Scavenged pick up ammo and short lane chamber adapters!

Picking up brass is a pretty good way to recoup some of the cost of the hobby but sometimes at the end of the month your account just runs too low and you find yourself in that ammo deprived state. Over the years I've picked up dropped "saved" rounds and had some idea to pull them down for the tips.....just the tips. Pretty much everything else would have to be trashed....saved powder may be fun for blowing up old pumpkins this time of year but for the most part just the bullets can be salvaged. Years ago I did this with a bunch of range pick up 9mm and discovered just how varied the recovered projectiles can be.

Really pulling down .223 is about the only thing I'll consider these days, its all loaded pretty standard (55 or 62). The rest I had to find something to do with it all. A idea came to mind when I recalled having laid back the chamber adapters made by Short Lane. A decent investment for one that carries a 12ga or 20ga shotgun afield as well as a handgun of some flavor. But what I had in mind was more....chaotic. 

What kind of groups would one get if they had purchased one of these adapters with the intent of using it post SHTF with whatever they happened to find laying around.

Here I had the perfect blend of various loads, factory and hand loads, jacketed and cast and even polymer stuff in a WIDE range of weights and designs. I could get some insight into just what one could expect from such a jumbled mess of ammo.

My adapters are of the "Scavenger" series, being around 3" long and not rifled in any way. These adapters I picked up on sale from their web site as well as on ebay from time to time in the various calibers I thought I would want to try them in. 

Mostly my adapters are for XX-20ga meaning I got most of them to fit a 20ga , I have a short lane 12-20 adapter so I can simply drop in my XX-20's into the 12-20 and get just a little more versatility out of them.  The adapters I had on hand which I thought would be the most prevalent are 9mm, 40 S&W , 22LR, 38 SPL and .22 WMR. I also have a 45acp-12ga adapter which can thus only be used in 12ga.

This was not so much a test of accuracy but of reliability and gaining REASONABLE expectations with the smooth bore 3" adapters. I shot from a very ambitious 25 yards for most of the test, some I snuck up to 10 yards with because I was curious what field results would be like for somebody who is worth their salt at stalking. 

The adapters are a decent insurance policy if a shotgun is your go to. Yes you can use the shorter ones in a pump action but it is VERY clumsy and pretty much is a one shot deal. If you find yourself in the lower income blue collar crowd of prepping and maybe need to get even more mileage out of your single shot or side by side shotgun you have squirreled away this is a decent way to do that. The adapters offer a lot to the hunter trapper and even more if you load your own ammo/cast your own bullets. A side by side shotgun can now be turned into a exceptionally versatile tool, one barrel maybe houses a rifled chamber adapter in .38 spl for rabbits and squirrel  and the other a deer slug for....well....deer. And your S&W model 10 is at your hip just in case.


The adapters can be had in longer rifled versions which are well worth the money if you are buying one or two of calibers to work with your handgun and shotgun of choice.  You can get surprisingly good accuracy so long as you have the adapter oriented the same way in your chamber each time. I've seen some individuals with scoped shotguns achieve some surprisingly good groups with their longer rifled adapters, good enough to keep the garden pest free at respectable ranges.

My results with the scavenger series was mostly about what I expected for the Russian dolled 20-XX gauge adapter slipped inside a 12-20Ga adapter and then into the barrel, there is a lot of room for wiggle there.

Adapters, bag of mixed range pickup ammo and shotgun with carrying case make a tidy package.

Just about one of every flavor 

Its a buffet!

Even badly dinged and damaged rounds still functioned in the adapters.

The results of several shots of 45ACP at 10 yards with the 12ga-45ACP adapter.

Minute of paper plate, tumbled and erratic flight patterns were the norm however at 25 yards this was to be expected. Getting closer to your target would almost ensure better hit probability.

Tumbling but on target.

Still more testing to do....little bit of everything. Note the hammer spur came off the shotgun after about 40 rounds....Time for some loctite.