I’ve always loved shotguns and likely always will. I like to turn everything into a shotgun, and I’ve finally found a means to turn my everyday AR 15 into a shotgun. I’ve always wanted the ability to throw an upper on a standard rifle lower and call it a day. Obviously, that limits my caliber to a relatively small shotshell, and in the United States, that means 410 bore. My AR 410 dreams came true due to firearms importer Charles Daly.

Charles Daly imports firearms from all around the globe, and often some are quite interesting. Their shotguns and shotgun parts tend to come from Turkey, and I don’t doubt my AR 410 came from the same place. Let’s be clear, this is an upper only, and it’s designed for Mil-Spec AR 15 lower receivers.

My AR 410 upper has been tossed on a BCM lower setup I’ve had sitting around. It squeezed on without issue and locked right in place. The Charles Daly AR 410 comes with a buffer you are supposed to use with the upper. They advise that if you don’t, you can damage your gun, and in no uncertain terms, they will not cover any damage caused by using the wrong buffer.

Why?

Well, you might be asking why the heck do I need a 410 upper for my AR 15? Well, you likely don’t; I wanted it because I think it’s neat. AR 15 lowers are like bows, and the wide variety of uppers you can use are like different arrows.

My collection of uppers is much like a quiver of arrows. I have one for everything and every potential task. I didn’t have a specific need for a AR 410, but I sure wanted one. It seemed like it would be a fun pest eliminator that could decimate squirrels, rabbits, and other pests that plague my country-living lifestyle.

It’s also a semi-auto option for a 410, and I didn’t have one of those. All of it was dirt cheap. The upper cost me a cool $230 at my local gun store. That’s cheaper than a dedicated semi-auto 410.

The AR 410 gives me a 410 shotgun with AR-like controls and, of course, AR modularity. I can strap on any number of stocks, pistol grips, triggers, sights, and more. AR ergonomics are already pretty freakin’ sweet, and keeping those ergonomics will be a plus for some. If you know how to shoot a AR 15, you’ll now know how to handle an AR scattergun.

A 5.56 upper and a 410 upper gives you options for killing most game around the southeast United States. From small pests to deer and hogs, I’m covered with one gun.

 

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Breaking Down the AR 410 Upper

To comply with NFA laws, the barrel is 19 inches long, so it’s a little longer than your standard carbine. The AR 410 upper comes equipped with a short quad rail for mounting lights, lasers, cup holders, and beyond. Along the top, we get an optics rail, and Charles Daly even included iron sights with the gun.

Predictably the AR 410 utilizes gas operation. You can’t exactly fit an inertia system into this thing. The manual also states the gun is equipped with a choke, but it most certainly isn’t. It’s not threaded for chokes by any means.

The AR 410 also features this weird barrel shroud thing. It’s slotted and capped at the end. This shroud is completely removable and reveals a skinny little barrel that looks a little silly. The barrel end is threaded, but I’m not sure of any shotgun compatible muzzle devices.

Other than that, it’s all AR 15. You get a stock standard upper receiver with a forward assist and dust cover. The charging handle is massive and beyond mil-spec for sure. It’s nice and chunky and easy to work with.

Weight-wise this thing comes in at 4.9 pounds total. It’s a little chunky when compared to more modern upper receivers. The quad rail, 19-inch barrel, and barrel shroud certainly add a little heft to this big beast. However, it never feels tough to manage.

Ammo Compatibility

Semi-auto shotguns are notoriously ammo picky. As the gauge shrinks, they tend to get pickier. Most 12 gauge shotguns offer plenty of reliability, a good deal of 20 gauges do well, but 410 guns require a good deal of knowledge about your chosen load and shotgun.

As you’d expect, the semi-auto AR 410 will do better with hotter loads. We’ll talk a little more on that later, but first, we need to address actual ammo compatibility. First and foremost, as a mag-fed gun, you are reliant on both the magazine and magwell to accommodate your chosen caliber. As such, you are stuck with 2.5-inch shells with the AR 410. No 3-inchers for you magnum boys.

The thing about shotgun shells is that no two are ever the same. When we say 2.5 inches, we are talking about the pre-crimped measurement. When crimped, the shells are actually a good deal smaller. The 2.5-inch shells need to measure 2.29 inches or smaller to fit in the AR 410 magazine.

Oh Yeah — Let’s Talk Magazines

The Charles Daly AR 410 comes with a simple polymer 5 round magazine. Five rounds is for the birds and J-frame revolvers. The good news is you can find magazines that go into the 10 and 15 round capacities. This extends your capabilities a good deal, and who doesn’t want that?

The included magazine is a polymer PMAG wanna-be. We get nice texturing, a robust follower, and a compact design. It also feeds quite well, and the five-round capacity does make it legal to hunt within my state. Although for birds, I’ll need to plug it to three rounds.

Scatter Lead Downrange

Let’s hit the range with our AR 410! I loaded up a small smattering of buckshot and slugs mixed with various birdshot types. Sadly the market is somewhat flooded, and most of my 410 buckshot is the 3-inch variety. I would’ve loved to try a wider variety of 410 buckshot and slugs, but right now, that’s tough to do.

Before I went to the range, I tossed an HS509T on the AR 410 and did a quick zero with buckshot loads. I love these little optics on shotguns and use the circle and dot reticle. The circle is for buckshot, and the dot is for slugs.

I did have a ton of birdshot to dispense, and as the cheapest type of ammunition, I figured most people would be shooting this more than anything else. I loaded up a pile of birdshot in the 1150 to 1250 FPS varieties.

Imagine my surprise when it all cycled relatively fine in the AR 410. The lighter 1150 didn’t present any more issues than the 1250 stuff. That being said, the gun is only about 95 percent reliable. I did get a fair amount of failure to ejects that slowly declined the more I shot. Most of the time, the gun ran perfectly fine with the occasional hiccup here and there.

With the 19-inch barrel, it’s a rifle-length upper but still feels compact. I’d normally find this unacceptable. However, I have a soft spot for the AR 410. I’m not using it for anything serious, so I don’t mind a few issues here or there. There aren’t enough jams or failures to be frustrating, and for how cheap the upper is I can’t hate it.

What About Buckshot and Slugs?

The higher quality Federal and Winchester buckshot ran without issue. The Federal slugs also ran flawlessly. As mentioned, the mixture of slugs and buckshot only totaled 20 rounds, but all 20 ran perfectly.

Patterning showed no surprise for a cylinder bore 410 at 15 yards. It’s good enough to take a moderate-sized game. If I was hunting anything larger than a coyote, I might prefer a big caliber just for the fact that I only get three 00 pellets in a 410 load.

I’d also not choose a 410 for home defense. If recoil sensitivity is a big issue, then the 20 gauge shotgun is a better choice for defensive use.

Recoil and Muzzle Rise

The recoil is roughly the same as a 5.56 round. It hardly moved, and my petite, recoil-sensitive wife found the gun pleasant to shoot. Muzzle rise was also minimal and easy to control when firing rapidly. My Holosun 509T’s red dot barely moved, even when I was firing rapidly. It stayed on target, and I could swap between targets quickly and efficiently with every load type.

Thumbs Up?

I like the little thing! It’s my pest obliterating beast that offers rapid follow-up shots for animals that tend to group together. When I hunt for rabbits or squirrels, I’m often getting several at a time, and being able to rapidly transition from target to target is nice and handy. Being able to hunt with a familiar platform makes it quite easy to transition controls, mount accessories, and customize the gun.

I wouldn’t use the AR 410 beyond small game hunting, pest killing, snake eliminating, and plinking. 410 doesn’t offer me the pellets or power I want from a shotgun, but it provides me with a compact and lightweight platform.

Besides, it’s damn fun to shoot. 

Have you ever looked at your magazine and thought, this thing needs more rounds? Well, if so, then your options are pretty limited, and outside of bending time and space, you might want to consider a magazine extension. Tyrant Designs makes magazine extensions for several different handguns including the Glock 43X and Glock 48 series. I recently got my hands on a Glock 43X and immediately set out to fix Glock “Perfection.” One upgrade I dived into was a Tyrant Designs magazine extension.

 

The Glock 43X offered me ten rounds of 9mm, but I’m greedy, so I wanted more, and I wanted it now! The Tyrant Designs magazine extension grants me +4 rounds. I’ve got near Glock 19 magazine capacity now, in a much smaller package.

The mag extension is made from aluminum, milled, and anodized in a wide variety of colors. Included with the Tyrant Designs magazine extension is a longer 10% power spring to accommodate the now longer magazine design.

At first glance, the Tyrant Designs magazine extension is well crafted and beautifully milled. The scalloped sides and textured rear allow for an easy and sure grip. The color is evenly applied, and the grey really pops.

Tyrant Designs magazine extension…on a concealed carry gun?

Yeah, I know. At first glance, it doesn’t make much sense. Why would I want a long magazine for a concealed carry gun? Won’t it just give me a Glock 19 sized rear end with a Glock 43 sized front? Yes, in fact, it does.

However, I’m not carrying the Glock 43X with the Tyrant Designs Magazine extension.

I’m carrying the Glock 43X with a standard OEM 10 round magazine and packing my extended model as a backup magazine. I can toss this thing in a NeoMag, a belt-mounted magazine pouch, or pretty much any other practicable spare magazine carry option as a backup.

I figure if crap hits the fan hard enough that I need to reload, I might as well reload with as much ammo as possible, right? Fourteen rounds give me the fighting power of a much larger gun, and I’ll likely never need it, but I feel comfortable having it.

Outside of the extra ammunition it offers, I do find the longer magazines easier to draw when compared to the shorter and thinner OEM mags. That hunk of metal that makes up the Tyrant Designs magazine extension serves as a great grip for reloading.

Who doesn’t want a little extra girth and width?

The scalloped sides allow you to grip the magazine with a little slip-proof protection. They let you dig in nice and deep when gripping the magazine and allow you to spin it into action. My fat fingers have gripped a magazine minimally and sent it flying, and I gripped and ripped it. A little extra texture provides an awesome amount of grip to prevent people like me from being clumsy monkeys.

 

• Tyrant Designs magazine extensions in blue. 

• Tyrant Designs magazine extensions in black.

• Tyrant Designs magazine extensions in gray.

• Tyrant Designs magazine extensions in red.

 

Installing the Tyrant Designs Mag Extension

I still hate the Glock magazine base plate system. Why do they make removing a baseplate so difficult? Every other magazine in the world comes apart with ease, but Glock magazines like to be difficult.

Anyway, once I removed that snug little bastard, I installed the Tyrant Designs magazine extension. It snapped on relatively easily. It stays in place via a spring-loaded plunger. This design makes taking it apart much simpler than the stock Glock method.

The new +10% spring is a little tricky, but once you get a good grip on it, you can slide the magazine extension into place. Once locked in, the mag extension stays put and has zero wiggle to it. To remove it, press down on the plunger and press the magazine out.

Nothing too complicated, and you can easily revert back to an OEM stock magazine. OEM Glock magazines measure out to 4.25 inches, and the Tyrant Designs magazine extension measures out at about five and 3/16th inches.

 

• Next up: Tips to make your concealed carry handgun disappear.

 

Putting In the Work

We got our gun, our magazines, and our Tyrant Designs magazine extension in place. All that’s left is to hit the range and test my theory regarding this being a great spare mag option. I brought out my NeoMag spare mag holder and hit the reload work. Although, first, I needed to make sure the thing works.

Loaded down with some quality brass-cased Winchester White Box, I hit the ground running. I’ve been practicing some Jeff Cooper drills for an article I’m writing, and it seemed like a good time to see if the Tyrant Designs magazine extension worked. I needed to ensure it fed ammo reliably and didn’t degrade the boring nature of Glock reliability.

I ran through multiple incarnations of the Mozambique drill, the Dozier Drill, and the El Presidente without issue. The gun chugged along without issue and functioned just like it would normally. I was pleased by the mag extension’s performance and found it had zero effect on reliability.

Oh, and the Tyrant Designs magazine extension worked perfectly with the Tyrant Designs magwell. I mean, it better work, right? I was happy I didn’t need to remove the magwell to use the mag extension.

Every time I hit the reload button, the magazine dropped like a rock. That extra weight helps that mag pop out. I’d imagine in a serious malfunction situation, that extra grip area would make ripping the magazine out possible.

 

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The Reload Theory

The magazine with Tyrant Designs Magazine extension works! It works exceptionally well and fires and functions reliably. How does it work as a spare magazine? Well, it actually works well. With the NeoMag, I worked with both the stock OEM 10 round magazine, and my Tyrant Designs enhanced magazine.

Without a doubt, the longer, magazine extension-equipped magazine works better for reloads. I can grab that thing like an animal and put it into action. The Tyrant Designs Magazine extension provides so much more gripping surface than the standard magazine. Better yet, the extra grip space makes it easy to retrieve and easy to slam home.

It’s almost an inch longer but conceals just as easily as the standard 10 round magazine. It disappears into my pocket without issue using the same NeoMag I use for my regular OEM magazine.

I think my theory has proven itself fruitful. The Tyrant Designs Glock 43 X magazine extension provides four more rounds and makes the magazine easier to retrieve and easier to reload. It’s a slight upgrade that gives you a little more go-juice when the fecal matter hits the fan. While we’re talking about Tyrant Designs, check out some of their other Glock 43X and Glock 48 gear, like the G48/G43X magwell, extended mag release, and universal 9mm T-comp compensator.

What do you guys think? Does a little extra ammo appeal to you? Let us know below.

 

 

• Read more about these and other brands of “Extendo Clip”! 

 

The term ‘budget optic’ often creates a reaction in me that is akin to what happens when I hear nails on a chalkboard. Budget optics usually suck, even though people will often defend them till they’re blue in the face. Optics from no-name companies on Amazon find themselves on rifles way too often. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and the Bushnell TRS 25 seems to be one of those exceptions.

The TRS 25 came out years ago and has since steadily proved itself to be the alpha when it comes to budget optics. I remember distinctly avoiding it purely due to its price tag. I assumed with such a low price, and it was just more junk. However, one way or another, my curiosity overwhelmed me. I kept seeing the TRS 25 pop up and hearing good things about it. So I finally purchased one.

It’s lived it’ss life mainly sitting on a 9mm PCC for several years now. I think I have a pretty good opinion on how the ole optic holds up.

Bushnell TRS 25 Specs

The TRS 25 falls into the realm of being a compact red dot. The objective lens is 25mms wide, and the whole package is only 2.5 inches long. Weight-wise you won’t feel anchored by the 3.6 ounces you’re strapping to your gun.

Bushnell includes a low mount integrated into the optic but adding a high mount is easy and gives you that AR-height co-witness that we all know and love. The Hi-Rise model makes this a one-and-done thing, but you can use any Picatinny rail riser if you so choose.

The TRS 25 packs 11 brightness levels in its simplistic and old-school rotating brightness wheel. In the middle setting, it will last for 5,000 hours. Not too bad for an optic that utilizes a CR2032 battery.

To keep things versatile, you get a 3 MOA red dot that would make it a natural on centerfire and rimfire rifles as well as shotguns and even sport-style pistols like the Ruger MK series. The little 3 MOA dot works rather well for most firearms.

The TRS 25 looks like a million other bottom-barrel grade red dots. They all tend to have a similar design, but somehow the TRS 25 rises above that. Perhaps Bushnell was more demanding with their Chinese contractors, or they just put out the right specs to the right people.

Budget red dots is a spectrum of red dots. Depending on who’s saying it can mean anything from the junk tier optics that cost anywhere from 30 to 60 dollars I mentioned previously to options from Holosun that cost a couple of hundred bucks. The TRS 25 sits anywhere from 80 to 120 bucks depending on the mount included.

The Dot

That 3 MOA red dot does do something different than most budget red dots. Most hit the 2 MOA mark, making them solely for rifles. That little extra size makes this dot a little more versatile. It’s not the crispest, clearest circular dot. It certainly has some rough edges to it when you compare it to a more expensive dot.

The 11 brightness settings are important to consider. Can a budget optic get bright enough to see during the day? I can tell you the TRS 25 certainly can. I live in the sunshine state, so my optics gotta get nice and bright. The TRS 25 works perfectly at high noon at settings 8, 9, and sometimes 10.

At the higher brightness levels, you’ll see some halo effect in the optic. Also, the wheel that controls the brightness level is a major hassle. It’s stiff and doesn’t move easily. To be fair, I’d prefer it to be stiff than loose. (There is a joke in there somewhere.)

To the Church of Steel and Lead

Mounted on my el-cheapo PCC, I’ve used the optic to put hundreds of rounds down range and for numerous range trips. It’s a fun gun beyond anything else and came from my early days of AR Tom Foolery when the purse strings were tight, and 9mm cost eight bucks a box. The TRS 25 is a very fitting red dot for this blue-collar build.

What you first notice when looking through the lens on the TRS 25 is a noticeable greenish hue to it. That is the reflective coating that allows you to see your red dot. The coating allows all light except red to pass through it, which captures the light emitted from the emitter and gives you a usable aiming point.

The reason you see so much hue, especially compared to other dots, is that the coating is cheaper and likely applied a bit thicker. These coatings allow you to have a bright dot that uses less power.

The second thing you’ll notice is a big square sitting in the lower right quadrant. That is your emitter, and it’s glued in place. That’s kind of the norm with cheap optics. It may bother some—my TRS 25 even came with a warning letting you know what it is and that your dot isn’t broken and this glob was normal.

Zeroing requires a flat head tool or brass casing. It’s simple, and the dot moves 1 MOA per click. It’s not precise, but it’s also a red dot and a red dot range that’s precise enough. Once you got the dot on target, the fun can begin.

Through the Paces

I’ve put thousands of 9mm rounds downrange with the TRS 25, and admittedly, 9mm ain’t much of a challenge to the topic. However, its zero has never budged, and the optic has yet to fail me. If I turn it on and it doesn’t work, then I just gotta swap batteries, and I know it comes right back to life.

For you kind folks, I tossed it on a more potently powerful boomstick in the form of a 12 gauge pump-action shotgun. I wanted to see if that emitter would flutter, the dot fail, and if the zero would falter. We couldn’t do it with just birdshot, so I loaded up some standard Federal Buckshot into a Sentry 12 shotgun and let it loose.

I made sure to focus on the dot to see if it would flicker off between shots. That’s often a clear sight of poor battery connection. In 20 rounds of buckshot, it remained on. My shoulder might’ve been feeling it, but the TRS 25 soldiered through.

I popped it back on the PCC and let it fly. The zero held without issue. Not too bad, but next, I strapped it to my ASP Red Gun and dropped it. I dropped it from shoulder height and I dropped it on both sides and the top a few times.

That emitter must be tough because it held zero once I tossed it back on my PCC. It’s a sturdy little optic.

Downsides of the TRS 25

The TRS 25 is a robust, durable red dot option that provides a truly budget-friendly experience. As such, it often functions well above its price point. Most optics priced this low wouldn’t stand drops, falls, or even rough recoil. Mine has been in use for years without an issue and for several thousand rounds. (Admittedly, most were 9mm from a rifle.)

The optic does have a couple of downsides related to the dot. If you move it up and down and left to right rapidly, you’ll see the dot ‘stretch’ a bit, kind of like a cheap laser pointer. It’s not a huge deal, but a little distracting when transitioning from target to target.

It also does have that halo effect on bright settings that’s just a little annoying. If you can get past those flaws, you’ll find a great little optic. I wouldn’t use it for duty use, but for home defense and range use, it’s a great little dot.

 

The Glock 48 is the pistol many gun owners have been waiting on for some time. It’s a Slimline 9mm — not technically a single-stack, but close to it — sized to more comfortably fit a wider range of shooter’s hands and maintain the expectations of Glock durability. The gun officially launched in 2019 alongside the Glock 43X, which is slightly shorter, and has ended up with a lot of fans. In this video, the guys at Practically Tactical take their first shots with a two-tone Glock 48 and offer their first impressions.

Glock 48 Basics

Nick and Jeff get started discussing the general details and basic points of the Glock 48. They point out that its dimensions are similar to those of the Glock 19, just in Slimline width, and that Glock has a solid reputation backing it up.

This gun’s overall weight is 20.74 ounces empty and 25.12 ounces with the standard 10 +1 magazine loaded. While it was launched at the same time as the 43X, the 48 model has a slightly longer barrel (the 43X’s barrel length is 3.41 inches and the 48’s barrel is 4.17 inches long). That little bit of extra length is exactly what some shooters prefer, whether for balance or accuracy reasons.

First Shots

The Glock 48 delivers some things as expected, like the Glock factory trigger, but the ergonomics of the gun seem to fit many shooter’s hands better than the double-stack models do. The match-grade Marksman Barrel performs as promised by nailing tighter, more precise groups than many older generation Glocks. And if you’re at all disappointed in its 10 +1 capacity with the standard factory magazines there are other options out there including a truly extended 19 +1 capacity magazine from ETS. Tyrant Designs +4 magazine extensions are also an option for greater capacity without making the gun impossible to conceal.

Live Fire

One of the great things about the video is that you get to see not one but three shooters try out the Glock 48 for the first time. That means different hand sizes, varying stances, and a trio of opinions. Check out the video below:

 

Glock 48 for Concealed Carry?

There are quite a few upsides to using the Glock 48 as your EDC (EveryDay Carry), including:

• •Capacity
• •Concealability
• •Durability (Glocks are proven to be extremely tough guns.)
• •Caliber (9mm is pretty much the current gold standard for self-defense calibers.)
• •Precision (This gun isn’t only accurate, it’s beautifully precise.)
• •Longevity (You’ll get serious life out of the barrel.)
• •Ergonomics

Get Hands-On!

It’s always a good idea to get your own hands-on time with a gun. If at all possible, check out the Glock 48 as a rental at a range near you (or find a friend who has one you can run at the range). And if you don’t normally enjoy Glocks due to how thick they are, this one might surprise you. Try it out before you form an opinion, just like the guys at Practically Tactical did.

Glock 48 Specifications

Model: G48

Caliber: 9x19mm

Capacity: 10 +1 (standard capacity mag)

Overall Length: 7.28 inches

Overall Height: 5.04 inches

Overall Width: 1.10 inches

Slide Width: 0.87 inches

Line of Sight: 5.98 inches

Barrel Length: 4.17 inches

Trigger Distance: 2.64 inches

Weight: 20.74 ounces (empty)

 

I’ve always loved shotguns and likely always will. I like to turn everything into a shotgun, and I’ve finally found a means to turn my everyday AR 15 into a shotgun. I’ve always wanted the ability to throw an upper on a standard rifle lower and call it a day. Obviously, that limits my caliber to a relatively small shotshell, and in the United States, that means 410 bore. My AR 410 dreams came true due to firearms importer Charles Daly.

Charles Daly imports firearms from all around the globe, and often some are quite interesting. Their shotguns and shotgun parts tend to come from Turkey, and I don’t doubt my AR 410 came from the same place. Let’s be clear, this is an upper only, and it’s designed for Mil-Spec AR 15 lower receivers.

My AR 410 upper has been tossed on a BCM lower setup I’ve had sitting around. It squeezed on without issue and locked right in place. The Charles Daly AR 410 comes with a buffer you are supposed to use with the upper. They advise that if you don’t, you can damage your gun, and in no uncertain terms, they will not cover any damage caused by using the wrong buffer.

Why?

Well, you might be asking why the heck do I need a 410 upper for my AR 15? Well, you likely don’t; I wanted it because I think it’s neat. AR 15 lowers are like bows, and the wide variety of uppers you can use are like different arrows.

My collection of uppers is much like a quiver of arrows. I have one for everything and every potential task. I didn’t have a specific need for a AR 410, but I sure wanted one. It seemed like it would be a fun pest eliminator that could decimate squirrels, rabbits, and other pests that plague my country-living lifestyle.

It’s also a semi-auto option for a 410, and I didn’t have one of those. All of it was dirt cheap. The upper cost me a cool $230 at my local gun store. That’s cheaper than a dedicated semi-auto 410.

The AR 410 gives me a 410 shotgun with AR-like controls and, of course, AR modularity. I can strap on any number of stocks, pistol grips, triggers, sights, and more. AR ergonomics are already pretty freakin’ sweet, and keeping those ergonomics will be a plus for some. If you know how to shoot a AR 15, you’ll now know how to handle an AR scattergun.

A 5.56 upper and a 410 upper gives you options for killing most game around the southeast United States. From small pests to deer and hogs, I’m covered with one gun.

Breaking Down the AR 410 Upper

To comply with NFA laws, the barrel is 19 inches long, so it’s a little longer than your standard carbine. The AR 410 upper comes equipped with a short quad rail for mounting lights, lasers, cup holders, and beyond. Along the top, we get an optics rail, and Charles Daly even included iron sights with the gun.

Predictably the AR 410 utilizes gas operation. You can’t exactly fit an inertia system into this thing. The manual also states the gun is equipped with a choke, but it most certainly isn’t. It’s not threaded for chokes by any means.

The AR 410 also features this weird barrel shroud thing. It’s slotted and capped at the end. This shroud is completely removable and reveals a skinny little barrel that looks a little silly. The barrel end is threaded, but I’m not sure of any shotgun compatible muzzle devices.

Other than that, it’s all AR 15. You get a stock standard upper receiver with a forward assist and dust cover. The charging handle is massive and beyond mil-spec for sure. It’s nice and chunky and easy to work with.

Weight-wise this thing comes in at 4.9 pounds total. It’s a little chunky when compared to more modern upper receivers. The quad rail, 19-inch barrel, and barrel shroud certainly add a little heft to this big beast. However, it never feels tough to manage.

Ammo Compatibility

Semi-auto shotguns are notoriously ammo picky. As the gauge shrinks, they tend to get pickier. Most 12 gauge shotguns offer plenty of reliability, a good deal of 20 gauges do well, but 410 guns require a good deal of knowledge about your chosen load and shotgun.

As you’d expect, the semi-auto AR 410 will do better with hotter loads. We’ll talk a little more on that later, but first, we need to address actual ammo compatibility. First and foremost, as a mag-fed gun, you are reliant on both the magazine and magwell to accommodate your chosen caliber. As such, you are stuck with 2.5-inch shells with the AR 410. No 3-inchers for you magnum boys.

The thing about shotgun shells is that no two are ever the same. When we say 2.5 inches, we are talking about the pre-crimped measurement. When crimped, the shells are actually a good deal smaller. The 2.5-inch shells need to measure 2.29 inches or smaller to fit in the AR 410 magazine.

Oh Yeah — Let’s Talk Magazines

The Charles Daly AR 410 comes with a simple polymer 5 round magazine. Five rounds is for the birds and J-frame revolvers. The good news is you can find magazines that go into the 10 and 15 round capacities. This extends your capabilities a good deal, and who doesn’t want that?

The included magazine is a polymer PMAG wanna-be. We get nice texturing, a robust follower, and a compact design. It also feeds quite well, and the five-round capacity does make it legal to hunt within my state. Although for birds, I’ll need to plug it to three rounds.

Scatter Lead Downrange

Let’s hit the range with our AR 410! I loaded up a small smattering of buckshot and slugs mixed with various birdshot types. Sadly the market is somewhat flooded, and most of my 410 buckshot is the 3-inch variety. I would’ve loved to try a wider variety of 410 buckshot and slugs, but right now, that’s tough to do.

Before I went to the range, I tossed an HS509T on the AR 410 and did a quick zero with buckshot loads. I love these little optics on shotguns and use the circle and dot reticle. The circle is for buckshot, and the dot is for slugs.

I did have a ton of birdshot to dispense, and as the cheapest type of ammunition, I figured most people would be shooting this more than anything else. I loaded up a pile of birdshot in the 1150 to 1250 FPS varieties.

Imagine my surprise when it all cycled relatively fine in the AR 410. The lighter 1150 didn’t present any more issues than the 1250 stuff. That being said, the gun is only about 95 percent reliable. I did get a fair amount of failure to ejects that slowly declined the more I shot. Most of the time, the gun ran perfectly fine with the occasional hiccup here and there.

With the 19-inch barrel, it’s a rifle-length upper but still feels compact. I’d normally find this unacceptable. However, I have a soft spot for the AR 410. I’m not using it for anything serious, so I don’t mind a few issues here or there. There aren’t enough jams or failures to be frustrating, and for how cheap the upper is I can’t hate it.

What About Buckshot and Slugs?

The higher quality Federal and Winchester buckshot ran without issue. The Federal slugs also ran flawlessly. As mentioned, the mixture of slugs and buckshot only totaled 20 rounds, but all 20 ran perfectly.

Patterning showed no surprise for a cylinder bore 410 at 15 yards. It’s good enough to take a moderate-sized game. If I was hunting anything larger than a coyote, I might prefer a big caliber just for the fact that I only get three 00 pellets in a 410 load.

I’d also not choose a 410 for home defense. If recoil sensitivity is a big issue, then the 20 gauge shotgun is a better choice for defensive use.

Recoil and Muzzle Rise

The recoil is roughly the same as a 5.56 round. It hardly moved, and my petite, recoil-sensitive wife found the gun pleasant to shoot. Muzzle rise was also minimal and easy to control when firing rapidly. My Holosun 509T’s red dot barely moved, even when I was firing rapidly. It stayed on target, and I could swap between targets quickly and efficiently with every load type.

Thumbs Up?

I like the little thing! It’s my pest obliterating beast that offers rapid follow-up shots for animals that tend to group together. When I hunt for rabbits or squirrels, I’m often getting several at a time, and being able to rapidly transition from target to target is nice and handy. Being able to hunt with a familiar platform makes it quite easy to transition controls, mount accessories, and customize the gun.

I wouldn’t use the AR 410 beyond small game hunting, pest killing, snake eliminating, and plinking. 410 doesn’t offer me the pellets or power I want from a shotgun, but it provides me with a compact and lightweight platform.