Bought a Shotgun today.

[Gary Fowler]

I have bought and sold a lot of guns and all of them I wish I had kept. I never had a .410 as a kid. I had a 16 gauge which I still have. My hunting gun was a .22 that I got a lot of squirrels and more than a few rabbits with. I don't know if guns are going to continue to appreciate in value like they have recently, but if they do, they are very good investments.

 

[jerrybob]

Sounds like you know what you're doing.....good job. Consider getting her into a hunter safety class.....you could attend with her. I teach out here.....we have an upcoming class with 35 students......youngest is 7...oldest is 42. With parents/guardians.....class will have at least 50 people in it. Good experience for students and parents. We do 6 to 8 classes per year.......many take the class for only the gun safety and do not plan to hunt. Good choice on the 410.

 

[Gunny]

I bought the oldest grandson a Rossi 410/22LR combination with interchangeable barrels to start with. I wanted an over and under, but they were just too expensive and very hard to come by. After he outgrew that, I got one of the Rossi 20 gauge/243 Win/22LR combos. So far, he's pretty satisfied with that.
Not a great firearm, fairly good looking, fit and finish is fair, but the price point was great when I went hopping

 

[RalphVa]

I started out on a single shot 22 as a kid. A 410, by comparison, is a whole lot safer because the shells won't travel for a mile or maybe ricochet off something and kill someone or something you don't want it to. A guy on a roof was killed in NJ because some kids shooting at a turtle on a pond had a ricochet that went into the air and killed the man about a mile away.

I have a single shot 410 in NJ. Shot lots of groundhogs with it. Took it to the police when moving to Singapore.

Bought another from a friend here in Virginia for $100 around 2001. Have taken down near about 30 hooved rats with it and a few rabbits and squirrels. Have yet to shoot a groundhog here.

Ralph

 

[teejk]

Problem with the .410 is the cost of the ammo (like the 28ga seems to have an element of "snob appeal" lately)...I think I'd start with a 20ga. and go with light loads as a trainer. I trained the kids with BB guns at a very young age (including a range in the basement) and kept an eye on them. Any infraction of safety rules ended the shooting for the day with lectures on what went wrong. The way I figure it is if they decided to never own a gun (east coast public schools) they would at least know how to deal with them. Nothing wrong with that. Not a problem...they own more than I do now.

 

[dragoneggs]

One gun I have shot but never owned is a shotgun. Don't have a clue as to what to get... I suppose mostly it would be for home defense.

 

[PJSprog]

Problem with the .410 is the cost of the ammo....

Yup, and that's why I don't own one. When my wife (then still my girlfriend) wanted a shotgun, we looked at .410s. Both the prices of the guns and the ammo steered us away immediately, and she ended up choosing a 20g pump. I bought her the 870 Express, put on a slightly longer barrel, and handloaded some light loads for her to make recoil virtually nonexistent.

And kudos to the OP for starting your grandchildren out right.

 

[k0ua]

One gun I have shot but never owned is a shotgun. Don't have a clue as to what to get... I suppose mostly it would be for home defense.

12 gauge pump action is extremely reliable, low cost and very effective.
Mossberg 500, (or its lower cost twin Maverick 88), Remington 870, Winchester 1300. Or any number of older but still reliable models. Check back if you need more info. you will not be sorry you invested in a shotty.

 

[RSKY]

Got my Maverick 88 for $179 four years ago.

 

[k0ua]

Got my Maverick 88 for $179 four years ago.

For those that don't know a Maverick 88 is a lower cost alternative to the Mossberg 500, with the main differences is that the Maverick 88 will have a black synthetic stock, and the safety will be a crossbolt safety on the trigger guard instead of the Mossberg 500s thumb activated safety up on the tang. Other than that, it is the same shotgun and it is made by Mossberg.