Today, I traded my Cz82 straight across for a NIB Taurus 3" chamber, 3" barrel blued Judge. I did try to tell him it wasn't a good deal for him, but... some people... after he bought the Judge, people told him it was loud, weak, and useless, so he tucked it away and didn't use it. Traded it at a huge loss, as they go for ~$500 NIB here, while Cz82s are about $220.
I thought for sure I'd use it a few times and sell it at a profit, but after putting a mix of 200 various rounds I had laying around through it (all .410, I don't have any .45 colt), I'm hooked.
Here's a rundown of the ammo I tried:
Federal .410 2-1/2", 4 000 buck (handgun ammo)
Federal .410 3", 9 4 buck (handgun ammo)
Golden Bear (I know, I know) .410 3" 4 buck, unknown number of pellets but probably 9 or 10
Remington .410 3", #4 birdshot
Remington .410 3", #6 birdshot
Winchester .410 3", 5 000 buck
Winchester .410 3", #6 birdshot
Winchester .410 2-1/2", #8 birdshot
The birdshot of all types resulted in a huge muzzle blast, massive concussion, and very little damage to the target. The Golden Bear had a similarly huge blast and concussion, but significantly more target damage - however, the brass plated steel was quite hard to extract from the cylinder, as I had predicted.
The Winchester 000 buck was very disappointing - huge muzzle blast and concussion, VERY little damage to the target. I'll keep it around for my M6 survival 22/410, nothing else. It worked much better out of the longer barrel.
The Federal handgun .410, however, was amazing - the recoil was still there, the sound was around the same as a .45 colt out of a 7" barrel (much quieter than any of the other ammo I tried), and the muzzle blast was practically nonexistent. I fired this at night, barely an hour ago, and there was essentially ZERO muzzle flash. The pellets from the #4 were, as I expected, all over the target at 10 yards, but the pellets from the 000 buck were in a nice 8" circle, time and again, basically centered on point of aim.
Taurus finally made something that didn't suck. Good.