When everything got locked down this last april my turkey gun was in the camp safe 200 miles away. No turkey ammo for my 20 but I had some lead 6's for my grandfathers 410. Took her out to see if she could throw a decent pattern. Went hunting with 25yds furthest shot but darn did I love carrying it and patterning. Flat out enjoyable.

Got me a Savage 301 to see if we could throw some respectable patterns a bit further. I took 44 shots yesterday. My jaw is still intact and nothings ringing! Would ya look at that, lovely.



I cleaned pretty good before hand and degreased it all but didn’t do any “breaking in” short of sighting in the red dot with a few lead 6’s. I ran a bore snake through it after every 2 shots and every 4 shots I ran a brush through it. Took shots with each combo at 10, 20, 30 & 40.

I used:
Factory Choke - .388
Nitro Choke - .390
Federal TSS 9’s
Nitro T4100 9x10’s

Factory Choke, Federal 9:

30yds – 130 hits




40yds – 101 hits



Factory Choke, Nitro 9x10:

30yds – 235 hits



40yds - 160 hits



Nitro Choke, Federal 9:

30yds – 91 hits



40yds – 91 hits



Clear Winner:

Nitro Choke, Nitro 9x10:

30yds – 276 hits



40yds – 203 hits



40yds 2nd time – 202 hits (it was getting kind of late so I put the orange dot on the money spot to help out, moved it for the pick to lower left)



and at 10 & 20:

I learned to shoot with an over under .410/.22 mag so .410s are always nostalgic for me! They can get the job done as long as you accept the reasonable limitations. Happy trapping! ScottW

I have pheasant hunted with a Mossberg .410, and everyone else was using 12ga..

I just made sure I was a little quicker and on them soon.

Some good and some not so good.

.410s are very under rated IMO. As you have shown, they are pretty capable guns.

Mine did not like #9 shot either. I went with #9.5 shot and got in the 150-160 range at 40 yards. The 9's were in the very low 100's. That was with the factory choke and reloads.

I like your 9x10 patterns. I will have to get some 10's and try that.

The 301 sure is nice carrying when you are moving around alot.

Never owned one....yet

I bought a 301 last summer. Put a 4x on top. Haven’t got my hands on any TSS #9 yet.

2/2 - I'm in love with this little lady

Proof is in the pudding.

I consider myself a serious turkey hunter and pride myself on knowing my equipment...but you just set the bar!! That is an excellent pattern for any gauge!! How much shot in those 9x10’s?
Again, excellent patterns!!!

Is that a copper pot call or ceramic?

If Iowa would get it's head out of its....I'd be chasing longbeards with a .410 and TSS 10s in a similar packet. Looks like you had a good Spring.

Ten years ago nobody would have considered a 410 for turkey. I congratulate you for your challenge and your victory.

I love my 301 410. Both myself and my buddy took good birds with it last year with the Apex TSS. I also picked up a Charles Daly O/U 410 late last summer and it is a blast to shoot sporting clays with.

The Charles Daly was the model 202. I was in it around $450 new from sportsman’s warehouse. Several different vendors got them in stock at the same time late last August so I picked one up. They went out of stock quick and I haven’t seen them in stock since. I was going to pick up a second one for an intern that works for me as a graduation present.

The biggest thing I like about it was screw in chokes it was hard to find a 410 o/u at that price point without fixed chokes.

Copper. It's a good change-up when needed.

The second pic is hilarious. I knew they wanted that field so I stayed quiet on it for 8hrs. Ran out of water and I'm not 16 anymore. Went to resupply and the buggers were out strutting. My last chance of hunting em so I grabbed, literally, ALL of the gimmicky stuff I never use form the back of the truck. The barrel push/pull. The gun fan mount. Did the army crawl, the whole shebang. 2 of them said see-ya and the 3rd. oh man. it was right out of a tv show. Ran to me. Strutting, spitting & drumming while i'm prone in the wide open of the field. It was beautiful.

I'll reserve my comments about the .410...…………. BUT I did get my boy a 20 gauge in the 301 and it does decent with TSS, not quite as good as the wife's CD 20 but good enough for now. I just wanted to add, in case you weren't aware, that SUMTOY makes a mounting plate for the 301 that actually puts the optic down where it is supposed to be. The factory mount is stupid high. I suppose it was for hammer clearance for a normal scope maybe.

Sumtoy also makes some very good chokes for whatever you might want to hunt. Deer, ducks, coyotes, turkeys, etc.

A 410 might be a fair bird-squirrel gun, it's certainly a poor choice as a slug gun for deer. I had a single shot 410. My wife wanted to try deer hunting after completing a firearms safety course. I wondered if the 410 would make a good deer gun for her. I bought some slugs and shot into a good sized box elder tree in my backyard. The slug penetrated about a half inch. Part of it was sticking out of the tree. I bought her a 6MM Remington.

Shotgun slug has good momentum and will pass right thru the boiler on a deer sized animal.
Range is limited on shotguns when shooting slugs moreso with the smaller guages.

Grandmother shot a pile of deer with a old single shot .410 in her later years she went to a scoped 30-30. Thicker woods no real long shots taken.

Congrats on your bird!

You did way more testing than many would. I had the same results with my reloads with the factory choke as you did with the fed #9 shot. I got in the 150 - 160 range with eh 9.5 shot. I tried #10 shot but I did not count them. They may have been better, they just did not look that much better so I did not count them. You have a pretty darn good load/choke combo there.

On a side note, this tss stuff has got me shooting the small bores for turkey. I used to like shooting my 835 with 3.5" longbeards, now I like shooting the sub gauges!.

Those 835s with 3.5 shells kick like a mule.

About the 410 for deer thing. I would not recommend it unless you can restrict your shots to 40 yards (might be a stretching it here) or less and only take broad side shots that you know your shot will land in the lungs. Preferable in the 30 yards or less. The slug is only 110ish grains and the velocity is around 1200fps. Kinda like a 357 without the expanding bullet.

It can be done, there are just better options.

You must have some mild mannered or weak mules. Lol.

Disclaimer: I have never been kicked my a mule.

Great job! Love the story!

An ol buddy of mine told me he took his first Moose with a .410 slug. He was around 10 years old and hunting with his dad. I asked if his dad had a back up gun, just in case. He said “no, the .410 was dads. It was all dad carried in the fall, left pocket shot for Grouse, right pocket slugs for Moose.”

I shot my second deer ever with a .410. Still own and love that gun.

Cool post

Nice writeup...Love my .410"s. as I stated many months ago killed all small game easily with one shot as a kid. Bought my son one also.

my son killed a turkey at 40 yds last spring with one of these 410 with Ninja TSS ammo 9 shot with.a .390 Indian creek choke tube

Dropped it right there. Amazing little guns and a joy t carry all day long

https://apexmunition.com/shop/turkey-tss/turkey-ninja/

https://indiancreekss.com/product/410-turkey-choke-tubes/

love me my savage 301 great for grouse hunting in thick brush.

I mowed lawns ,age 12, and saved enough money for what I had wanted for about 3 years. JC Higgins bolt action.410. Paid about $35 NEW. Yeah I’m old. Still have it and it’s taken down a lot of partridge and squirrels.

i just looked up that gun and wow what a classic!

I carried my dads single shot Stevens 410 as a kid and loved it. Always wanted a pump or over/under .