The .410 originated in the 19th century, when someone started experimenting shooting shot charges in the .44/40 Winchester case. (Probably exhibition shooters like Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley!) They eventually lengthened the .44/40 case to hold more shot, and then started making regular paper shotgun shells for it, at which time it became a "shotgun shell". The actual smoothbore .410 shotguns followed after the origin of the cartridge, although some of the exhibition shooters used 1873 Winchester rifles with smooth bores made especially for shooting at glass balls inside the arena.

The older, larger bore shotshell sizes originated earlier, when the "gauge" meaurement, or bore size terminology, was still in use before most gun bore diameters began being described in "calibers" or fractions of an inch or in millimeters. "Gauge" sizes are expressed in terms of "the number of pure lead round balls the size of the bore of the gun that it takes to weight a pound". Ie., a 16-bore (gauge) uses 1-oz balls, 16 of which weigh a pound. A 20-gauge uses balls that weigh 1/20th of a pound, etc. etc. Sir Samuel Baker's 2-ga. rifle "Baby" (Jinnah Al-Mutfa, "Son of a Cannon") used 1/2 pound round balls!!