vafish,
I saw the Rossi matched pair .410 / .22 at Dicks the other day. At the store I went to, they weren't on sale - regular price was somewhere around $150 if I'm remembering right. I didn't know much about them, so I passed. Seeing your post though, I think it's worth a re-look.
I had several reasons that I was looking for a .410 only. Let me back up a bit. Hopefully my thought process makes sence, but I have been known to be "off" before. :mrgreen:
My son is not old enough to shoot a .410 yet. Actually, he's not mentally old enough to shoot any real firearm yet. He's not quite 5 - He turns 5 on Christmas day this year. He has a huge interest in firearms, which scares my wife a bit. She's not scared of firearms at all - she's scared of how interested he is in them. After he watched Pirates of the Carribean, he was "pistol happy". He saw a fake Pirates of the Carribean pistol in a toy store and wanted it. My wife, not thinking anything of it, bought it for him. That night, he was running around the house, pointing it at both of us, quoting lines from the movie. I reprimanded him for pointing the toy gun at me.
I have mixed feelings about the reprimand. As a kid, my friends and I played cowboys and indians, etc... I've shot paintballs at people on a range. So I feel like a hypocrite telling my son not to aim a toy gun at me. However, the reason I feel the way I do is...
Everytime I take a firearm out of my gunsafe - for hunting, cleaning, range shooting, etc... my son wants to know when he's going to get one of his own. He just about flipped out the other day when I came home with my XD40SC. He happened to walk into my bedroom right as I was putting it back in it's box. First words out of his mouth, as his eyes were wide open, looking very excited... "Ooooooooohhhhh. Is that one for ME daddy?" I quickly put it away and told him "no son, that's a real gun". His reply, "When am I going to get a real gun daddy?". My reply of "when you get older" just about brought him to tears.
But it scares me a bit that he is so interested in firearms at this early age. I don't own a pistol safe (yet), but after that afternoon... I'm buying one. Even though they are WAY out of his reach, kids can do some amazing things, and I have no doubt that if he really wanted to, he would find a way to reach it. Therefore, I removed the guns, ammo and loaded magazines from the bedroom and stored them in the closet, re-positioning the gun cases on the shelf so that they weren't as visable to him. I will have a pistol safe by the end of this week.
When I feel that he is responsible enough to shoot, I want to take him to the range. Right now, I don't think he is. His attention span just isn't long enough. Even with me standing right there, watching his every move, I still don't feel it's time yet. Maybe I'm being over-protective, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
So, there is a .22 Glenfield model 20 sitting in my gun safe right now. I rebuilt it, and it's a shooter. Nice little lightweight 22 bolt action. Perfect for his first .22 - when I feel he is ready for it.
So I have a .22 for him, and wanted to get a .410 as his first shotgun... for more than one reason. First, I love shooting the .410's - I always have. I have other shotguns in both 20 and 12. I still like shooting .410's. I can use it until he gets old enough to shoot. I think H&R's little single shot shotguns are perfect for teaching a youngster - no semi-auto's, etc... I'm even a little sceptical about the pump. I want him to concentrate on the first shot, and make it count. I don't want him thinking "If I miss, I have two more shots". That is why I like that Glenfield .22 also - I think the little bolt action will not only be fun for him to shoot, but it will also make him concentrate on the shot. That's another reason I like the .410's - they don't throw out as many pellets as a 20 or 12. Make the shot count. The smaller amount of pellets generally doesn't mess the meat up as bad either, as I like to eat squirrel and rabbit.
Is my way of thinking jacked up, or am I making sense?
Sorry for the long post.
All the best,
Glenn