The American Beagler Forum

Any opinions on this revolver to hunt rabbits with. I wanted to purchase a handgun to carry when running dogs due to the ever growing yote problem. I have that in the Judge with the .45 caliber long colts. It also shots .410 loads and thought it might be fun to use when rabbit hunting! I usually carry my cam corder for video and it gets a little tough carring the shotgun with the camera.

Great for home defense and yote defense but not the best choice in a 410 handgun for rabbit hunting if you want to harvest many bunnies, IMHO. Although, harvesting bunnies means little to me for it is all about the running.
I wouldn't mind having one for auto carry. I bet if you hit the boogy man at point blank range in the face with a 410 load of 6 shot it would ruin his day.

It is not legal in PA. You should check out a TC Contender, it is legal

the taurus is legal in pa. it has a rifled barrel.

The Tauras would be a good weapon if you are shooting them off your foot!
Get a T/C Encore and then you can shoot the yotes and the rabbits

Why would this gun be illegal in Pa? I am assuming by what you guys are telling me that this gun does not reach out? How far would I be able to take a shot at a rabbit. I am not real worried about havesting them or I would carry my shot gun. My main concern is protection from the yotes, but thought it would be fun to try for rabbit as well.

There was an article in the north american hunter about the gun, I believe they said it is good for rabbits out to about 10 to 15 yrds.pretty cool little gun.i would really like to get one ,but I`m broke. I think the article was in the may or June issue of 08.

It's illegal for use in PA on small game.

cannot be plugged to a 3 shell capacity with a one peice filler that cannot be removed without disassembling the gun and it is .41 caliber.

Incahoots is correct, A TC contender with a .410 barrel is legal because it is a single shot, This is from our regulation book
Regulations
Arms & Ammunition: 1) Manually operated and autoloading shotguns with a capacity of no more than 3 shells in
the chamber and magazine combined; 2) Manually operated rifles and handguns less than 23 caliber; 3) Muzzleloading
rifles and handguns 40 caliber or less and shotguns; and 4) long, recurve and compound bows and arrows. Singleprojectile
ammunition, or fine shot pellets no larger than No.4 lead, bismuth-tin, or tungsten-iron, or No. 2 steel. Note:
Rifle and handgun caliber restrictions do not apply when hunting woodchucks, although rifles and handguns must be
manually operated. While hunting small game during the bear or muzzleloader deer seasons, the only rifle or handgun
that can be used is a 22 caliber or less rimfire.

This is just the thread I've been looking for . I have been looking for info on this subject and have a question. I was worried about the Judge and the rifled barrel. Shot spread would be to great at any distance for rabbit or yotes i think. My primary concern is rabbit hunting and the 25 yard shot or so.

What size barrel would you reconmend with the ENCORE. I assume the longer the barrel the longer the shot potential. Don't won't it to long or I would just carry a 410.

Well don't that just stink (below). I just bought one thinking I could use it but I guess not. Well at least I can keep the dogs protected from yotes. Maybee but I doubt it, the gun shop will take it back since they are the ones who suggested it for both yotes and small game. Oh well.


Arms & Ammunition: 1) Manually operated and autoloading shotguns with a capacity of no more than 3 shells in
the chamber and magazine combined; 2) Manually operated rifles and handguns less than 23 caliber; 3) Muzzleloading
rifles and handguns 40 caliber or less and shotguns; and 4) long, recurve and compound bows and arrows. Singleprojectile
ammunition, or fine shot pellets no larger than No.4 lead, bismuth-tin, or tungsten-iron, or No. 2 steel. Note:
Rifle and handgun caliber restrictions do not apply when hunting woodchucks, although rifles and handguns must be
manually operated. While hunting small game during the bear or muzzleloader deer seasons, the only rifle or handgun
that can be used is a 22 caliber or less rimfire.

Just got off the phone with the game commission regarding this. Man was he a real piece of work! He would not give me a straight up answer of yes or no. As far as the maximum of three shells that just pertains to shotguns so I am ok there. Were it gets tricky is that it has to be a handgun or rifle of less than .23 caliber. Well the the Judge is a .45 cal but obivously I would not be using that for rabbits but instead .410 gage shot. Do you guys think that it is illegal since it is a .45 eventhough I would not be using that load. Also, the only way they could get me would to actually see me use it since I have a permit to carry.

Just don't have any 45 LC ammo on you when you are hunting rabbits. When you are running in the off season I'd alterante 410 and 45LC for yote control.

I could be wrong here, but isn't a .410 actually a caliber dimension and not a gauge? I thought it is basically a .41 caliber?

Eva's Beagles wrote:I could be wrong here, but isn't a .410 actually a caliber dimension and not a gauge? I thought it is basically a .41 caliber?

It is actually called the .410 bore and is not a gauge, but rather a caliber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.410_bore
.410 bore, commonly misnamed the .410 gauge, is the smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available. It has similar base dimensions to the .45 Colt revolver cartridge (though the .410 is significantly longer, up to 3 inches in length), allowing many single-shot firearms and some revolvers chambered in that caliber to fire shot without any modifications.
Pronounced four-ten, the .410 shotgun is a bore and not a gauge because the barrel diameter is .410 inches (10.4 mm); a true gauge is a measurement of the number of lead balls of bore diameter that constitute a pound (454 grams). The .410, when measured by gauge, would be around 67 or 68 gauge.[1] A true gauge measuring .410 would have a 2.25 inch (57 mm) bore; a 410 gauge would measure .225 inches (5.7 mm). In the US, the .410 is the only popular shotgun cartridge named by bore rather than gauge, though it is often referred to as a four-ten gauge. In the United Kingdom and other English speaking countries, all shotgun sizes are called bore, whether measured by gauge or bore diameter.