The 410 shotgun 45 handgun combination is quite appealing to many people. Firstly, you have the 45 Colt cartridge with its proven ballistics as a hunting and self defense round: “Double Tap” ammo has a 225 grain round that boasts 1117 pounds of muzzle energy and a wopping 1495 fps! As for the .410 shotgun side of things, because the 45 colt round and the 410 Hull are of equal size you can chamber both. The .410 shell loaded with #4-7 birdshot at a close distance can wreak havoc on snakes: both those that crawl and those that do not.
The purpose for writing this article is that some folks have written in wondering what size slug to use in the Taurus or Leinad family of rifled 45/410 pistols. The largest .410 shotgun slug is only .410″ in diameter. The 45 Colt is .451-.454 and therefore you can fire a .410 slug from your Taurus, Rossi, et al., but accuracy will be lousy as will power. The 45 Colt is the slug for this family of .410 shotgun.
Some guys mistakenly believe you can fire a .45 slug from a .410 shotgun – not so. The same principle works in reverse and if you try to fire that .45
Dedicated to the Smallbore Shotgun 