First and foremost, this gun has given me more enjoyment and just plain fun than any gun of any sort I've ever had. Super quick, super light, no recoil and super unforgiving if I don't pay very strict attention. When the stars align and things seem right with the world, targets break and birds come tumbling down. When they don't, they really don't.
For me, at least, the lesson is pay attention to all the little details; leads, follow through and especially gun mount. The slightest error in any of these things and my success rate drops, really drops.
Chokes and loads have been an education. While I have neither the patience nor the statistical background to properly dissect the mathematical meaning of all those little dots on our plating board I can determine if the centers of patterns are where they belong and if a bird or a target is in danger at various distances in those patterns. Loads go where I point, no question and with both barrels. Half ounce loads of number nines will break every target on the skeet field if I do my part but much beyond 25 yards with .004" constriction skeet chokes things fall apart very quickly. In my opinion this is simply not an adequate combination for game shooting. However, thankfully there is a three quarter ounce of number eight and one half loads from Winchester which is another story indeed. I've shot several hundred of these loads at various distances at targets both feathered and clay and I see little difference between success rates with the .410 Winchester loads and with standard 28 gauge loads. If the Quail gods smile this season I fully intend to do as much damage to the population as I possibly can with this little .410 as the primary weapon.
By this point the gun has been pretty well vetted and I can say as an absolute fact that the function has been perfect. Ejectors always work, trigger pulls consistent and lock up is the same after a couple thousand rounds as it was with the first box of cartridges.
For whatever it might be worth, the view that a .410 is a silly, useless toy is simply wrong.
A really good .410 with the proper chokes and loads used under reasonable conditions can be as enjoyable a gun as one could hope for.
Proof of the pudding being I run my eye over a group of pretty nice guns almost daily and recently realized I've used almost nothing else for the past two months. That is something that has never happened with me prior to this Westley Richards .410 showing up at our door. I'm fortunate indeed.
Thank you DB for this update!
Gary Duffey on September 29, 2016 at 6:25 am
"DB" really taught me something about the small bores with the information that he shared in the previous post regarding choke. I have dismissed the more open chokes in the .410 & .28 in the past, but no more. They now will go into the mix of options to pattern. A mutual friend that we share played a video for me of his shooting this very gun and it was somewhat of a magic show the way he can shoot. Clays not barely broken but puffs of black smoke! I can imagine a pleasure to shoot.