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I love my Governor...never thought I would say that in Massachusetts
- Thread starter Ultrarunner
- Start date
My personal thoughts on .410 as a defensive round,
People love to throw out "it's a handheld shot, so it must be a death ray". Yes, it a handgun than can accept .410 shotshell. There's a real good reason why next to nobody uses .410 shotshell for anything but squirrels and small birds, as its performance with many loads it worse than poor.
There is also the awesome, "yeah, but buckshot shoots .38 caliber balls so it's like shooting a .38spcl like 40 times". Ok, sure, but no not really. Yes, there are multiple defensive offerings of buckshot that contain mutilple .35 cal balls, their combined weight is only slightly more than 1 round of quality .38spcl defensive ammo. In addition to their low weight, they also commonly suffer from overpenttration, and also have no expansion capabilities. Design philosophy in almost all major defensive ammunition is to dump all of the projectiles energy within the intended target while containing the round and preventing overpenttration... .410 defensive ammo as a whole ignores this in an attempt to make up for its low preformance.
Finally, it the attempt to make .410 a viable round there has been slug / buckshot combo rounds developed. These are from my experience probably the best .410 defensive rounds available.... But, when you start to compare the actual capabilities of the round, you find the actual performance somewhere in the 9mm / .40 s&w / 38spcl +p performance range. At this point, you now have a 6 shot 30 oz revolver with a heavy trigger pull that has at best mediocre terminal performance and nearly no accuracy beyond 7-10 yards.... All for a price that is 50-100% more than dozens of proven self defense firearms, both revolver and semiautomatic, chambered in proven self defense calibers that have been vetted by decades of real world use in self defense and police / military use
There is one thing the Govenor is not, a Taurus! If you must have a .410 handgun, make sure it's the S&W as it is light years better than anything Taurus could produce. That being said, I do enjoy revolvers... I personally will take my S&W 627, with 8 rounds of 357, that costs about $75 more than the Govenor any day of the week
People love to throw out "it's a handheld shot, so it must be a death ray". Yes, it a handgun than can accept .410 shotshell. There's a real good reason why next to nobody uses .410 shotshell for anything but squirrels and small birds, as its performance with many loads it worse than poor.
There is also the awesome, "yeah, but buckshot shoots .38 caliber balls so it's like shooting a .38spcl like 40 times". Ok, sure, but no not really. Yes, there are multiple defensive offerings of buckshot that contain mutilple .35 cal balls, their combined weight is only slightly more than 1 round of quality .38spcl defensive ammo. In addition to their low weight, they also commonly suffer from overpenttration, and also have no expansion capabilities. Design philosophy in almost all major defensive ammunition is to dump all of the projectiles energy within the intended target while containing the round and preventing overpenttration... .410 defensive ammo as a whole ignores this in an attempt to make up for its low preformance.
Finally, it the attempt to make .410 a viable round there has been slug / buckshot combo rounds developed. These are from my experience probably the best .410 defensive rounds available.... But, when you start to compare the actual capabilities of the round, you find the actual performance somewhere in the 9mm / .40 s&w / 38spcl +p performance range. At this point, you now have a 6 shot 30 oz revolver with a heavy trigger pull that has at best mediocre terminal performance and nearly no accuracy beyond 7-10 yards.... All for a price that is 50-100% more than dozens of proven self defense firearms, both revolver and semiautomatic, chambered in proven self defense calibers that have been vetted by decades of real world use in self defense and police / military use
There is one thing the Govenor is not, a Taurus! If you must have a .410 handgun, make sure it's the S&W as it is light years better than anything Taurus could produce. That being said, I do enjoy revolvers... I personally will take my S&W 627, with 8 rounds of 357, that costs about $75 more than the Govenor any day of the week
