Posted on 05/12/2009 11:27:05 AM PDT by Ron H.
Anyone have any direct experience with Shotgun reducers. I've never seen them used and am interested to know if they are worth the time and money.
WTF is the purpose?
I cant imagine that the wad will seal gases or keep shot together much past those little inserts....but they might be good for training young or small individuals to shoot that big old 10 or 12 gauge...
I imagine that the things tend to mangle shot patterns, at least to some degree. Don't know for sure, never tried 'em.
You could put a 20 ga. shell in a 12 ga. shotgun, I guess.
WTF is the purpose?
Allows one to shoot subcalibers out of a shotgun.
I say, Man Up and shoot the 12 gauge!
You can do it once anyway.
Multiplies the amount of available ammunition.
Allows target practice with cheaper ammo.
If you only step down a gauge they are OK at shorter ranges.
12 to 20, 20 to 28... but to drop from 12 to .410, you’ll have a pretty blown pattern.
About as useful as light beer.
Reducers allow you to shoot 20 gauge, 28 gauge or .410 gauge shells in a 12 gauge over/under shot gun. They are primarily used in skeet shooting, not trap. A good skeet shooter competes in all 4 gauge competitions. The smaller the shell, the less pellets, the harder it is to break the bird. If you are serious about skeet shooting, plan on spending $1000 or more to buy tubes, such as brilleys. A set allows you to have a full length tube in your barrel for each caliber.
I’ve never needed to do his since I have more shotguns than I need (but not as many as I want.)
Guessing it would cause a much bigger pattern, shooting the smaller shells out of a 12 ga. shotgun.
I personally would not use a short insert for fear of chamber erosion ahead of the case.
Well, I do own several different types of 12g already and also a number of 20g and .410 guns. I’ve been toying with the idea of a 10g but have about decided against it. It seems that a 3 1/2” 12g can do as well or better than a 10g from what I’ve been reading. All my current 12g are either 3” or smaller. I was just curious what others had to say about the reducers. I’m not convinced of its practicalness.
Another good use of this little device is to turn a flare gun into a hand held shot gun. I used to sail in the Pacific NW and the Canadians didn’t allow firearms so I would always have one of these little devices on board when I left Washingto waters so I could in a matter of seconds turn my flare gun into a very leathal weapon.
You can do it once anyway.
I've heard stories about people doing this WITHOUT a reducer, where the smaller shell falls down into the barrel, then a larger, full size shell gets inserted right after it and fired. I hear it's real ugly when that happens.
I've never seen them used and am interested to know if they are worth the time and money.From reading the links, they're for over-under, side-by-side and single shot shotguns (Skeet & Trap shotguns).
No good for a pump action or an auto-loader.
Yes, I’ve used them and depending on the manufacturer, they work very well.
First shotgun, as a 12 yr old:
Ithaca 12 guage single shot breachload. No buttpad.
Ouch.
You didn’t shoot unless you KNEW you were going to hit your target.
Oh it is. I saw it happen once to a very, very nice Browning O/U. Why on Earth my idiot boss had a 20 gauge shell in his pocket I'll never know.
Why he didn't notice that it was a different color, bright yellow instead of red, I'll never know.
What I do know is that doing it will completely destroy a very nice shotgun along with a significant portion of the person firing it.
L
They are used mainly by skeet shooters so they can use the same gun for each guage class. There are some noticable velocity and pattern changes when you skip more than one guage but it is consistent and can be adapted to. There are also models that are essentially slip in barrels, so the pattern and velocity changes aren’t so pronounced as these chamber only models.
I would think the flare itself would lethal enough at close range. If it didn't kill em, it would make em sicker than hell.
Just buy a shotgun in the guage you want, and forget about those things. They’re a hassle, expensive, and potentially dangerous.
At 12? DAMN, dad wanted to raise one tough kid, eh?
My friend has a cool Saiga assault shotgun, and while it is fun to pose with for photo ops, I will most likely never fire it due to the pain it inflicts upon me.
I’d imagine they would render the ejector useless.
Nope, just had one mean-assed brother. And I say that with no fondness.
or eject the reducer and shell together
I have a set in .410 for my Lanber 12 GA. Over/Under. They work great for what I use them. I train my kids without having to buy a separate youth model or shotgun in a dubious caliber. Plus, it’s fun to pop a few .410s every once in a while.
I haven’t formally measured the patterns, but they seem to group just fine.
Most of the complaints I’ve seen on the web concern people who bought them for shooting clays, and found that you can’t reload the shells fast enough for competition. You have to poke the husk out of each insert with a pencil or stick. Buying an insert for each shot wouldn’t make economic sense.
There are other limitations. They are clearly marked to use target loads only. Also, I have to be very careful breaking open, so the ejectors don’t send them flying. Hitting the ground too many times would probably ding the inserts, as they appear to be made from aluminum.
Bingo.
Mine was an 870, about the same age. Ouch is an understatement.
First handgun was .44 Navy Colt that dad has from some ancestor in the Civil War. Fired two rounds from that black powdered ba$tard and realized that a lot of cowboy movies were lies.
Jeez, at a grand a pop, I'd rather just buy another gun in the different caliber.
But the best shotgun accessory in my opinion is the Knoxx SpecOps recoil reducing stock. It makes a 12 ga 3" magnum slug feel like a 2 3/4" light bird load.
So in other words this is some namby-pamby thingamabob for panty-waist country club RINOs?
While we're at it, why don't we talk about the market for polo ponies and gulfstreams and 19th Century Impressionist artwork?
[Just kidding.]
The tube sets are $1000-1500 for a set of 3 (20, 28, .410) to fit in a set of 12 gauge barrels (usually fitted to the specific gun). If you’ve dropped $12K on a Kreighoff or Kolar, and had it custom fitted to you, the tubes are a deal.
The idea is that your gun always fits the same in each gauge, since it is the same gun. Almost all top level skeet shooters use them.
Years ago you could purchase full length tubes to turn a shotgun into a “rifle”. You could get them for .45LC and .30-30 and other low pressure shells. I believe they were smooth bore so accuracy was limited to distance. I have not seen them for a number of years. They inserted in break action shotguns and were centered in the bore with “O” rings.
Start young kids with a 28 gauge or a 410. The recoil is mild and they can learn to shoot at moving targets. A .30 calibre carbine is also excellent for children when the have moved past a 22 and want to shoot something that makes more noise with little recoil.
Could be something that went away once lawyers became the dominant species in business.
The problem with that approach is that 28 and .410 ammo is getting prohibitively expensive. As a high volume shooter of both, reloading is a must.
LOL! Post Of The Day.
Cheers!
Reminds me of the story my buddy told me that happened while he was a Marine stationed at Camp David during the Reagan years.
One day VP Bush and his sons showed up and wanted to go out to the range to shoot. My buddy was charged with assembling the presidential shotguns and ammo and they proceeded to shoot.
Well, one of the sons (I can’t remember which one but IT WAS NOT our latest President), placed a different gauge shot shell into the 12 gauge and squeezed off. According to Mike, he could have been killed but apparently got dusted up a bit.
Well, the CO wanted to throw the book at Mike for somehow getting different shells mixed with the guns but Old man Bush stepped in and said to forget the whole matter.
True story.. I have been in Mike’s house and have seen all the photos with him and Ron/Nancy.
Where can you buy a Government Reducer??
Double d’oh. Guage - Gauge...
That will bust targets just fine. I don’t do the tube thing myself, probably because I like having a variety of guns.
There’s a definite advantage to an O/U in skeet, but I shoot with several people who routinely run 100’s with pumps.
The larger the barrel bore and the smaller the reducer gauge, the worse the shot pattern and shorter the effective range.
In .44, that would be an ARMY Colt... Navy class Colts were .36 caliber.
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