, dead before they splashed between the cypress trees.
That experience taught me that a .410 with TSS can kill big, tough birds like mallards, pheasants, and mountain grouse with authority. And while there aren’t a lot of dedicated upland TSS options for the .410 there are turkey and waterfowl options. The rub is that these loads are going to cost you about eight bucks a round.
If you just slapped your head to your hand in disbelief stay with me. TSS is a game changer for the .410 and has renewed interest in these guns, but it’s not the only option. HEVI-Shot’s HEVI Bismuth 3-inch .410 load packs 9/16ths ounce of non-toxic shot per round, and each round costs around $2.00—still not cheap, but way less than TSS. If you’re in an area where lead shot isn’t banned you can step up to a 3-inch load like Winchester’s Super-X that offers 11/16ths ounce of #4 shot.
These magnum bismuth and lead loads don’t hit like TSS, but they’re hardly anemic. There’s certainly good enough for huns, wild quail, chukar, and even wild pheasants so long as long shots at wild flushing birds aren’t required. One of my hunting mentors used to hunt ruffed grouse in the Appalachian Mountains when the birds were still common, and his gun of choice was an SKB .410 over/under. He killed a boatload of grouse with that gun, so there’s no disputing the .410’s effectiveness.
With lighter 2 ½-inch loads the .410 makes a fine gun for close shots on doves and for hunting rabbits and other preserve quail. While in Italy hunting with the Fausti Sisters we all carried .410 doubles loaded with 2 ½-inch shells. The guns served us well on released quail and those elegant Fausti doubles didn’t weigh much over five pounds. Light .410 loads are also great for introducing recoil-sensitive shooters to the sport, and they’re the load of choice when introducing dogs to live fire. I also use my .410 to exterminate pests like invasive starlings that outcompete native birds and make a terrible mess in barns and dog kennels.
I draw the line on using my .410 for geese and really large upland birds like sage grouse. Geese are simply too big and powerful to consistently knock down with .410 loads if the birds aren’t landing on top of you, and sage grouse are big, hard-flying birds when dense feathers. What’s more, shots on the prairie birds are few and often far. But outside of those limited applications I think a .410 works fine—so long as you match the load to the game and situation.
.410 Shotguns My single-shot .410 still works fine, and I love having a single-shot, hammer-fired .410 for training dogs and new shooters. Stevens’ 301 single-shot is a more modern take on the one-and-done design, and at $206 you can expect to find these guns well under $200 at dealerships. Another affordable single-shot .410 is Rossi’s Tuffy, which carries an MSRP of $189. If you’re looking for a multi-purpose .410 and don’t want to spend a lot of dough, a single-shot is a great option.
There are some shotgun manufacturers that don’t offer any .410, but one brand that has treated the little .410 well is Mossberg. Mossberg offers several .410 options in their 500/050/510-pump-action shotguns line as well as the Mossberg International SA-410 semaiuto and Silver and Gold Reserve Reserve over/unders. I’ve shot several of these guns including a 500 pump (505 and 510 versions Bantam and Mini Bantam versions are designed for small-statured shooters), the SA-410 and the Gold Reserve. All have impressed me, but the Gold Reserve ($1,135) is my personal favorite. This sub six-pound stackbarrel .410 with ejectors and five extended screw-in chokes carries beautifully and served me well for a season hunting doves and upland game.
Tristar is another brand offering several .410 options, and these include the TT-15 ($1,050) and Trinity ($855) over/unders, Viper G2 Bronze semiauto ($1,050), Bristol side-by-side ($1,250), and Cobra III Field pump ($455) among others. In fact, Tristar likely has the largest catalog of .410 shotguns on the market, and this year they even added a lever-action version, the LR94. Tristar’s guns are made in Turkey, and despite the relatively low-price tag these guns are excellent.
Other companies offering .410 include Browning, Fausti, Stoeger, and others, so there are lots of suitable options in every price range if you’re in the market for a new .410.
Is a .410 Shotgun for You? Since my renewed interest in .410 was spurred by TSS I’ve come to realize how much I enjoy sub-gauge shotguns. My single-shot is now joined in the gun safe by a Winchester Model 42 that’s in mint condition. The .410s aren’t relegated to a position at the rear of the gun safe, either: they’re front and center where they can be used and enjoyed.
