Making Your Gun Versatile

By: Steve Kynard  

It's been a number of years, since I hunted anything with a shotgun because 99.9% of my hunting is for deer and hogs. For this I use my rifle and/or one of my 45 Long Colt pistols. Last year, while piddling on the computer, I started seeing more and more things about shotgun adapters. Adapters change the gauge or caliber of a gun. There were some nice videos on the Short Lane website. Dave Canterberry was testing adapters and talking about how versatile a 12 gauge single shot was. I've owned 20 gauge shotguns, since I was a kid and still have the guns and a pile of shells, but watching the videos and checking reviews, I was hooked on the idea, so I bought a new 12 gauge Pardner.

The first adapter I bought allowed me to shoot 20 gauge shells in my 12 gauge. It worked great and shot a good pattern. I bought the rifled 22 Pathfinder adapter next. I noticed the front sight on the Pardner was hard to see, so at the same time, I put one of the fiber optic snap on sights on it. This made a world of difference! After some load testing, I saw that the adapter liked the plain jane Federal bulk rounds instead of the hyper velocity. Soon I was tearing up cans out to around 50 yards.

Next, because of me being a big fan of the 45 LC, I bought the rifled Pathfinder version in a 45 caliber. I did a lot of load testing with it yesterday morning and found the load it liked and just how it needed to sit in the shotgun. Again, cans out to 50 yards or so were in a lot of trouble. I wouldn't hesitate to hunt deer or hogs with this rig, in thick areas, where my shots were 50 yards or closer.

The only other adapter I want is a rifled 38/357. Short Lane doesn't make one as of yet and the other companies that do, are really proud of them. The non rifled version had some great reviews so I just ordered one of those for some close range plinking.

Some folks don't care for the adapters and that's ok. I think it's a cool way of making one gun very versatile.

Case in point, another set of adapters I bought comes in a set of six and allows you to shoot 22's in a gun chambered for the 45 Long Colt. They have polygonal rifling and out to a distance of 8 - 10 yards are pretty accurate. Now the accuracy can't hang with my Ruger Single Six but using them in my 45 LC Vaquero is a hoot and will give the big gun feel without having a big reloading session at the end of the day. These came from The Sportsmans Guide.

In my way of thinking, one thing that does one thing well is good, one thing that does multiple things well is even better. It’s like owning multiple guns for a fraction of the price. (Watch our video for more information.)