Hog!

Another camping season approaches.

Depending on the trip I' ll bring a Stoeger Backpacker single shot .410 for safety.

I' ve often wondered how effective one of those little 1/5 oz slugs would be on an attacking black bear. Any hunting experience with them?

Are there any other rounds that could be fired through a .410 that would be better?
(I' m thinking .41 mag etc)

Have you ever seen a .410 flare? Does anyone make them?

Nomercy

go ahead and push a .41 mag into a .410 (if it will fit, I don' t think it will), try and fire it, then go buy a new gun!!! The pressure will be much more than a .410 pistol can handle. As far as using .5oz slugs on bruins, it might be ok, put I wouldn' t trust my life to it! Let alone the fact that you only get one shot if one should charge, but most .410 slugs are weakly constructed. If you had one that was really going to hold together, a 217gr slug (~.5oz) at 1400fps wouldn' t be that bad, but remember 1400fps is coming out of a ~26" bbl, so you' re probably only going to get something around 500-800fps from your pistol, considering that it' s probably using slow burning powders (much of which is going to burn OUTSIDE the barrel, giving you lost MV.) Now, a 217gr slug at 800fps isn' t going to whack anything very hard, much similar to a .45acp. A .45acp is marginal to put down a wounded bear, let alone a charging one, even with the fact that you get 7-10rnds, use only one, and you' re carrying a gun that would do better as a club than a shooter, it' s just going to make you feel good to know you have a gun, giving no more real support.

That said, bruins rarely charge, so maybe just the flash/bang of the .410 would help, but then you wouldn' t even have to shoot the bear, so you wouldn' t need slugs. With a bruin, you' re more likely going to have it come into your camp for food, if it' s not high-tailing it away from you, and in that case, I' d use #4-6 shot and shoot the bear in the body, a large bang, a big flash, and a goodly sting all over will help it decide that you aren' t anything it wants to be around.

Nomercy

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my hunting experiences, I' ve used .410 slugs for yotes, and from seeing their performance, I wouldn' t even use them on deer unless they were the high velocity type and only at about 40-65yrds.

As for your flares, I' m pretty sure that no one makes a .410 flare, and I' m even more sure that most guns aren' t supposed to fire them if they make them (I know you' re not supposed to shoot 12ga flares through real 12ga pistols, only in flareguns.) I don' t think it would blow up, but it' s not supposed to be good for them, I' m not really sure why?

seadog

Can we say bear bait cause that' s what you will be.

Vapodog

take your .410 quail hunting.....maybe a little more.....but it' s a horribly anemic round for big game hunting. A 28 Ga is a century of improvement over a .410


BTW..... .5 oz slugs is a bad misprint.....it' s 1/5 oz slugs......and that' s 85 grains.....and that' sa horribly anemic round.

neweboarhunter

Leave the .410 at home. get a Taurus Tracker in .41 mag or .44 mag. or a Ruger Blackhawk. Look for 4" Barreled guns 5" tops. If you are in a area were bear are hunted they NORMALLY just run away anyway, not counting the National Park Bears, I have a great story about the bears in Smokey Mtn Park wanting to occupy the camp latrine. That is my experiance in Tennesse, North Carolina, Minnesoetta, Wyoming and Montana.

Nomercy

Nice save vapodog, I completely bit the mistype, hate it when I forget to think of things like that. I didn' t even think about .5 oz .410 slugs being non-existant, even considering it at .5oz, things were bad, but try it with a fifth!!

bearhuntr

Nice little rabbit gun, but that' s about it IMO.

Hog!

A magnum its not - but its a great little gun.

For ease of carry and emergency survival I can' t thing of a better gun. Its a break action single shot shotgun with an 11 inch barrel and an overall length of 28 inches. It weighs about 4 lbs.

Even if it was legal to carry a handgun while camping I would still prefer a light shotgun for emergency survival.

I was hoping someone would know about alternative rounds and flares.

frizzellr

Yeah its a great little gun. Emphasis on little. It is what it is. It is like a 22 LR in that you can carry plenty of ammo for it and use it to get food in a survival situation. However, if you are planning on encountering anything bigger than a jackrabbit you need to rethink your weapon.