
A beautiful example of the little gun. 
RE IIM ereaaIRrc am m0: 
The Gun 
Itself 
and Its 
Ammunition 
Possibilities of the .410 Bore Shotgun 
S we have seen, the little .410 
A gives splendid pattern results, 
and we know of several men in 
California who have used this gun 
successfully in quail shooting over 
dogs. 
Such shooting as recorded in this 
treatise, however, cannot be obtained 
with just any .410. Every good shot- 
gun of any gauge must be bored true 
and be properly chambered and choked 
to give good results. If a gun is so 
bored it will shoot all standard car- 
tridges reasonably well and will shoot 
splendidly those to which it is adapted. 
A 12-gauge that shoots even so poorly 
as 40 per cent. is still a good killing 
field gun if the pellets are distributed 
well, but the smaller the bore the more 
necessary it is that the cartridge and 
gun give the highest per cent. patterns 
possible, to insure successful field work. 
To enable the reader to more intelli- 
gently choose his gun and ammunition, 
is the reason for giving the shooting of 
three makes of guns and four well- 
known factory loaded cartridges. 
NDEAVORING to find out what 
was the trouble with the average 
.410, and why they do not shoot well, 
we find that the chamber, cone, bore, 
and choke of every make is different. 
Thus, in fifteen guns tested, the varia- 
tion in bore was found to be from .405 
to .426. The cone length varied from 
one to six-tenths of an inch, and other 
variations too numerous to go into here 
‘occurred. No wonder most of the guns 
shoot poorly. 
The ocular manifestations of the poor 
shooting of these badly bored guns is 
-exampled, as follows: 
By JAMES VANCE, M.D. 
Western 2%-in. factory loaded car- 
tridge containing 162 No. 8 chilled 
pellets. 
Distance—35 yards from the muzzle 
of the gun. All patterns counted. 
20-in. circle Shot spread 
PD Oe A 45 in 
ya de 2 8 A~ er 36 in 
SO Pee ale es wives 30 in 
OU eee 40.00 OOO oes 36 in 
G4... Pare elects oe eres .36 in 
Sara ae eoteittete cette, « .30 in. 
BOSS EW o victeite ele c's fee. s 30. in 
6OL.2aor: Pease tee ss OO. 
541 
HIS series of eight shots, fired from 
a supposedly full-choke gun, shows 
an average of 67.6 pellets, or 41.7 per 
cent. to the 20-in. circle at 30 yards. 
This is over 30 per cent. poorer average 
than the other guns give with this same 
load and under the same conditions. 
Further, it will be noted that the pat- 
tern spread is from 30 in. to 45 in., 
which means a miserable game-crip- 
pling gun. It was from the shooting 
of such guns as this that the impres- 
sion was gained that the small gauges 
necessarily shoot wider patterns than 
the larger bores. There is no excuse 
for such miserably bored guns, except 
cheapness, and the makers had better 
increase the price to allow for the in- 
creased cost of good boring, for if they 
would turn out good shooting weapons 
the demand for this little gun would be 
enormous. 
es is likely that these poor guns are 
mainly the result of carelessness, 
because one of the great loading com- 
panies wrote us that they pattern their 
.410 cartridges in a 30-in. circle at 25 
yards. Now it is obviously ridiculous 
to spread a little dab of shot like %-oz. 
over a 30-in. circle, yet it is quite likely 
the gun-makers have just such a pat- 
tern in mind when boring their guns. 
VBA we need to popularize this 
little gun is a good double barrel 
of real .410-bore dimensions by a good 
maker, to be sold at a moderate price. 
If one of our best makers would put 
out such a gun, to weigh in the neigh- 
borhood of five pounds or a little less, 
and sell around $75.00, we sincerely 
believe that within two years’ time it 
would outsell any gun they have on the 
market to-day. The gun is as fascinat- 
ing to shoot as the .22 rifle, and has 
cheap ammunition and no recoil, so 
that no “game” from tin cans to Eng- 
lish sparrows is too trivial for its use; 
yet it is efficient for three out of four 
shotgun shots that are taken during 
the year. It is a splendid little practice 
gun and will improve anybody’s shoot- 
ing just as the .22 rifle will. 
UR ammunition for the .410 is 
good, as we have seen, but there 
is plenty of room for improvement in 
both ammunition and guns. For the 
best ballistic results with the shotgun, 
we should have only one length car- 
tridge for each gauge, with just one 
size of shot and one powder charge. 
With this fixed load, the shotgun borer 
could make guns that would give the 
highest and most uniform results, but 
of course the wide range of usefulness 
of the shotgun requires all sizes of 
pellets and varying charges of powder. 
529 
