410 Leverguns?

My biggest issue with the Henry is you're limited to 2.5" shells only and the short version has a fixed cylinder choke. With the adjustable sights they seem to be designed for slug use but they are smooth bore (obviously). Kind of don't really get what you gain over a 357 or 44 lever gun if you're only going to use slugs.

I was really tempted by the Henry for awhile but I think they would really shine in 20 gauge. I just don't see myself ever hunting with that gun over a PCC lever action or a double barrel shotgun.

They never sold well, for various reasons.

A serious deer gun? No. 1/5 oz (84 grains?) isn't much of a "deer slug" in my book. It can work....but I'll suggest one use something better suited to the task. Three 000 buck may be enough, but again, a 20-16-12-10 will carry more pellets and be more effective.

A serious upland bird gun? No. the .410 is very, very tough to shoot doves/quail with, since the pattern is very limited and the shot charges aren't much so it gets full of gaps quickly. That plus a lever gun just doesn't "swing" like a shotgun made for such use (at least to me, anyway).

Some folks are using the .410 for still-hunting turkey. For this pursuit, using an extra-full choke and a 3" shell with tungsten hevi-shot (If the gun takes 3" ones, I recall the 9410 was a 2.5" gun) it could work very well within .410 range.

They are fun to play around with, though, like any good lever gun is.. but at 12 to 16 bucks a box of 25 it ain't cheap unless you reload for it. I will also say they are good for pest-popping around the farm like rats or rattlesnakes in the hay bales, raccoons eyeing the hen house, etc...which is pretty much why I would have one around.

Stay safe.

The main reason that I never bought a lever action 410 is that they all have 2 1/2" chambers no matter if it's a Henry, Marlin, or Winchester. I prefer using 3" shells for hunting.

I've been eyeing the Henry since they came out but just can't think of a good enough reason to get one. Rabbit/squirrel hunting is the best I can come up with but the single shot 410 I already have is pretty poor in that regard and I'm putting 3" shells in that. Someone comes out with a lever in anything larger I'll get one but I just have no love for the 410 anymore.

I remember looking at a 9410 in a shop... seems like about 20 years or so back. I've always like '94's and 9422's, but as a shotgun, but I wasn't impressed with the 9410. I never could put my finger on a reason. Had I been able to testdrive one, I don't know that I'd have bought it.

I can say that I prefer a 20" SxS such as Stoeger offered, or the ones Sears used to offer in the catalog until the early 1980's. The Sears offering was probably a Savage product.

And get the 3" chamber. More shot and fewer holes in the collumn, as noted.

I've got an old mossberg 183, it's a bolt action goofy thing. They can be had very cheap (paid $50) for mine but it's a keeper . it has interchangeable chokes and keeps a pretty tight pattern with a full choke. Not exactly what you asked about but if you're curious about these, just buy a 183 and try it out. If you hate it, sell it for what you paid or give it to a young shooter.
410 is good for small stuff, the slugs have pitiful performance.

12Bravo20 said:

The main reason that I never bought a lever action 410 is that they all have 2 1/2" chambers no matter if it's a Henry, Marlin, or Winchester. I prefer using 3" shells for hunting.

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Same.

I have a Winchester 9410 Traditional from 2002, as I have said in several threads recently it seems, and love it. 24-inch barrel fixed cylinder choke with a wad-retarder, full length magazine tube means 9+1 capacity.



Never found the 2.5 inch shells that much of a handi-cap when hunting rabbit or squirrel with it. For hunting I would reload copper plated #7.5 at 1300 fps in Winchester HS hulls. Seemed to do good on the bunnies and limbrats. Got my triple crown of squirrels with it and that load, bagging three Fox, two Greys and a Red squirrel all in the same day. I have hunted everything from doves to deer with it.



One of the more amusing episodes with it was going to the local skeet range to shoot a few rounds. Just before I started a round some guy come running over yelling at me that I can't shoot skeet with a 30-30. He was pissed and it took me a couple minutes to get him calmed down and convinced that it was a 410 shotgun. My best round on the skeet field has been a 22 and the guy shooting the 410 Citori on my squad was fairly miffed that I beat him while shucking the lever on the doubles.

It is certainly not the most capable shotgun in my cabinet but it sure is one of the funnest shotgun in my collection.

I can’t say they’re my first pick for “getting the job done” but I did almost buy one to look like a crazy cuckoo on the sporting clays course

A .38 Special pistol would be considered horrendously underpowered for deer, and a .410 slug is significantly weaker.

Now, someone will come along with “I killed a charging Cape Buffalo at 100 yards with a .410 slug......by god, best heavy gun in the world....”

OK, whatever. We used to use a .22 to slaughter 1,200# steers. But it was a brain shot from 2 feet

Same same - those of us who love the 410 do because of 3” shells. The leverguns were all 2.5” shells, and were rather lackluster in the field. Great squirrel guns, but lacking for wing shooting. I happily carry an old Iver Johnson single shot 410 afield, even for upland game, but I never did quite fall in love with the 2.5” 9410.

redneck2 said:

A .38 Special pistol would be considered horrendously underpowered for deer, and a .410 slug is significantly weaker.

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Nah... it ain’t quite THAT bad. 410 pumps a 1/4 oz slug (109grn) to 1700-1800. 38spcl will push a 110grn bullet to about 1050-1100, such the 410 is effectively rivaling a lightweight, mild 357mag load, with a poorer ballistic coefficient and SD - and of course, bullet/slug construction and accuracy.

Obturation said:

I've got an old mossberg 183, it's a bolt action goofy thing. They can be had very cheap (paid $50) for mine but it's a keeper . it has interchangeable chokes and keeps a pretty tight pattern with a full choke. Not exactly what you asked about but if you're curious about these, just buy a 183 and try it out. If you hate it, sell it for what you paid or give it to a young shooter.
410 is good for small stuff, the slugs have pitiful performance.

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I have an old Mossberg 183K-A with C-lect choke. Those old bolt action 410s are pretty neat.

I have a JM Marlin Model 410 (only produced for a short period, based on 336, cylinder bore, high vis sights) which I use for pig hunting in scrub (small/medium pigs), with great success. IF it will take a pig, in scrub, then I would think it will take a small framed deer, at close range! Surprisingly accurate with Winchester solids (or my own cast ones).
Have to fight the kids for it!
So also bought a satin double barrel, double trigger, Boito .410 coach, and added turkey sights (reamed right barrel .405, left barrel .4) so use 3 inch solid in right, and Federal OOO buck (the copper coated self defense round) in left. Both rounds hit hard at short range.
Those Federal rounds designed for the pistols really move out of a coach gun, the Federal number 4 buck load is also useful, for some applications.
I have a few others including Savage 24, .22lr over .410, plus a couple of "Cooey" .410's. Once set up (the Cooeys both needed a higher front sight to point where they shoot), polished or reamed and polished (I find .385 etc extra full chokes useless, have bought both Cooeys, and Savage, out to just over .395").

Australian410hunter said:

I have a JM Marlin Model 410 (only produced for a short period, based on 336, cylinder bore, high vis sights) which I use for pig hunting in scrub (small/medium pigs), with great success. IF it will take a pig, in scrub, then I would think it will take a small framed deer, at close range! Surprisingly accurate with Winchester solids (or my own cast ones).
Have to fight the kids for it!
So also bought a satin double barrel, double trigger, Boito .410 coach, and added turkey sights (reamed right barrel .405, left barrel .4) so use 3 inch solid in right, and Federal OOO buck (the copper coated self defense round) in left. Both rounds hit hard at short range.
Those Federal rounds designed for the pistols really move out of a coach gun, the Federal number 4 buck load is also useful, for some applications.
I have a few others including Savage 24, .22lr over .410, plus a couple of "Cooey" .410's. Once set up (the Cooeys both needed a higher front sight to point where they shoot), polished or reamed and polished (I find .385 etc extra full chokes useless, have bought both Cooeys, and Savage, out to just over .395").

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Im in Australia as well. 410 is a go-to farm gun , also has some ulitility on pigs too. A 410 slug has much more killing power than 38 special in close. it starts out at 600ftlbs+, more than some 357 revolver loads. Obviously that drops off pretty fast and its not as accurate, but up close it will do the job on light game no problems. I personally prefer 3" shells, the 5 x 000 buck factory is no slouch at close range either. From memory they are 38 calibre each.

I have found that the 3" 000 buckshot shells do just fine out to 25 yards with both my Mossberg 500 with 18.5" barrel and my Mossberg Shockwave with 14" barrel. 5 pellets of 000 buckshot from a 410 is still traveling at the same speed as 9 pellets from a 2 3/4" 12 gauge shell at home defense range. Yes I have done plenty of tests. My local range uses heavy conveyor belts for target backs and my 3" 410 buckshot loads still penetrate that at 25 yards.

I use to use 410 slugs all the time for knocking raccoons out of trees when the 22kr or 22WMR wouldn't do the job.

I never liked them even as a kids gun for any kind of hunting. Especially at the cost of ammo. But to each his own.

There is a gun for everyone and in this case I ain't one of them. It seems a cute idea but I would prefer my Mossberg 500 in .410 and a full choke. I love shooting clays with it, squirrels, rabbits, skunks, raccoons, starlings and all that. I love lever guns and would not turn one down but to go out and buy a 2.5 inch chambered .410, I gonna pass on that. Cute though and I might change my mind .

A .410 for deer is illegal here.

I use my .410 SMLE mainly on groundhogs; and for that it works great. When I take it skeet shooting, I fix the bayonet at station 8 to get a rise out of the trapper...

Macchina said:

My biggest issue with the Henry is you're limited to 2.5" shells only and the short version has a fixed cylinder choke. With the adjustable sights they seem to be designed for slug use but they are smooth bore (obviously). Kind of don't really get what you gain over a 357 or 44 lever gun if you're only going to use slugs.

I was really tempted by the Henry for awhile but I think they would really shine in 20 gauge. I just don't see myself ever hunting with that gun over a PCC lever action or a double barrel shotgun.

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The only advantage with the .410 over .44 or .357 is the .410 holds heavier and more shot and you could run the Federal 4 pellet 000 Buck .410 ammo in the 2.5" shells. The Hornady Critical Defense also seems to do quite well out to 25 or 50 yards even thru a smoothbore.

I don't buy a .410 to be as accurate as a .357/.44 Mag at 100 yards, I buy a .410 to be a shotgun at shotgun distances. That said, I don't know why I'd buy a .410 lever action that can only run 2.5" vs a pump that can run 2.5 or 3 inch shells.

I've asked many times what .410 was best for and it seems the advantages are for small game hunting, survival type guns, combination guns where it's an over/under with a .410 barrel and a rifle barrel of various caliber, the lower recoil for those who can't take even 20 gauge, and/or for extreme light weight outdoors activities.

With the advent of reduced recoil 12 gauge loads, I'm finding 20 gauge's best use is hunting for lower carrying weight. I personally don't see a use for 20 gauge, I don't hunt birds (actually I don't hunt at all sorry to say), but .410 is a great emergency shotgun caliber that offers low weight and recoil, but also good effect for home defense.

trekker73 said:

Im in Australia as well. 410 is a go-to farm gun , also has some ulitility on pigs too. A 410 slug has much more killing power than 38 special in close. it starts out at 600ftlbs+, more than some 357 revolver loads. Obviously that drops off pretty fast and its not as accurate, but up close it will do the job on light game no problems. I personally prefer 3" shells, the 5 x 000 buck factory is no slouch at close range either. From memory they are 38 calibre each.

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Fairly sure OOO buck is .36 (same as the old black powder pistols).
The Federal 3 inch copper plated OOO; .410 5 pellet, 3 inch OOO buck is really hooting out a shotgun,and give a tight pattern, I usually use it for the second barrel, and use a solid in the first. Short range very effective! Have a few packets of Winchester 3 inch OOO to try this year, on the pigs, too.
Picked up a lot of 2.5 inch Winchester SZX OOO 'personal defence' for pistol, quoted at 1300FPS (I assume out of a pistol, given that appears to be who they're targeted at, because that isn't that hot out of a shotgun barrel). Apparently they didn't work well in the Taurus Judge etc, with their lightly rifled barrels (big pattern). I would expect they will perform a lot better in the lever action Marlin .410.
In AUD they were $20 for 25 (5x 5 shot packs)! So yes, I bought a few.
I bought them based on the assumption Winchester know how to load a shotgun shell! I will be VERY disappointed if they don't perform (and I would be surprised Winchester would sell something that wasn't up there with Federal!?).
Tried earlier 2.5 inch Winchester OOO and wasn't real impressed, I expect these will be better.