I have a real soft spot for the 410 and the 410 slug specifically. Out of a normal shotgun length barrel the 410 slug is significantly more cartridge than a 45 Colt out of a handgun.
mcb's 410 web page index
Now that said I suspect out of the short barrel on the judge (especially the 3 inch barrel as opposed to the 6.5inch barrel) the 410 slug is going to loose some serious velocity and thus energy. It would be interesting to see if it had less then a 45 Colt. I would love to know if someone has chronographed buckshot and/or slugs out of a judge and what those velocities were.
Taurus has also released a new version of the judge chamber for 3 inch 410 shells (along with 2.5 inch shell and 45 Colt).
More info on the 3-inch chamberd Judges. This opens up a lot more options. With 3 inch chambers you have the option to shoot the heavier 11/16oz shot loads in 3-inch shotshells. This also allows the use of the many steel hull Russian 410 ammunition. Barnual loads a nice buckshot load with five #4 buckshot pellets in it. Sellior and Bellot and Winchester both load 3 inch 410 shells with five 00 buckshot pellets. That 25 00 buchshot pellets launched with five pulls of the trigger. And best Brenneke loads one of there hybrid foster slugs in a 3 inch 410 shell. Form my testing the best slug available for the 410. I would be interested to see how these loads perform in the new version of the Judge.
I like the Box O' Truth a lot but that article on the Judge was pretty bad in some ways.
First modifying 3 inch 410 buckshot to make 2.5 inch buck shot is not a fair test. The powder charge was probably no where near optimal for the much lighter payload. Not to mention Sellier and Bellots 2.5 inch buckshot load is three 000 pellets not three 00 pellots.
Also he only test the Remington 410 Slugger. Of all the commercially available 410 slugs the Remington Slugger is the lightest slug (96gr) with one of the lowest muzzle energy of any of the 2.5 inch slugs. Also the construction of Remington slugger with the use of shot buffer as a filler really will hurt velocity in a revolver where that buffer can get pushed out between the cylinder and barrel reducing pressure. I would have like to see them test the Federal slugs. The Federal Slug uses a one piece gas seal and spacer and is 109gr slug. I suspect it would have performed much better out of the Judge.
Rambling
mcb