The .410 originated as a brass-cased cartridge, equating to 12mm in continental terms, and found favour in the walking-stick shotguns or cane-guns that many British gunmakers included in their catalogues from the 1870s onwards. It may be coincidental that it has base dimensions very close to the Winchester .44-40 and the Colt. .45. Some, however, speculate that the .410 began as a revolver cartridge loaded with shot.
When paper-cased cartridges replaced the brass originals, the .410’s load was typically 7/16oz, (12 grams) over a small black-powder charge, in a case two inches in length. That made it a small vermin gun for the farmer or perhaps a specimen-collecting gun for the amateur ornithologist abroad.
By the outbreak of the Great War, Eley, Britain’s largest ammunition maker, was already marketing the smokeless-powder-driven ‘Fourten’ two-inch cartridge and the ‘Four-long’; a two-and-a-half inch upgrade. It was not until the Midland Gun Company introduced a three-inch chambered double-barreled game gun in .410, in 1927, that anyone really began to think of it as anything other than a short range farmer’s tool, or as a trainer for children to learn with. The Eley ‘Extra-long’ three-inch-cased cartridge appeared shortly afterwards.
Today, the equivalent of the old Eley ‘Extra-long’ is the Hull ‘High Pheasant Magnum .410’. This plastic-cased cartridge packs 18 grams (5/8 oz) of No.6 lead shot (around 178 pellets) into its 76mm case and fires it at a muzzle velocity of 1,400 fps.
The most fervent admirers of the .410 as a game gun are Americans who hunt small game birds like quail and doves, appreciate the gun’s light-weight and enjoy the challenge of shooting a small charge and bagging these sporting birds which are often encountered at relatively close ranges.
In the UK, there is a small but devoted following for the .410 for game bird shooting. This is especially well explained in lowland shoots, where the level terrain makes showing driven partridges that would challenge a very good shot with a 12-bore difficult. Arm the team with .410s and the challenge is re-instated.
The use of this; the smallest of the common shotguns, on game birds the size of pheasants is still hotly contested, with prominent experts like Bill Harriman of BASC remaining skeptical. The controversy is not new; W.W. Greener considered the 28-bore to be the smallest appropriate gauge for game shooting when he wrote The Gun & its Development, in the early 1900s.
The .410 photographed here was completed in early 2026 for an American client and specified as a specialist tool for hunting American game birds. The 29” barrels and 15” stock give away the fact it was made for an adult and the specified weight of 5lbs 3oz gives it sufficient heft to ensure a controlled swing.
The outward appearance of this lovely small bore is that of a traditional game gun. With scroll-engraved, color case hardened action, blacked furniture and barrels, a scroll-back action and a game scene applied to the cover plate (in this case the appropriate choice of woodcock).
Gold is used sparingly, on the serial number and ‘SAFE’, leaving the lustrous case colours and deep, glossy blacking to deliver the classy overall appearance. For the technically minded, the balance of the gun is made up thus: stock and action, with locks, weighs 2lbs 5.9oz, the barrels weigh 2lbs 2.3oz, with an additional 6.8oz for the forend, giving a total finished weight of 5lbs 2.4oz for the gun.
The wood is our Super Deluxe grade of Turkish walnut and compliments the varied metal finishes nicely. Small bore guns have a natural grace but the proportions need to be managed carefully to keep everything balanced aesthetically.
An adult shooter requires a hand with sufficient thickness and a trigger guard capable of allowing free access to adult fingers, as well as the correct length of pull. The trick is to make all the working elements of the gun appear to be in harmony with the diminutive action and slim barrels.
The hand detachable locks on these tiny guns are fully scaled to suit the action and are, themselves, works of art. The 29” steel, chopper-lump barrels, with concave game rib, are choked 4 thou’ right and 7 thou’ left, giving slight variations of Improved Cylinder. They were proof tested at the Birmingham Proof House for Superior Lead Proof, as steel shot is not suited to small bores.
Should a non-lead load be required, experiments with .410 shotguns and No.9 TSS (tungsten) shot at extended ranges have been very impressive. Fortunately for our American friends, the use of lead shot does not appear to be under any serious threat in their country, at present.
What we have here is a superb example of the best gun-maker’s art in miniature. Precision is even more essential when parts are reduced in size, as they are here. The result is a beautifully scaled-down sporting gun of exquisite grace and poise but also a serious game gun in its own right. The demand for guns of this type from our American clients remains very strong and we are adept at making them. Long live the small bore!
