WaterfowlForum.Net

Going to be a grandfather this Sept. and am really excited about it. With that in mind does anybody start their kid/grandkids off with a 410 shotgun anymore or is that old school thinking. I was looking at a H&R Topper to get the kid. I didn't learn on a 410 but I know a lot of guys who did.

Don, know your heart's in the right place, and my view is colored by nearly losing my noggin to a crack-barrel .410, but if anything could break me over to the anti gun side, it's short little shotguns in kids' hands. Might as well hand them pistols, except many grownups somehow derive the notion that they're safer from them being single shots without due consideration the bigger issue of barrel control. It's easy, easy, easy for kids to unintentionally wave little crack-barrels around - and only takes one loose round to create a tragedy.

That, and the .410 is an expert's gun. I've taken far, far too many kids wielding them afield and have yet to see one anything but discouraged by it - if they mustered the courage to set them off. Wouldn't care, or believe it, if Davy Crockett and Abe Lincoln claimed fond memories of their pea-shooters before reaching an age where they could have handled more gun much more effectively. Same goes for the crack-barrel 20s or larger that make kids close their eyes before pulling the trigger.

Were it one of my grandkids, I'd want to do him or her the kindness of a youth model 20 that will more safely serve them better and longer, preferably one of the recoil reducing gas semi-autos. Nice reliable (Turkish built) ones can be had from Tristar or Weatherby's SA series for less than you might think. (Mossberg offers another youth model for less, but I've no experience with them.)

My grandfather did the exact same thing. That shotgun is still very special to me. The gun he bought was an 870 pump. Nice gun, not a short barrel kid gun, but and this is the important part if you do that.

Rick wrote:That, and the .410 is an expert's gun. I've taken far, far too many kids wielding them afield and have yet to see one anything but discouraged by it

To learn to shoot targets, it was great. However, hunting it was very frustrating.

This is what I think of most when I think of the .410. We would go to my grandparents most Sundays. There were 2 pigeons that lived in the barn. I was about 10. I'd take the .410 walk up to the barn with my Dad. He'd go in the barn and chase them out and I'd shoot and miss. Sunday after Sunday. One Sunday my grandfather says take the 16. He had a 16 side by side. We walk up to the barn like every Sunday. The pigeons instead of coming out the end they normally do went out the far side. Circled down around the pasture came up over the roof of the barn where I was standing. Bang, one pigeon folds up. And then the true miracle. I swing through the 2nd pigeon, bang, holy crap a double

And then there were no more pigeons and my Sunday fun was over

A great gun to start a kid shooting shotgun and I hope it is as special to your grandkid as the .410 was to me. However, before he starts hunting transition him to something better.

Sort of like finally tripping up the local birds that have always ignored your best efforts and landed "just over there," and finding how much you miss that little duel when its over.

20 gauge 870/youth ?

Probably ought to get a 20. Really like the Remington lightweight special field version if it's still made. English stock all cut down.
Mine is worn out. Retired.

Mike, that was once a dream gun of mine, but watching too many kids' Remington 1100 20s screw up over the years since has made me glad it stayed a dream. 'Course you can get a lemon most anything, but 1100s have seemed either indestructible or busted right out of the box, with the 20s leaning disproportionately toward the later.

Though it won't absorb as much recoil, I'd have a whole lot more faith in the 870. Or one of the less expensive SAs I mentioned because of better experience with them. ('Course there aren't near as many of those out there to see break down as 1100s.)