Shotguns

Gaj,

I just picked up this old Harrington and Richardson Deluxe Topper 198 single shot .410 ga break barrel. I am guessing 30 yrs. old, maybe older? I have not had a chance to shoot it yet, but bought it for the kids to shoot with, as my 12 GA bruises their adolescent shoulders. I love abusing my children that way, but I could not pass up on this gun. The barrel is full choke which I think would be perfect to decapitate unwanted snakes. Thanks for giving me an excuse for taking this out of the safe. I bought it for $95 on at a Gun Club pro shop a couple weeks ago. Here in our neck of the woods, you have to wait 10 days to get your toy. State gun laws suck in California. Kind of like my love of traditional slipjoints, I need wood in my gun stocks, not black plastic or camo. This one will need the Walnut stripped of the black paint, just want to shoot it first, to make sure it works well. I can refinish the wood later. Hope the pics are not too lame. It is a heavy sucker and definitely front heavy in the barrel. I weighed it at just under 6 lbs.
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If you can get the Taurus Judge, I would strongly recommend it. My buddy has one, and it is a very cool handgun.
 
cj 65, that H&R would be perfect for a farmhouse/barn snake gun, but it is not a common brand in Australia.

Contrary to popular belief, it is relatively easy to own firearms here, provided you have a legitimate reason, and that includes sport shooters, hunters, farmers, collectors and so on.
We can't own military weapons, short barrel handguns, or full autos, but if you have a demonstrable need to own a given firearm, e.g. security, club shooter or professional hunter, you can pretty much have anything on the market.

Handguns are extremely difficult to obtain in Oz, and a derringer or Taurus Judge would be seriously illegal.

Old SB or SxS DBs are easy to obtain, cheap, and very suitable for keeping our reptile friends at a safe distance, and nearly every farmer will have something like it in the shed.
 
Taurus Judge would make an excellent snake gun. You could always go with a Saiga .410 if you like the more tactical guns, they make 15 round mags for those.
 
gajinoz said:
I've been seriously considering getting myself a 410 shotgun, mostly for discouraging the snakes around the place.

Anyone care to suggest some good quality makers of these things?

Thanks.
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Remington has a 22/410 over under for $400-$500 that I plan to order for my 9 year old son. Also, check out H&R. I love 410s. They do cost more to shoot than a 20 gauge though. Shelf ammo was almost twice as much as 20 gauge where I looked.
 
Many have suggested things like a 22/410 combo and that certainly sounds like a very handy tool with many applications. Unfortunately the licencing laws in Oz make this sort of combo difficult. Not impossible by an means, just administratively annoying.

The way it works in my state is:
First you need to get a firearms licence, no big deal there, I have one.
Next you need to apply for a permit for EACH type of gun you want to buy and provide a reason for wanting it. This takes about 6 to 8 weeks to arrive, then you can buy your gun.

So, for the combo I would have to get two permits, one for shotgun and one for rifle. Things may have changed since I last bought a gun and that's why I'm going down to the gun shop this week to talk to them about it.

Possibly such a combo gun is not as difficult as I think it is.
 
Shouldn't be a problem, Gaj, especially if you live on a rural property, and as you are already licenced, you won't have to jump through too many hoops.

Disclaimer: I live in WA and other states may have more vexatious laws or regulations.
 
This one is pretty cool. :D

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I would like to get a nice exposed hammers double for hiking, with barrels little longer than these.
 
If .410 ammo is as overpriced in Oz as it is here, you can beat the high prices by reloading. You don't even need an apparatus...

You can decap spent primers with a nail and a mallet.

Seat new primers with a rod with a hole in the end(to miss the new primer).

3Fg black powder is the propellent.

Cut out a few card wads with a punch. Saturate the wads in Crisco.

Use store-bought shot if you can get it.

The overshot wad is simplicity, itself. Just take a piece of brown paper from a grocery sack and saturate it with yellow glue (Elmer's Yellow Glue works great). Push this oversized patch into the mouth of the charged hull, allowing a bit of the edges to stick out.

When dry, trim off any unsightly paper edges sticking out. Ignore the unsightly uncrimped end.

If all you want to do is to waste some snakes, these old fashioned shells will be more than adequate.
 
Interesting info there Erasmus. I don't actually plan on that much covert snake deanimation, just the odd one that might get a little too close to home, so I'm not too concerned about the cost.

If I decide to go playing with the rabbits on my friends sheep station I might have to think about it. :)



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Old CW4 said:
BTW, an old cowboy trick, sometimes used to impress tenderfeet, is to shoot at a rattlesnake with an old, slow cartridge like the 45 Colt or even a 38 Spl. The snake will strike at the incoming bullet which blows its head off and the shooter gets a rep as a top-notch marksman.
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Just how slow do you think ANY bullet travels? A snake couldn't strike a damn musket ball man. This is a ridiculous statement.
 
gajinoz said:
I've been seriously considering getting myself a 410 shotgun, mostly for discouraging the snakes around the place.

Anyone care to suggest some good quality makers of these things?

Thanks.
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They also make shotshells for some large-caliber brands of pistols. I have a "number" of such large-caliber pistols and have been known to pack these shells into danger areas.

Even used one once. Very satisfactory.:D

It's a lot easier than carrying a shotgun around everywhere.
 
skronnie said:
Just how slow do you think ANY bullet travels? A snake couldn't strike a damn musket ball man. This is a ridiculous statement.
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If it's true, think about how accurate you could be further out. The general rule of thumb is that a snake has a strike range of 2/3rds it length. At a hundred yards you could be a foot off the mark of a 3 foot snake and still kill it. Two hundred yards is even better. That's probably why there's no hundred foot snakes anymore. Miss your shot at the Wooly Mammoth and if there's a hundred foot snake behind it within 66 foot of the bullet path, boom, it's dead. Back in the day, you could probably just walk out your cave, close your eyes, spin around 10x, fire your gun and kill a hundred foot snake.
 
OldPhysics said:
They also make shotshells for some large-caliber brands of pistols. I have a "number" of such large-caliber pistols and have been known to pack these shells into danger areas.

Even used one once. Very satisfactory.:D

It's a lot easier than carrying a shotgun around everywhere.
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That would certainly be a good option for my needs except for one small thing. There is a huge amount of annoying administrative crap involved in getting a pistol licence in Oz and then there are a whole collection of rules about what, where and when you can use the thing.

A shotgun is relatively easy to get.


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I have a single-shot .410 made by Baikal in Russia (also sold under Remington name).
They are inexpensive, well made, and reliable guns. I recall seeing a Baikal distributor in NZ, so it is likely you will fine one in OZ aswell.

Lever action shotguns fall under Class A category. Good choice if you want a repeater.
Marlin and Winchester both make one in .410
 
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