So, my 9 year old son shot a 870 youth model 20ga for the first time yesterday. I should've known better than to let him do it just by how he was holding it. Hips out forward, shoulders back, etc. Needless to say he was pretty pissed off at me and was a bit choked up. I felt like a complete failure as a father...

I have .410, 28ga, 20, 16, 12, etc, but I'd like to work up a load for either the .410, 28, or 20 for him to try. I want to take him turkey hunting with me, even though I'm still trying to get my first turkey, because it's important to me.

What's the minimum velocity you'd use to kill a turkey? 1050fps?

If anyone has any recipes worked up I'd sure appreciate it.

Jack is tall and has a lean build for a 9 year old so it's hard for me to judge. Hell, when I was 9 I was probably 120lbs and wearing 34 "husky" pants from Walmarks, haha.

what kind of shell did he shoot?

I started my grandson on low brass 7 1/2s, will kill hell out of a turkey at 20 yards.

Just one of those universal low brass 7.5s

I think he just needs more practice.

Just use some of the new TSS loads and a 410 will kill anything.

I would, but the LOP on my .410 is long as hell. I may deconstruct a load to get the shot and play around with it a bit.

I would put the gun on a sand bag like a rifle, and have him get behind the gun right so that his weight is pushed forward, make him get off and on the gun several time's. if he is a tall skinny 9 year old, he can handle the recoil.
I can tell you your not the only one that has felt that way. I was sitting in a box blind with my runt 70 lbs. skinny 9 year old, when a nice 6 pt can out, the only gun in the stand was a hopped up 257 stw. he begged me to shoot the buck, i gave him the gun and figured what's another trip to the ER. he smoked that deer, and did not even notice the recoil. It was another memory made.

Stevens 301 in 410 would be perfect.

I like this idea of getting on and off the gun. I'll definitely do this. I think I take it for granted that mounting a rifle or shotgun was so natural for me since I started shooting at around 5. Unfortunately, we just weren't able to do this with our boys, but we're working on it now.



My dad has a bolt action .410 that was his as a kid that he's bringing down for Jack to try out. My Mossberg 500E has just a tad bit too much LOP.