I'm thinking of getting a new bbl for my contender in 45/410. My question is wether shooting the 410 shells thru it will damage the rifling and effect the accuracy of the 45s.

The accuracy of the 45's will suck regardless because of the long chamber to accommodate the 410 shotshells. These are really only useful as a shotgun, and that is all I use mine for. But to your point, LEAD shot won't hurt the barrel any. I wouldn't recommend steel.

The plastic wadding buildup can be a pain to get scrubbed out.

X2

I had (past tense) a pistol that also shot shotshells. Bought for the purpose of shooting crawly things or swine in the summer on the deer club. Cartridge performance was poor at close range. Admittedly, I didn't give it a whole lot of opportunity with that but it did eliminate the crawly things at close range.

Thanks guys for the reply's. I was thinking of getting it for hunting deer and blackbear with the 45 and just thought it would be cool to have the 410 option. It looks like there are better options.

Much better options are extant for big game hunting. Get yourself a dedicated barrel or gun for hunting big game. I have a 14" .45/410 barrel that works just fine with .410 3" loads inside 25 yards. Small game within this range is all I would use this barrel for.

If you do any sort of close-range small game hunting or "fun" shooting, you'll exercise it regularly! A .410 barrel should be in every Contender owner's arsenal.

love my 10" barrel Encore in .410

Looks like one happy dog!!!!!

Joe W