I bought my .410 with the money I made from the first REAL job I ever had when I was 12 years old. I helped my Dad paint some apartments
made $1.00 an hour and ended up with $95.00 altogether.
With that $95 burning-a-hole-in-my-pocket, I took the city bus downtown and bought a new Model 42 Winchester (the .410 version of the famous Winchester Model 12) pump shotgun in .410 bore. That little beauty cost all of $85 way back in 1948. The rest of my paycheck went for a couple of boxes of shells and a soft gun case to keep the Model 42 in when I wasnt using it.
I took that shotgun, the shells and the gun case home on an electric city bus
in full view of the other riders
and it didnt bother anyone, but you have to remember that back in those days, a 12 year old boy could do that cause we never considered shooting our class-mates or hi-jacking airliners or blowing up big buildings.
Ahhhhhhh YES, it was a kinder, gentler time.
I hunted pheasants, quail and rabbits with that little gun until I was 24 years old when my wife gave me a new Browning Superposed 12 gauge for Christmas
and I put the little Winchester away.
Last year
I got the little Model 42 out again. I hadnt fired a shot out of it in over 45 years, but it still looked like a new gun. I had cleaned it every year or three during the intervening 45 years
and taken good care of it by placing it in a place of honor in my gun cabinet where it wouldnt get bumped or scratched.
I got it out because my youngest son invited me to hunt some pheasants at a pheasant farm where he hunts
and he long ago borrowed my Browning Superposed and wont give it back, so I took the Model 42 with its modified choke since the lithe little 28 gauge Charles Daly over/under and my other Superposed are both skeet guns with skeet #1 chokes in both of their barrels
and my sons year old yellow Lab is still just an over-grown puppy that tends to bump & flush the birds beyond the range of a skeet #1 choked gun.
While I still had some ¾ oz., 3-inch Federal .410 paper shotshells left over from the last box I had bought some 45 years ago, I opted to get a new box of 3-inch shells which I discovered, to my dismay, now hold only 11/16th of an oz. of shot
and cost over $8 a box!!!
The price tag on the old box of .410s
are you ready for this??? The tag read $2.45.
The current cost of .410 shells really surprised me since we can buy 12 gauge field loads at the local Wally World (Wal*Mart) for under $3.00 a box fairly often
a cost that is actually cheaper than I can afford to reload them!!!
Many years ago, I use to do a lot of skeet and trap shooting
and have a 12 gauge MEC Super 600 reloading press that spits out a finished shell with each pull of the handle
and a 28 gauge MEC 600, Jr., reloading press
both of which do a fine job of reloading plastic hulls, but I only have a little hand-held Lee Loader for paper .410 shells that doesnt do a really good job.
Frankly, after paying THAT much for .410 shells, I started thinking about buying another MEC 600, Jr. in .410
BUTTTTTTTTT
if that pleasant afternoon spent hunting farm-raised pheasants with my youngest (age 42) son is any example of what the future holds, it wouldnt be worth buying a new press just for the 5 shells I shot all of last year on that one pheasant hunt.
Of course, those 5 shells accounted for 4 pheasants and one clean miss
which aint too hateful! And
if I start hunting small game again
hmmmmm
maybe I SHOULD buy that MEC 600, Jr. in .410 bore, eh?
The point is
Ive decided to go back
back to the little Model 42 in .410 bore
and use it as my PRIMARY hunting shotgun for small game. However, in all honesty, I dont hurt small game very much at all
but I guess I could start doing so again.
Ahhhhhh, yes
nostalgia
a pleasant luxury
and something wonderful to re-live as I lined up the dual beads on the ventilated rib of my Model 42... and all those "good times" came rushing back and were remembered by more mature, older hunters (I.E., old geezers) like me.
Strength & Honor
Ron T.
