Bond Arms .45 Colt/ .410 Derringer...what about the .45 Colt?

[Not the 10th Man]

I'm thinking about picking up a Bond Arms .45 Colt/ .410 derringer for a daily carry/knock around/ woods wandering/ boat/halibut gun.

I think I get the point on .410 for protection from reading about all the drama with the Taurus Judge,  but what about .45 Colt out of it?

I'm more inclined to use the .45 Colt as a primary protection round, and the .410 for shooting various game, such as (close) rabbit, squirrel, stupid chickens and fish.  Do they seem to do alright with .45 Colt?  no drastic loss in velocity? (other than from the short bbl.)  Accuracy as acceptable as it gets from a small-ish gun?

I guess I'm sold on the guns design- I just don't know if I want to bother with the .410 part...I'm thinking I might end up ordering one that's just plain .45 Colt/ without the shotgun option.

Any ideas, opinions, etc?  'preciate your thoughts!

[kynardsj]

I had basically the same gun in an American Derringer. For 410 birdshot to be anywhere near effective from it the range needs to be close, like snake close to your feet close. It did ok with the buckshot loads in 410 at 7 yards or so. The 45 Colt loads need to be factory loads or maybe a little less or that derringer gets hard to hang on to. Still, a 45 caliber 250 gr slug from it at around 750-800 fps would be a good defense load at belly gun ranges.

[Old Griz]

I kicked the idea around for a long time, but finally talked myself out of it. The Bond gun was just too heavy and too darn hard to cock to be very practical. The .410, to me, is very underwhelming, The .45 Colt, on the other hand, is an excellent round, but again, the heavy, hard to cock, SA platform just wasn't practical. Instead, for a pocket gun I went with a S&W 638. I know it's a boring gun, and only a .38+P, but it's light, easy to shoot, well designed (it's like pointing your finger), and the ammo is pretty darn cheap when compared with .45 Colt stuff. My model 25 stays in the safe because it costs so much to shoot. When knocking about the woods I usually carry something bigger, but as a pocket gun, it's terrific. But as to your original question, I've never been attacked by a halibut! Maybe some Cor-Bon loads . . .

[Doublebass73]

I wouldn't mind getting a Derringer at some point, if I did it would be a 45 Colt only model.

[Lloyd Smale]

Like was said there not the most fantastic ccw gun but are decent ones. Ill say one thing. there brute strong. My buddys has digested many many ruger level loads and is still as good as new. i shot his 44 mag version with 300s ahead of 21 grains of 110 and it was like lighting a stick of dynomite off in your hand.

[Not the 10th Man]

I thought about it some more, and actually decided it's not what I'm after right now.  I'm more interested in a....good shooting .45 Colt that happens to shoot .410 shells more than I'm interested in a .410 handgun that can pretty much...meh......halfway shoot .45 Colts.  I put my hands back on one, and didn't like the way it felt in my hand.  I looked at the bore and wasn't happy to see the rifling was so think it looked like it was traced in with a pencil.  I reckon I was just trying to get one handgun to do too many things.

For a daily carry gun, I think it's still hard to beat the ubiquitous J-frame sized revolvers.  If I'm hellbent to play with a .410 handgun, I'll just get a Contender.  As far as .45 Colts, I've already got a few to take that cartridge, reckon I don't need anymore.

All that having been said though....if Taurus does that unobtainium .45 Colt CCW revolver, I would be VERRRRY interested....

Thanks for your thoughts.  I hope it's not too anti-climactic that I snapped out of my frenzy and wound up not going this route.

[Redhawk1]

I have a Bond Arms 45 Colt/ 410 Derringer and it is a blast to shoot. Did a large range trip with it shooting everything I could out of it. At 7 yards it is deadly accurate.  I did not shoot it past that, as that is not what the gun was designed for. It is more of a back up gun to my daily carry gun for me.  Great for a center consol gun as well.