Though this shooting is astounding, 
equally good shooting has been done 
with the 410 by other men at other 
places in the United States, and the 
shooting has been published, but the 
writer has not at hand the publications 
and so cannot refer the reader to them. 


| bead 
No. 8 chilled, 30 yds., 20” circle. 
Remington 2%” cartridge. Full choke barrel. 
Number of pellets in 20” circle, 118, or 74%. 
\This pattern 3 pellets more than 

javerage ecveth, Mia Bede how “blue rocks” 
can be broken beyond 30 yards if hit center. 
| 
| In September, 1924, the writer took 
the 410 to the trap, and under the same 
conditions as above was able to break 
only 9 x 25 and 11 x 25 targets. Others 
then tried the gun with indifferent suc- 
sess, but Mr. W. F. Cobb, the local Rem- 
ington representative, and a very good 
trap shot, took the little gun and broke 
18 x 18, which exhausted the available 
supply of cartridges. 
_ Now the question arises, how is it 
possible for so small a gun and so small 
a shot charge to break around 70% of 
vargets under regulation conditions and 
sixteen yards rise? The targets were 

No. 6 chilled, 35 yds., 18"-24" circles. 
' U.S. 2” brass cartridge. 
ets in 18” circle, 51, or 62%; 24” circle, 59 
dellets, or 72%. 
_ Remember a mallard is 24” long from tip 
Number of pel- 
pe Dill to tip of tail. Imagine said mallard 
placed anywhere across the 18” killing circle 
‘nd see how much chance you think he would 
lave to get away. 
| 
generally broken well—into many pieces 
—hbut they were never powdered as the 
12 gauge does when hit center. Now it 
was taught for years that the narrower 
the gauge gun, the greater the number 
of deformed and ineffective pellets, and 
the wider the spread of the shot charge. 
WE feel that it has been proved that 
the narrower the bore, the nar- 
rower the shot pattern; of which more 
will be said presently, and we believe 
that these narrow bores do not deform 
a greater percentage of pellets than the © 
wider bores, though we have no way as 
yet to prove this belief. But we have 
the following to disprove the greater 
mutilation of pellets by the small bores. 
It has been estimated on good authority 
that the passage of the shot charge 
through the bore of a 12 gauge ren- 
ders 50% of the 12 gauge charge -inef- 
fective, through mutilation of the pel- 
lets, and that with the smaller gauges 
this pellet mutilation is greater. Judg- 
ing from this increasing scale of muti- 
lation by the small bores, the 410 bore 
would mutilate 75% of its pellets and 
render them ineffective. If this were 
true, the 410 would deliver only about 
40 effective pellets in its patterns. With 
such patterns it would obviously be im- 
possible for this gauge to hit, much less 
kill, anything even to the short range of 
20 yards, and such shooting as recorded 
above would be impossible. 
It is difficult to understand how 158 
pellets, even if all were delivered with- 
out deflection, could break something 
like 70 to 80% of targets at a distance 
of 33-35 yards, as recorded above; yet, 
as a matter of fact, the load and, gun 
will give these results under favorable 
conditions when pointed correctly. 
Later, we shall show that the field work 
of the gun is in exact accord with this 
very limited trap shooting experience. 
pe eae ahi of pellets is also prob- 
ably less with the small gauges than 
with the larger gauges, and we shall en- 
deavor to get the Du Pont Company to 
test this out for us for later report. 
Theoretically the stringing of the shot 
charge should be greater,’ but actual 
shooting experience seems to indicate 
that there is less stringing. 
Range and Killing Cirles of the 
410 Bore 
The range of a shotgun is determined 
by the pattern density of a pellet suf- 
ficiently large, and driven at high 
enough velocity to kill dead the game 
hunted. 
The velocity of the 410 bore is as 
great as the best 12 gauge loads. The 
Du Pont Company gives the average ve- 
locity of 9.4 grs. of Du Pont oval and 

153 grs. (practically % oz.) of No. 4 
chilled, as 1026 feet over a 40 yard 
range, and for No. 7 chilled under the 
same conditions, 939 feet. So it is seen 
that 410 bore velocity is excellent, and 
all that is necessary to kill dead, is a 
large enough pellet with sufficient pat- 

No. 8 chilled, 20 yds., 10”-12"-14"-20'' 
circles. 
Western 2%” cartridge. Full choke barrel. 
Number of pellets in 10” circle is 131. There 
are only 3 pellets outside the 20” circle. The 
“killing circle’ is seen to be 10”, the “pat- 
tern” is 14”, and the “fringe’ is from 14” 
£0720", 
tern density to hit well the game hunted. 
For small game shooting, a gun and 
load should show average patterns of 
around 150 pellets within the 24” circle 
at 40 yards to be a first-class killing 
combination at that range. In even 
numbers, a 24” circle has an area of 
452 square inches, so that patterns of 
150 pellets to this sized circle equals 
one pellet to three square inches. Since 
pellets fired from a gun lose their in- 
itial (muzzle) velocity very rapidly, it 
is evident that a pattern at thirty yards, 
on account of higher velocity of pellets, 
. . eal 
ye 
SC ate sot 
we 


tue ee 
* 
ine 
No. 8 chilled, 25 yds., 13”-16"-20" circles. 
Western 214” cartridge. The “killing circle” 
is seen to be 13”, the “pattern’’ 16”, and the 
‘fringe’ is the area outside the 16” circle. 
The fullest choke 12 gauge gives a killing 
circle of more than double the one shown 
here, and the “fringe’’ is four times as apt to 
cripple as the 410. It is also four times as 
apt to kill, but the crippling fringe is the 
bane of all shotgun patterns, and the larger 
the gauge, the worse the fringe cripples. 

27 
