Tamer .410 or Survivor .410/45 Colt ?

[Weissen]

Hello all
My first post here although I have been visiting or a number of months now.

Just after some advice really.
I have built a new home in a rural location and I am starting to see a few snakes around the place now that the building activity has ceased. Even caught the family cat playing with one on the doorstep last weekend (it didn't get bitten surprisingly).
These snakes are the common Australian Brown snake, slender, agile, 3-5 feet long, and highly venomous.

So....I'm thinking a .410 shotgun full of #9's is in order......but which one?
Money is really no object as neither of these guns is really too expensive.

Any experience with either of these for this kind of role?
Benefits and/or negatives?

Thanks.

[shaner]

id go for the 45/410,  why not have the option of using a 45 colt just incase , cant hurt and they are basicly the same gun,

[gould]

I have just got a tammer and love it I don't have any experience with the 410/45 but either would work fine. Like shaner said why not have the 45 option.

[Weissen]

OK, so the 45/410 must have a rifled .454 groove diameter barrel to shoot the 45 Colt cartridge successfully right?
This means that the .410 gauge shot charge must rattle down that same rifled tube with about 40 thou clearance, yes?

Also, I believe that the 45/410 has a screw in choke (I've never actually seen one of these guns by the way) with straight cut rifling to stop the shot charge from spinning at the last moment to achieve improved shot patterns i.e. without a void in the centre of the pattern.
How long is that choke? Is it internal or does it screw on externally and add a couple of inches to the barrel length?


The idea of firing both rifle and shotgun ammo from the same gun is appealing but I'm just wondering if the Survivor 45/410 is really more of a rifle and less of a shotgun instead of being a real dual-purpose firearm.

Does anyone have a 45/410?
How do they pattern with the shotshells? Does the plastic .410 hull bulge much in that oversized chamber?
The 3" chamber must give that stubby old 45 some serious amount of freebore, so does it still shoot accurately?

[SSS]

I'd go for the Tamer.  Seems that shot shell performance would be much better with smooth bore instead of a choke w/ rifled barrel.  IIRC the Thompson Centers 45/410 that uses a choke to stop the wad from spinning with shot shells says not to use slugs and buckshot, just bird shot.  I don't know if the Survivor has this same limitation.  There are quite a few slug offerings for 410 if you want a solid, as well as buckshot.  Are slugs and buck shot legal in your locale?

[Cookiemann]

The specs on the 45/410 say it's chambered at 3" and has a screw in choke.  So, yes, there would be considerable distance to the lands and grooves with the 45LC and you would have to Un-install the choke. 

[Weissen]

.  Are slugs and buck shot legal in your locale?

Yes, pretty much anything goes down here apart from having a semi-auto of any kind.
Slugs and buckshot (or SSG's as we call them) are available. There are no calibre restirctions or specific seasons on any game here except for ducks and quail. Although a couple of the Eastern states do have a limited hunting season on deer with 7mm being the minimum calibre required but that's about it.

Yeah I'm leaning more towards the Tamer more I think. Seems more like a shotgun and less of a compromise and that nickel finish is kinda nice too.
I think I'll put a downpayment on one tomorrow (28 day cooling off period).

[SSS]

that nickel finish is kinda nice too.

The shot shell holder in the stock works really well too.

[LEO]

I had one of the TC contender barrels in 45/410 it was a disappointment with both cartridges, the 410 pattern was good enough for a snake gun but little else and I shot a bunch of different 45 loads out of it and its groups were dinner plate sized at 100 yards.  With that said I would vote for the 410 or better yet the 20 gauge version.  I know the 20 is probably overkill for snakes, on second thought can you really kill a 5 foot venomous snake within striking distance too dead.  But the 20 is more versatile and in my area the ammunition is less than half the price of the 410 loads.  Be careful

Well, I just reread my post, I wish the TC contender would have shot dinner plate groups at 100 yards, I was entering some rifle group information into my log before making this post so I had 100 yards on my mind.  The dinner plate sized groups were at 25 yards.  Oops!

[quickdtoo]

With sights or scope added to the .45/410 barrel, accuracy is reported good enough to hit claybird size targets at 100yds with 45colt ammo, don't remember the .410 performance tho.

Tim

[shaner]

the larger diam, bore in a shotgun does nothing to damper the performance of it , in fact it improves the performance  by reducing recoil  just as in expensive trap and sporting  shotguns , over bore barrels are the thing guys pay big bucks to  havethe shotgun barrel backbored to increase the diameter of the barrel , as forthe larger bore and the 45colt , if u are serious about gettin the most out of the accuracy of it , yu reload it with 454 diameter  bullets,and add a scope base and low power scope, or  install adjustable sights butthe rifleing  has no affect on the shotgun, look at a hasting shotgun barrel they sell alsorts of  different rifled shotgun barrels , even some with stright rifling to help the shot and wad stay inline with each  other
ok iam done yackin ,, hahahah

[myarmor]

With sights or scope added to the .45/410 barrel, accuracy is reported good enough to hit claybird size targets at 100yds with 45colt ammo, don't remember the .410 performance tho.

Tim

I remembered posting about the 45/410 a long time ago and couldn't find the topic ever sense. I would  like to go back and read it as I also remember someone with a scoped 45/410 Survivor that had good accuracy with 410 slugs. Though I don't remember mention of the 45Colt....


-Aaron

[Weissen]

can you really kill a 5 foot venomous snake within striking distance too dead.   Be careful

You really don't mess around with these things.
They are generally very shy and will avoid people but occassionally will strike if cornered or in an aggressive mood. I think they are the second most poisonous snake in the world or something, far worse than a cobra, but I'm not really plannng on testing that out let me tell ya!!
I'm not into the wanton killing of wild animals at all, but if it's around the house it's going to go, no questions.

Oh yeah, I put a deposit on a .410 Tamer.
A neat little gun to be sure and goes nicely with my 17hmr Sportster into the deal.
And now the longest 28 day wait in the world begins....

[FOX22250]

go with the standard 410 and if you want more punch just buy 410 slugs..........