Two of the most electric advents in the sporting world recently have been Federal Premium 13/16 oz. .410 Super Shot loads of #9 Tungsten, and the .410 Viper G2 Bronze semi-auto by the Turkish firearms importer TriStar. The greatest excitement spinning around the combination of the two, rendering the venerable .410 as newly born and now and really for the first time impressively transported into the super-realm of 40-yard and + turkey hunting and waterfowling?
The technical specs for each have been thoroughly inked and celebrated over the same period in any number of factory promos and second-party reviews, can be readily accessed by internet search, and are therefore not my purpose here.
I just thought it might not be hopelessly boring to read one old curmudgeon’s field peculiarities and notions about the two. As, naturally, since Federal has been my factory day-in-and-out shotshell of choice for 50 years in any gauge, and TriStar has earned a respectable reputation for serviceable and appealing shotguns that won’t break the bank, my interest piqued. Even though I am not normally an aficionado of semi-autos outside of waterfowl and turkey. And there only as an occasional whim or protective alternate for my favorite double guns.
I really don’t give a tinker’s damn about slaying turkeys at super yardage, my consistent aspiration tricking them into ranges of 11 yards and under, where I can savor his energy just short of cardiac arrest, see the erotic hen-glint in his eyes, and thrill at every spit and drum before I try as ethically as possible to reduce his life to end.
And let’s be realistic, kids have been killing turkeys ecstatically with .410s and plain old lead since Chinamen laid the rails, long before the undeniable effectiveness and availability of tungsten super shot. Which handloaders have known about, and smugly tried to keep under the basket for years. You just work ’im in close, keep young Jimmy from shivering off his seat, whisper him through the shot and Thanksgiving turkey for Grandpa. It’s called hunting, and a 9-year-old shoots better at 20 yards and under than 40 to 50.
Waterfowling’s a little different story, the .410 summing up overall a bit puny. Admittedly, TSS can change that demonstrably. I’ve seen that happen, with a 28, more than once, at stretch yardage, with my good friend Eddie Smith.
All that being said, the timeless romance of the .410, a much more effaceable way it can ethically kill, even to 40 yards on a bird that’s hung up and has beat you every other way before you finally managed to get that close . . . and a gun for it that’s fun, attractive, light and nimble enough to make an old man smile— maybe leave behind the cumbersome twelve—ain’t nothing to blow your nose at.
At Sporting Classics, we lean toward coverage of higher end guns, but when a good thing comes along that looks good, feels good, shoots good and won’t wreck an already gimpy shoulder with carry and recoil, it’s worth knowing about. Especially when it comes at good value.
There are fun guns, romance and art guns, utility guns, and guns that muster the medium ground between all three. The TriStar G2 Viper .410, either in bronze or now in camo, hits that happy middle quite pleasingly. It’s above all a fun gun, to carry and shoot— that I can attest to—and with Federal Premium’s TSS load, should be formidable on turkey. That, I don’t know.
While I have shot a few TSS ducks with it impressively—it doesn’t just cripple, it hammers ’em down dead—try as try might, I couldn’t get the Bronze G2 .410 in time for last year’s turkey seasons. And I did try! Though purposely as anyone might through his favorite gun dealer, not with my magazine connection. Quite unsuccessfully for nine months, despite all efforts by a pretty good dealer and a number of national distributors. Availability was zero.
From the moment of TriStar’s Shot Show debut of the gun, it was a pin-up sweetheart. NRA’s Gun of the Year eventually, slavered over in a number of highly touted reviews unfired even before. TriStar did get a hat’s off from me for bringing it onto the market, and I wanted to try it, but it wasn’t until I used my media credentials that I finally managed to lay hands on one for trial.
I’ve had and shot the gun for three months now, and I like it. Again, it’s a fun gun. Alive in your hands, and just a happy, nice looking package to shoot. It’s functioned perfectly, no cycling problems (I did, as the company suggests, run several boxes of high-brass 3-inch loads through it, before the lighter stuff), balances well, comes up and points well, and when it goes off with TSS, feels about like your Misses’ love pat. Personal preference might have placed the safety on top, rather than trigger-stern, but that’s just me. Will it Federal TSS turkeys stone-cold for real at 40-50 yards? I’ll know soon, if I’m forced—once at least—to take such a shot. Toward that end, it does pattern plenty well enough on paper at such distances, even with the standard factory modified and full chokes in the tube. With TSS load density and sustained energy, probably.
My single disappointment with the gun I was sent, and only because of the factory boast and advertising photos of “high grade Turkish walnut” was the wood. Which was nice, but a ways south of the claim. The pleasing on-the-real-market price point does have its limitations, I suppose. You can’t, maybe, expect the Angus Barn on a KFC budget.
It is TriStar’s hottest number now, and I do know from key company officials that they are working hard to match availability with demand.
Again, a camo version has been announced. Should you want one, you might grow new eye teeth before you get it, but I hope not. At any rate, it may be worth it.
(Update: Since March 4, when this was written, I have killed unequivocally two big Easterns and a coyote at 43.5 yards with this combination, using the factory modified choke, and with persistence acquired a camo version of the gun through normal dealer acquisition. That in testament, I do believe now Jesus walked on the water.)