410 Derringer???

[lbmii]

Just curious about those oversized derringers. I have come close to getting one on several occasions. Almost bought one in 44 special. It seemed to be milled from a big chunk of stainless steel. I had a funny feeling that it might break my wrist.

Is there anyone out there that has fired one of those 45 Colt/410 shotgun derringers? What sort of spread of shot is there? What sort of muzzle report? Recoil? Anyone measure the velocity? Can you hit the side of a barn with it when loaded with 45 colt? Did you break your wrist?

Someone said they knew someone who knew someone who fired one and it flew out of their hand and ended up about ten feet behind them and they never fired it again.

 

[pax]

lbmii,

I've shot one before. My buddy bought one on a Monday morning, and sold it the following Monday. In between, we fired it a few times.

It doesn't break your wrist. (At least, mine is still functional.)

We were worried about that, too, so we picked up some cowboy-action superlight loads for it.

That was a mistake. Although it wouldn't have been, if I hadn't been an idiot.

At the time, we didn't have any really good places to shoot. We'd just gone across the street and were shooting up against the side of a hill. Hadn't carried over the target stands; instead, we'd stapled a target onto the sawed-off end of a felled tree that looked like it was rotten.

It wasn't rotten enough.

My buddy was afraid to fire the first shot. He said, "It's gonna hurt me, I know it is."

I was a good, supportive friend and told him what a wuss he was being, very amusingly and in some detail (hey, what else are buddies for?). So he fired it into the dirt berm. No broken wrist.

"See?" I said, "It's not gonna hurt you. Aren't you gonna fire it at the target?"

He whined a little bit more, and I ragged on him a little bit more, then he fired it at the target. Immediately thereafter, he slapped one hand to his forehead above his safety glasses and yelled, "I TOLD you it was gonna hurt me!"

Honestly, I thought at first he was just giving me grief after I'd ragged all over him for being such a wuss. But the blood dripping out between his fingers was kind of convincing.

If you do get one, don't fire light loads with it at solid wood. Bounce-backs can be ungood.

The buddy was fine, by the way. He had a nasty lump in his forehead and a cool scar. He was really ticked we never found the bullet, though.

pax

 

[HadEmAll]

I posted this on another site in response to a very similar question.......

I had an American Derringer .45LC/.410 (bought it based on a movie I saw where Charles Bronson saved the day with one) and here's my observations.

A beautifully crafted chunk of stainless steel.
However............
255 grn. .45's keyholed at 10 feet and rarely hit within 2 feet of each other.
I thought about using it as a snake gun, but patterned it, and it had holes in the pattern at 10 feet a decent sized rattler could crawl through without being touched.
.410 slugs were reasonably accurate, (within a foot of each other at 10 feet). A little expensive, but I thought I had something here until one day I did the math. 1/5 of an ounce sounds impressive, however it equals 7000/16/5 = 87.5 grains. Not very impressive sounding now, right? I never could chronograph it for obvious reasons, but estimate it would have been clocking around 900 fps. So in essence, I had a two-shot pistol with ballistics somewhere around a .380. The time between shots is measured in seconds, not milliseconds. And the first shot wasn't all that quick to get off, due to thumbcocking. All in all, an interesting experience that I'm glad I had, but am also glad is behind me. Sure was pretty though.

 

[hoji]

I too have the American Derringer 45colt./.410 and I love it. In Texas you have to have your hand gun completely concealed or you are in violation of the law.{CHL holders} I keep it loaded with Winchester silvertips and it is reasonably accurate to about 7 yards. I keep a few rounds of 000 buckshot in my pocket when carrying this gun because I do not trust the JBT's to understand the law and would hate to spend a couple of thousand dollars to prove that my derringer is not a short barrled shotgun. If you need a handgun to defend yourself,the encounter is probably going to be less than 3 feet away so accuracy will not be that big a factor.

 

[halvey]

Has anyone tried the Thunder 5 .410 revolver?

Someone told me it looks to be roughly made but functional.

 

[Joe Demko]

A good friend has one of the cheapies made by (I think) Cobray. .410 slugs, buckshot, and game loads (don't remember the shot size) were all uninspiring. Didn't have access to a chronograph, but the damage to the targets was very much like I have seen from a Wrist Rocket. Bounce backs are a real possibility.

Save your money or buy a .410 double and make a sawed-off from it. Be sure to do the AOW paperwork through the BATFE first.

 

[halvey]

Unfortunately, I've heard the same things over the years. But for some reason, I keep asking, well, because the IDEA of .410 pocket gun sounds real cool.

Here's my last ray of hope though. BFR sells a .410/.45 Colt revolver with, I think 8" barrel. Any word on what kind of pattern that throws? Or how far can it be cut down to throw a nice pattern? A 5.5" sounds appealing. By the way, it comes with a modified choke tube. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a full choke for such a short barrel?

 

[lbmii]

The thing is that these large derringers are just that; large. The ones I have seen are really quite thick and heavy. Also the powder in a 410 shotshell is not loaded with a very short barrel length in mind.

I considered the 410 derringer, the 22 mag Black Widow mini revolver, and the Kel Tec 380 for concealed carry. I ended up choosing the Kel Tec 380 and am happy with my choice.

I would like to try one of those 410 derringers out just for the novelty.

 

[GunGeek]

Fired a .44 Magnum derringer twice, sorta an initiation ritual at the gun range I worked at.... I have the same feeling on it I do with my times in the marines:

"Glad I did it.... but you couldn't pay me enough to do it again!"

They told me I had to fire 2 rounds for it (2 barrels) ever since that my new slogan is "I'll try anything twice"

 

[eastwood44mag]

I'm thinking of buying one with the 11 inch barrels, since I could get it for less than the cost of the tax stamp to make a SBS.

Would it be worth it? I don't expect it to be a great shooter, but 11" ought to be enough barrel to kill snakes, etc., right?

 

[Jamie C.]

BFR sells a .410/.45 Colt revolver with, I think 8" barrel. Any word on what kind of pattern that throws? Or how far can it be cut down to throw a nice pattern?

No rifled barrel is going to throw a good pattern with shot.

It doesn't matter how long the barrel is. 2 inches or 2 feet, the rifling is still going to spin the shot charge and cause it to open up to "useless" within a few feet.


J.C.