By Major Van Harl USAF Ret
Wisconsin –-(Ammoland.com)- I have an old Savage model 99, take-down rifle in 300 Savage and an extra 410 shotgun barrel to go with the rifle. When you use the 410 barrel you have to load and shoot the 99 as a single shot.
There are no good deals on 300 Savage ammo anymore, and it gets harder to find, but I still like to take the rifle/shotgun unit with me, because it breaks down so small for storage during transport.
As small as 410 shotgun ammo rounds are, they are not a good deal in price either. Short Lane Chamber Adapters out of Miles City, Montana (gunadapters.com) has come up with a shotgun insert that allows you to shoot 9mm pistol ammo out of your 410 shotgun.
Now your response may be “so what”, but please remember 9mm ammo is the number one sold pistol ammunition in the world. You can find 9mm almost anywhere in the US and in many cases, more easily than locating 22LR.
The 410 to 9mm adapter is not rifled, so the accuracy is limited. I have both a 410 to 9mm adapter and a 410 to 22LR adapter (also not rifled), and at 30 feet I could NOT hit a pop can size target. I could, however continually, hit a milk jug size target at the same distance with both the 22LR and 9mm to 410 adapters. This was done bench-resting the model 99 with the 410 shotgun barrel.
Again you might ask, “What is it good for?” Let us perhaps back up a little in this shooting process.
If you have gotten yourself some hard to acquire non-residence elk tags for one of the Rocky Mountain states, and you are about to spend thousands of dollars on the “big hunt,” I would suggest you had better have a good scoped rifle set up, chambered in one of those larger, faster, flatter shooting, high speed-low drag rifle cartridges. Non-emergency, non-crisis elk season is not the time or place to attempt to use one of Ray Banister’s shotgun adapters.
Mr. Banister’s adapters are not marketed as a replacement for your favorite rifle. Short Lane adapters are designed to enhance the capability of firearms you already may own. Having a number of adapters in rim fire and center fire pistol calibers that you can easily shoot out of your shotgun goes an extremely long way in enhancing your ability to feed yourself and stop evil in time of crisis.
I have a 45 Long Colt / 410 derringer. Have you looked at the price of 45 Long Colt ammo lately? It is not cheap, and you cannot always find it at your favorite ammunition retail outlet. Of course, I can shoot the 410 shotgun shells out of the derringer, but as discussed before, it is not the inexpensive way to go.
I have already used Short Land 410 to 22LR adapters in my derringer, so I slipped the 410 to 9mm adapters into the barrels and was pleasantly surprised. Again, I was not hitting pop cans at 25 feet, but what I was doing was shooting “walker” size targets at that distance. In time of crisis always, if possible and if personal safety is not an issue, first engage with the cheapest and most plentiful ammo you have.
This should be 22LR, but stop and think about 9mm. I was shooting some Buffalo Bore (buffalobore.com) 9mm subsonic 147 grain ammo out of my handgun (24I/20 JHP and 24J/20 FMJ-FN). Instead of a small .22 inch diameter, 35 grain bullet striking a “walker” size object I was demonstrating how I could effectively put a 147 grain, .355 inch diameter bullet into the same target consistently. If you have one of the 410 / 45 Long Colt revolving firearms that S&W, Taurus or Rossi make, the 410 to 9mm adapter is a lot of fun and a cheap way to shoot hundreds of rounds out of those big bore handguns and rifle. At close range, you can put five rounds into a “walker” effectively and cheaply, shooting 9mm out of the Short Lane adapters.
The smooth bore of both the 410 gauge to 9mm or 22LR are not going to win you any accuracy contests. They are, however, going to increase your ability to stretch your limited resources in time of crisis.
My other point is that shooting the Short Lane adapters are a lot of fun.
I have shot everything from 45 Long Colt down to 22LR out of my shotguns, and if you have rifle sights on your shotgun you will increase your accuracy. A 12 gauge to 45acp Pathfinder Series, in an 8 inch adapter has been my favorite so far.
With the rifle sights on my old H&R 12 gauge I can hit “walker” size targets in their chest area all day long out to 75 yards. It is always about having the better tools in order to be better prepared.
Major Van Harl USAF Ret / 22 Dec 2014 / vanharl@aol.com
About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School. A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI. His efforts now are directed at church campus safely and security training. He believes “evil hates organization.” vanharl@aol.com