.410 Single Shot Stevens 301

Anyone own one? I just bought one for my son for his first bird gun. It's specifically marketed as a turkey gun. It comes with full choke, but I was thinking of going with a modified for dove hunting. Anyone know about these little rigs? Any help on buying other chokes would be appreciated.

https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/tested-stevens-301-turkey-bottomlands-410-shotgun/

Just my .02 cents, but a .410 is an awfully big handicap to a beginning hunter. Leaves zero room for error dove hunting. A 20ga has considerable more ability and is not that much more difficult to wield by a young hunter.

Agreed. 410 is an experienced hunter's gun. a 20 ga or 28 ga is better for a young hunter.

That is really meant to be a more challenging gun for adults to hunt Turkeys with. It still has an adult length of pull. I would have gone with a 20GA youth model and bought an adult stock to change out later (or vise versa) and bought light low recoil target loads at first. But you did say you already bought it, so....

I have done a lot of snipe hunting and some dove hunting with a .410. The distance chokes are tested are shorter with the 410 than for 20-12 gauges for a reason. Your not going to want to open that choke up very much or there will be too many holes in the pattern at typical hunting distances. Since the choke with that gun is designed for Turkey and maybe for TSS or Hevi shot too, I would pattern it and see what it does with regular bird hunting loads. It may or may not already shoot modified for lead if it was designed for larger harder shot. For small birds like Dove and Snipe to get the pellet count up I try to use 3 inch shells and 8.5 or 9 shot. 7 or 7.5 if steel is required. For Turkey since not many shells are needed anyway, I would definitely find some TSS loads for it if it were me. Ducks are going to be really tough for a new shooter and I have done some of that with a .410 and bismuth shot long ago. Hevi shot type loads so you can use smaller and thus more shot. Decoy birds close as possible and think shooting duck heads as targets rather than ducks. Both my sons shot their first ducks with a small light 410 single shot, but they were very young and could not hold a heavier shotgun yet so both were take em moments where we both shot and I yelled "you got it!".

Good luck to him

IMO, that high sight mount rail on that 410 is gonna be in the way, to try to shoot dove - quite unnatural -vs- a regular shotgun.
If you can't remove it, maybe you can put an open red-dot optic sight on it to get around that issue, though few dove-hunt with optics.

Either way, try patterning with it to see what you're gonna be up against.

Had a buddy who's 70# 10yo son was a crack-shot on dove with a plain 410 with 3" #8 loads, so it's possible.

FWIW, be aware that a light 'youth 20ga' kicks like a mule with normal-power loads - start with low-recoil ammo so that small/beginners don't get discouraged early.

A typical 20 gauge dove load of 7/8 oz. of #8 shot will have approx. 360 pellets, a 3” .410 load will have approx. 307. Since a #8 pellet traveling 1200 fps has the same energy whether it’s shot out of a 20 or a .410, your only consideration is which choke to use. Luckily, modern .410s come with chokes (the older ones many of us shot as kids only came in ‘full’ which is why they have a reputation of being only for experts) and can regulate the pattern to match the circumstances. Briley used to have a choke pattern chart on their site and may still…it’s a great reference for this.

A 20 gauge youth auto will have similar recoil and better killing ability.

Thanks for all the insight! Son is going to be 7 in May. He's stout, so we'll see. LOL

I mainly wanted to get him his first little shotgun to carry around while we're in the dove field. If nothing else, he'll shoot cans at a distance with it.

That's what my son did at 5 and 6 years old, shot cans and such.

Heck yeah, he's been doing that with his red rider for a while. Just wanting to get him going with something he can be more proud of. We'll graduate to a youth 20 gauge soon.

Exactly how I learned to hunt. Like everyone else said it’s much harder than a 20ga but it’s a good starter for someone your son’s age… I finally got my first dove when one landed in a tree about 15 ft away 😂

I've got one, but haven't shot it yet.

I agree with you completely, I still think the .410 has nostalgic value . For me anyway

Buy the 870 20 ga youth and just load one round at a time you'll get more years out of it than a single shot. Put a good pad on it to manage recoil. Please don't mention anything about recoil or the gun will kick. If you build this up he may shoot it once and walk away.
I don't recommend an automatic to easy for youngsters to go BOOM, BOOM, BOOM without any thought as to aiming or what is trying to be accomplished.
Good luck and have fun.

Just know that the patterning distance used to determine choke value for a .410 is different. It is usually based on % of pattern in a 30in circle at 25 yards. Depending on which book you read, the circle is sometimes reduced to a 25 inch circle as well. For the 20 and 12 it is based on % of pattern in a 30in circle at 40 yards. The percentage in circle used to figure the choke is the same for both the 410 and 20 despite the different distances.

So for example using the two shells presented with Modified in both shotguns, in the .410 your looking at 55-65 percent of 307 pellets in a 30 inch circle at 25 yards. Then compared to the modified in a 20 it is based on having 55-65 percent of 360 pellets in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards. You would be comparing an apple to an orange despite both shotguns having a modified choke. There is much more at play than pellet count in the shell when it comes to how choke is determined in the .410.

This! I grew up hunting with a .410 H&R single shot with a full choke. I got to be a good shot, had to due to the small pattern. It sure was discouraging learning to be a good shot though. When my daughter was old enough to hunt, I bought her a Winchester SX3 20 gauge, thats an awesome shotgun for a young person. Comes with stock extensions so the shotgun can grow as the hunter does.

Started my daughter out with a 410 single shot, she just shot still targets with it tho. It’s great for still targets, when they are young it is all they can properly mount.

I do not like that gun to teach wing shooting because sight and hammer is in the way? You want to teach them to shoot with both eyes open, with the dominant eye looking right down the barrel with no obstructions, I even take the bead off the end of the barrel. I know when you [censored] it the hammer is out of the way, but still that sighting is problematic JMO shooting with both eyes open.

Looks about like shooting a semi buckhorn sight with a bead. I’m sure it is fan freaking tastic for putting a full choke pattern on a turkey’s face. But not for any kind of fast shooting.