Letters

Reactions to reactions on the 67 gauge

    We have never received more correspondence regarding a feature article and follow-up letter than we did with Silvio Calabi’s “The 67 Gauge” (Sept/Oct) and Will Oman’s “Fie on the .410” (Letters, Jan/Feb). Following is a sample of readers’ responses to those two pieces.

    I’ve been the recipient of many guns/shooting magazines in the course of my lifetime, and I never have felt compelled to write until I read the letter from Mr. Oman; it really frosted my hat. Before I give my less-than-favorable retort to his statement regarding .410 hunters being “macho slobs” who don’t care about animals, let me say that Mr. Oman is partially correct. For the record, I’m one of those slobs, and having said that, I don’t think the .410 has a place in goose or duck blinds or in turkey hunting unless a gobbler is cuddled up next to you taking a snooze. I think that in a club with released pheasants or quail when you’re hunting over a dog, it’s perfectly fine if your marksmanship allows it. I’ve shot plenty of birds, and most of them have dropped where I’ve shot them.
    As I’m sure Mr. Oman is aware, the killing power of pellets fired from a .410 are just as lethal as those fired from larger gauges, the only difference being the number of pellets. If the litmus test for the proper gauge were no birds flying away with dangling legs, all gauges would be banned.
Mr. Oman making a blanket statement like he did tells me only one thing: He can’t hit the broad side of a barn with this smaller gauge. But the good news is that for people like him, the manufacturers see fit to make the 8, 10 and 12 gauge. In the words of the famous American Dirty Harry: “A man must know his limitations.”
    Joe Vignocchi
    Highwood, Illinois

“Macho slob?”
    I hunted wild pheasants in Kansas opening weekend of 2007. I limited out the first two days (four birds each day) using my Browning Superposed .410 with 26-1/2" barrels and Skeet chokes. I did not lose any birds. I missed two, double-tapped two and clean-killed six. The third day I used a 28-gauge with 1-oz loads and did not do as well, losing three birds, although I did limit out. It was very windy.
Anyone who has ever hunted wild birds has lost birds to broken wings and dangling legs no matter what gauge they have used. When hunting with my .410, I limit my shots to less than 35 yards.
    Oh, I also wear a tie when hunting with small gauges.
    Gary Tafoya
    Pueblo, Colorado

    As a reply to Mr. Will Oman’s letter opposing Silvio Calabi’s thoughts on hunting with the .410, I wanted to say that I have enjoyed shooting with Mr. Calabi on several occasions, and if anyone can shoot a .410 effectively, it is Silvio. He is a fine shot and a fine gentleman in the field and on the range. I have admired his skills for several years. Remember that it is the shot reaching the game that counts, not the amount put into the air. Of course starting with more never hurts.
    Watch someone shoot; if birds fall with regularity, he or she qualifies as a fine shot. If birds do not, he might be a macho slob no matter the bore size. Then again, he could be just someone who needs more practice and possibly a lesson or two.
    Pete Kennedy
    Marfa, Texas

    Enough already with this disrespect for people who hunt with the .410. Over the years I’ve heard it from Gene Hill and Michael McIntosh that the .410 has no place in hunting. Don’t get me wrong. In my humble opinion, Hill and McIntosh are in the top 10 all-time writers. Now this gentleman (and I use the term with a lot of reservation) from Vero Beach has the unmitigated gall to call us “macho slobs.” Maybe his father gave him a single-shot hammergun when he was a kid and he never learned to shoot it well.
    I shoot skeet (average 20/round) and hunt all of the upland birds in the US. One has to be a little more specific with the .410, but I maintain that I wound fewer birds than I would with a 12 or 20, mainly because a miss is usually a clean miss. When some lightweight says he knows it all about shooting the .410, come with me to the dove field and we’ll see who hits and who wounds birds. I’m 71, arthritic and make no apologies to anyone for shooting the .410. Fie on Will Oman!
    Charlie Johnson
    Rotonda West, Florida

    For a reiteration of Michael McIntosh’s opinion of the .410, see Shooting, page 28.

    Many thanks for the recent attention SSM has been giving the .410 and the shotguns chambered for it. I have been shooting and loading the .410 (about 8,000 per year) for a number of years, so you can imagine how pleased I was to see Silvio Calabi’s story in September/October followed by Vic Venters’ feature on the new Purdey .410 in January/February. I’m beginning to think we .410 guys are finally getting some respect.
    For years I have been reading writers describe the .410 as inadequate for anything outside of the skeet field, and I just have to wonder what types of loads they are shooting as well as the constriction of the chokes. If the answer is soft shot with open chokes, I would agree that the .410 is barely adequate for even skeet, especially if there is any kind of decent wind. However, using hard shot with 6-percent antimony, such as Remington STS shot, and driving it at about 1,300 fps through tighter chokes not only will reduce clays to smoke, it also will provide excellent and, most importantly, consistent results on quail out to 30 yards. And how many times do we encounter shots beyond that when hunting over dogs?
    Putting aside the idiosyncrasies associated with loading the .410, there aren’t many shooting experiences more pleasant or rewarding than bringing a quail or a dove to bag with the cartridge. Although I haven’t been hunting as much the last couple of years since my friend Jerry had to put down his dog Bandit, I have both of them to thank for many memorable and successful quail hunts when we were shooting the little bore.
And, no, I don’t see myself ordering a new Purdey .410 anytime soon, but I certainly enjoy the heck out of my Brownings!
    Mike Valaris
    Via e-mail

    I don’t respond to letters in magazines very often, but I felt I had to take the time to rebuke Mr. Will Oman. I grew up in east-central South Dakota in a bird hunter’s paradise called the Prairie Pothole Region. My Dad and relatives were avid duck and pheasant hunters, and when I was old enough, I began hunting with them carrying a single-shot .410. When I was old enough to hunt by myself, I still only had the .410. I would walk from town and happily shoot my limit of wild pheasants, doves, cottontails and big greenhead mallards with a gun that neither I nor the game knew was inadequate for the job. I was not showing off or being macho; I was having the time of my life with the only tool I had. To this day I am a diehard side-by-side shooter, and in some circles I suppose that makes me an “élitist snob.” To Mr. Oman I would say: It’s not the size of the payload; it’s knowing where to put it that counts.
    Doug Brown
    Newcastle, Wyoming

Hello to the .410?
    I would like to see you take the .410 to South Dakota on a pheasant hunt using No. 6s and 4s! Hhhaaaaaaaaaaa!
Even if you did and could get by all the laughs and jokes, you wouldn’t get “zippppp” pheasants, but you might wound a few! And yah, I know you know a guy who did and he got his limit . . . . Right! . . . Hhhhhaaaaaaa, don’t you wish!
    I hunted rough [sic] grouse most of my childhood with a single-shot Iver-Johnson .410 and was lucky to get a few. When I got a 20-gauge, I started to get more!
    I could be persuaded to buy a nice little light 28-gauge, but I have a little 2" English 12-gauge that is as light as any .410 or 28-gauge and has a much better pattern and a much shorter shotstring . . . . You did not mention how long a .410 shotstring is . . . !
    David Seigneur
    Via e-mail

    You know where to send the letters . . . .

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