Data point for current price of .410 ammo

Frulk

Frulk

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The last time I walked into a Sportsmans Warehouse 3-4 months back they had no 20 or .410 gauge ammo AT ALL. Zilch, Nada...ZIP!

Stopped by Cal Ranch today after walking the dogs at the local city park. Had to pick up some sandpaper to do some touch up on walls as we're winding down our basement finishing project.

Found the sandpaper and being Cal Rach...basically a toy store for grown men I worked my way slowly towards the gun counter stopping on the way to price tire Slime for the atv's, used US Army ammo cans of all sizes, BBQ accouterments, reloading gear and finally the ammo section.

Ammo of all types for all shotgun gauges was plentiful and there were no limits.

Bought a box of 25 Federal game load .410 2 2/2 8 shot shells with max dram, 1300 FPS at the muzzle for $9.99. Since I only have one .410 (a 1st year issue Win 9410) I prefer to shot slugs through it but thought the price was reasonable.

Also picked up a box of 25 20 gauge Win Super X 2 3/4 1220 FPS 1 oz 5 shot for late season grouse at $16.95

And one box of 25 Federal 2 and 3/4 20-gauge game load 2 1/2 dram 1210 FPS for $9.99

Was pretty happy going from nothing 3-4 months ago to having lots to choose from today at 'somewhat' elevated prices. I'll take what I can get these days...now hoping prices come down a little over the next few months...yeah, right!
 
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Mars5l said:
$10 a box for .410 I would have bought a case. Cheapest I've gotten it for $15 a box and some places are $25-35 a box.
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I would have bought a case at $10 per box if they are good hulls for reloading. Even with current prices I can still reload my own 3" 410 shells cheaper than $10 per box.

Frulk said:
Bought a box of 25 Federal game load .410 2 3/4 8 shot shells with max dram, 1300 FPS at the muzzle for $9.99. Since I only have one .410 (a 1st year issue Win 9410) I prefer to shot slugs through it but thought the price was reasonable.
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I have to ask, where those shells 2 1/2" shells or 3" shells? No one makes a 2 3/4" 410 shell.

Now if that price was for the Federal 3" shells, I definitely would have bough a case at $10 pr box. I don't shoot skeet anymore so I have no need for 2 1/2" shells.
 
A quick follow up: I bought that ammo Thursday. Got a buddy who purchased a 20 gauge Henry Axe (and has a .410 Mossberg Shockwave for the wife) and after talking with him about the ammo he decided he wanted to buy some. So we hopped in his Jeep and drove down to the local Cal Ranch yesterday.

Ammo price had changed for the .410 2 and 1/2 Federal 8 shot. Now was 15 or $16.99 a box.

Speaking with the retiree who works there part time (guess that doesn’t really make him retired) he said he didn’t know what was up because he hadn’t worked the past week. Stated they could have been on sale although I didn’t see anything stuck to the shelf saying they were.

At any rate my buddy picked up a couple of boxes and I picked up one and another box of the Super X 20 gauge 5 shot and one box of Fed 20 gauge 7.5 shot game loads. Both whose price had not changed from above.

While milling around the ammo section I noticed SAR USA (not familiar with the brand) 12 gauge Buck 00, 2 and 3/4, 9 pellets per round at $12.99 per box of 10. Thought that was reasonable and picked up 3 boxes of those.
 
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I definitely want some 2 3/4" 410 shells since no one makes 410 shells in that length. 410 shells are either 2 1/2" or 3". Now remember that all shotgun shells are measured uncrimped/fired. They will be shorter once they are crimped.
 
I have not used any Aquila 410 buckshot loads so can't say how good they are. I will give some advice on buckshot pellet size. In all of my testing, 00 buckshot performs best in a full choke barrel while 000 buckshot performs best out of a cylinder bore barrel. I tested 2 1/2" and 3" 410 buckshot loads with 00 and 000 buckshot in my Mossberg 500, Mossberg Shockwave and my Turkish O/U.

The Mossberg was shot with the 24" full choke barrel and 18.5" cylinder bore barrel, the Shockwave has a 14" cylinder Boer barrel, and the chokes on the O/U are full and modified. 00 Buck patterned better out of the full chokes while 000 Buck patterned better out of cylinder bore chokes. It was a toss up between both out of the modified choke.
 
Well I don't feel so bad for a little over a $1 a round, but really don't have many places to shoot it. Most ranges don't allow shotguns and the sporting clay range doesn't allow anything other than target rounds

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Mars5l said:
Well I don't feel so bad for a little over a $1 a round, but really don't have many places to shoot it. Most ranges don't allow shotguns and the sporting clay range doesn't allow anything other than target rounds

View attachment 1147235
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Those are the exact rounds that you should NEVER shoot out of a full choke barrel!!!!!!

And to be honest they don't have very good accuracy out of a cylinder bore barrel or out of the Taurus Judge.
 
Riomouse911 said:
I have one .410, a Rem 1100. I rarely shoot it anymore, as I am afraid I will never find fodder I can afford to feed it again. :(

Stay safe.
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Ya, I just passed on a gorgeous vintage .410 Winchester pump for about 1/2 market value because it was a full choke and cant eat modern steel birdshot or slugs. .410 buck availability is too sketchy to count on. :(:(:(
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Ya, I just passed on a gorgeous vintage .410 Winchester pump for about 1/2 market value because it was a full choke and cant eat modern steel birdshot or slugs. .410 buck availability is too sketchy to count on. :(:(:(
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A full choke 410 barrel will shoot lead slugs just fine without any issues. It is only copper bullets such as found in the Hornady Critical Defense Triple Defense rounds that are unsafe for a full choke 410 barrel.

And as far as the availability of buckshot loads,I reload my own so don't have to worry about availability.
 
I have noticed that .410 has disappeared from store shelves for long times and supply has been spotty.
I have been maintaining a GI ammo box size cache of .410 ammo for the past 20 odd years.
I'm not a high volume user of .410 and never allowed my cache to get so low I was desperate for ammo.
Personally I have bought only when prices were reasonable, such as last year when .410 Federal 2.5 inch #7.5 appeared in plenty at WalMart ~$8 a box and I bought two boxes. Next week the shelf was empty.
 
12Bravo20 "A full choke 410 barrel will shoot lead slugs just fine without any issues."

With a normal full choke, your experience was good.
I fired slugs through a .410 full choke with a very pronounced "wad stripper" or "wad stop" ring in the choke. My experience was bad.
 
My Henry .410 has interchangeable chokes so I'm good. Gun came with a full choke installed, have a modified for it as well. About to order a cylinder sometime soon. May see what Bass Pro has in stock though
 
Most of those prices, taking inflation into account, are just about what I was paying back in the early 1970s. If I were still working, I wouldn't give it a second thought if I wanted some shells, even at $1 per shell.
 
I didn't have much time to hunt or shoot recreationally while in the Army but got quite the shock once I got out and went to buy some 410 shells. I went right away to Grafs and bought a MEC 600Jr press and started reloading my own 410 shells. That was in 1996.

It is nice living 20 miles from Graf's and 55 miles from Midway USA.
 
Years back Cabela's had Herter's .410 on sale, 2.5" 3 pellet 000 for around $8/25, so I bought about 15 boxes of that. It didn't shoot well from the Judge, the Federal 4 pellet that is made for .410 handguns did a lot better (and recoiled a lot more, ouch!) so I put that Herter's in the closet. Fast forward to present day and the Chiappa Double Badger in .22 Mag/.410 was available at a fair price once inflation was factored in and I bought it, my first .410 shotgun. Grabbed a few shells of the Herter's and laughed after I felt no recoil but saw the steel plate get knocked over with authority.

Yeah, I need to get into reloading for the .410, this stuff is too much fun not to shoot.

I've been conflicted on whether I need a press or not, I'm sure my Lee powder measures can throw a consistent charge, a scoop for shot would probably less problematic with the small necks on the hulls, and for buck pellets I'd just drop them in 3 or 5 at a time and roll crimp the top. All that would leave is I'd need something to resize the brass and decapping and priming, maybe a star crimp tool for the birdshot loads.

No interest in slugs, it's a combination gun after all and .22 Mag has a much higher BC.
 
The Remington .410 Foster-style slug ammo used to say they were safe in any choke right on the package. I guess they didn't take specialty chokes like Mr. Brown's into consideration. Either that or they assumed those kinds of chokes would come with their own warnings about slug use...

What is the typical .410 full choke I.D.? Factory .410 buckshot loads seem to all use 000 Buck. I just loaded a bunch with 0000 Buck-- .375".
 
Here are what standard 410 chokes should be.

Full - 0.398"
Modified - 0.402"
Improved cylinder - 0.404"
Cylinder - 0.405"

I have found that 00 buckshot does better for me out of full choke while 000 buckshot does better out of cylinder bore.
 
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