By Eric Nestor
Ever wish your 12 gauge shotgun didn’t tear up game when you’re shooting up close? Short Lane Gun Adapters thought about the problem and they believe they have you covered. Their solution: the Short Lane Gunadapters Stack-N-Pack Kit, and we’re pleasantly surprised at how it performed.
When armed with a break action shotgun (single shot or double barrel variety), the big 12 gauge shot shell is sometimes overkill. The ability to fire a 20 gauge or even a .410 bore shell can come in handy depending on what you’re hunting. Different calibers and gauges for your trusty shotgun could really help fill the freezer if you’ve got small game around and only the one gauge, as many of us do.
Short Lane Gunadapters had hunters and preppers in mind when they came up with their Stack-N-Pack Kit. Thanks to their unique adapter system, your 12 gauge scattergun just became much more flexible.
The Short Lane Stack-n-Pack kit consists of a pocketable set of three adapters that let you shoot 20 Gauge, .410, .45 Colt, and .22LR out of your 12 gauge shotgun. There’s also a short steel rod included to help eject .22LR casings.
The shotgun I used for this review is a tried and true H&R Topper Model 88 in 12 gauge that shoots 3″ shells. This type of shotgun can be found just about anywhere and is very affordable. I wanted something simple, without bells and whistles to experiment with the bare-bones approach to transforming the shotgun.
The Short Lane Gun Adapters Stack-N-Pack is a series of three adapters designed to drop into a 12 gauge break action shotgun chamber. The first adapter takes 12 gauge down to 20 gauge. The second goes from 20 gauge to .410 bore/.45 Colt. Finally, the third adapter goes from.410 bore/.45 Colt down to .22 Long Rifle. All are smooth bored. You can use one or all of them together.
The adapters nest inside each other both for easy storage and use, depending on the caliber you’re shooting. It’s a neat, outside the box idea. A small rod serves as an ejector that then sits inside the .22 Long Rifle adapter and it’s all housed in a rubber o-ringed plastic twist top polymer case.
Short lane makes longer eight-inch dedicated adapters that are rifled, but I was particularly interested to see how these short, non-rifled adapters would do shooting a .22LR.
Range day came with targets provided by my friends at Silverado Arms LTD. The .22 Long Rifle ammunition used was Federal bulk pack 36 grain hollow points.
With all inserts nested together in the chamber, I situated the .22 Long Rifle chamber to the 12 o’clock position. The .22LR chamber is situated off-center and Short Lane recommends orienting it at either the 12 o’clock or the 6 o’clock position, whichever is most accurate from your shotgun.
On my first shot I was low at 12 yards. I then rotated the adapter to a 6 o’clock position. That did the trick. I fired five shots that grouped into two inches. Clearly, this isn’t a long-range option, but from a non-rifled adapter through a smoothbore shotgun, that’s not bad at all at short range.
I noticed some tumbling of the rounds and key-holing on the target. To test the energy of the rounds, I fired a few more .22LR cartridges at a 700-page catalogue to test penetration. All rounds fired penetrated the catalogue and kept on going.
The next adapter I tried was the .410 bore/.45 Colt insert. This was tested using Remington Express Long Range 3″ Magnum loads in #6 at 12 yards. Let’s just say, if that target had been a rabbit, it would have had a really bad day.
While the .410 charge patterned well, I was curious of the power and penetration performance. At the same 12 yard distance, I fired a round into a 700-page catalog. The #6 lead shot made it to page 98 before stopping. If you were hunting small game, the #6 lead pellets proved to have more than enough power in this test.
The last test was with the 20 gauge insert. Federal 2.75″, 7/8 ounce, #7.5 lead shot loads were used. This time I backed up 15 yards from the target and fired off a round. The shot covered the target evenly.
All of the cartridges and shot shells I fired using the Short Lane Gun Adapters Stack-N-Pack fired without any problems. While I convinced myself the .22 Long Rifle adapter was good enough to work in a desperate situation, it would really prove itself most useful dispatching trapped animals or as a training tool. Maybe if there was some added rifling within that adapter, it would help increase the accuracy and hold bullet tumble to a minimum.
I expected the shot patterns to be sub par, but the patterns from the adapters were surprisingly good, both on-target and even. The groups were certainly compatible with what you’d expect from a good small game shotgun. The shot shells extracted easily with a simple push of the finger, but the .22 Long Rifle adapter required the use of the supplied ejecting rod.
A quick word of warning: If your break action shotgun has automatic ejectors, you need to be careful. Put your hand behind the Stack-N-Pack shotgun adapter insert(s) before opening your action or watch it fly over your shoulder.
As for use case, the Short Lane Stack-N-Pack is an ideal survival or SHTF tool that lets you adapt one firearm to a variety of uses. The ability to convert a 12 gauge shotgun into something that shoots 20 gauge, .410/.45 Colt and .22 Long Rifle loads would come in extremely handy.
Used as a bug-out tool, you’ve got something that can be easily carried and adjusted to fit your needs depending on the situation. Most importantly, it can be utilized relatively quickly and safely in a jiffy. I want to reiterate how simple and small adjustments were all that was needed to really see the advantage of this thing.
If you’re hunting, using smaller shotshells this is great for up-close small game harvesting. The fact that these adapters can be used individually in other smaller gauge shotguns just makes them even more appealing.
Overall, I feel the Short Lane Gun Adapters Stack-N-Pack is a very useful product for any hunter, prepper, or recreational shooter. Plus, they’ve fun to shoot. Short Lane’s products are made in the US and ship free.
Specifications: Short Lane Stack-N-Pack Kit
Construction: Stainless steel
Calibers: 20 ga, .410, .45 Colt and .22LR
Price: $59.99
Ratings (out of five stars):
Function: * * * * *
The Stack-N-Pack set works exactly as advertised. It lets you adapt your 12 gauge gun to a variety of other calibers quickly and easily.
Accuracy: * * * *
Better than expected, especially with center fire cartridges. Shot shell patterns were very good. Just don’t expect center fire accuracy out past about 15 yards. Then again, that’s not what the product is intended for.
Ease of Use: * * *
The adapters are well made and nest perfectly. It’s easy enough to drop one or a combination of them in your chamber and get to shooting. The steel rod for ejecting .22LR casings is on the short side and fiddly. You might do better carrying a chopstick. Oh, and watch out if your shotgun has ejectors.
Overall: * * * *
A surprisingly good product for the money. If you’re looking for survival or SHTF versatility this is a worthy, affordable option.
I had one of these adapters from 12 to .410 years ago. It worked pretty good. To bad .410 cost so much… On shooting game up close with a twelve, uh so don’t aim soes all your pattern hits, I’d try to catch them on the fringe of the pattern. Grandpa also showed me how to “bark” a squirrel with his flintlock( traveled from Louisiana in a covered wagon to this State when he was a wee lad, those people took care of their equipment). I thought that was a neat trick
Another neat trick is to use foam cups as targets. They’re a blast and almost free!
You’ll need a shooting spot with a berm downwind, but finding a spot to shoot is easy in Montana. City dwellers might have trouble finding a spot, but then ants are always a problem for those who choose to live in an anthill.
The reason for a backstop of some sort downwind is that the trick to shooting foam cups is to aim not at the cup, but at the spot where the cup touches the ground. Similar to barking a squirrel. A hit on the ground below the cup will send it flying upward, where the wind will take it downrange, making the next hit that much harder. Up close it’s possible to even put the cup in a container of some type, like making a basket with a basketball. Hits just left of center will make the cup flip up and right, and vice versa. hits just short of the perfect spot will drive the cup up and more backwards. If the shot drifts too far back it will shoot through the cup and make it bounce up and towards the shooter, but the wind in Montana seldom lets it land any closer than it started, even though it might start out coming towards you.
In fact, a little wind helps this exercise out, but isn’t necessary. Unless the hit is picture perfect(if perfect the cup goes straight up and straight back down. If no wind, OFC), it usually goes away even absent all breeze. When it gets too far away to bounce it properly, just throw out a new cup and start over. I’ve bounced some of these cups out 30 yards away and recovered them only to notice that despite all the violence done to them by the past mag or two of rimfires, not a hint of a hit on the foam itself, although they will sometimes have dents, or even tears, from spraying gravel.
Another neat thing is this will train for moving targets automatically. Since the cup is airborne, its moving. And since the shooter is intending to shoot it again as soon as it lands, he will just naturally be following its flight through his sights. Sooner or later, by random chance if nothing else, the sights will line up perfectly on the flying cup and one will find himself shooting them out of the air, since he is following it with the idea of shooting it soon anyway. I can only speak for myself, but it’s how I learned to shoot airborne targets. Foam cups are so light that they fly slowly enough so that it’s not even hard. It looks really impressive to newbies though. I demonstrate and the typical reaction is they could never duplicate such a feat. Within a couple hundred rounds of .22RF, almost everyone does. They shock themselves the first time they do it. It’s quite satisfying to watch… people doing something they can hardly believe is even possible, and with only a couple hours of practice. It’s quite a feeling of having accomplished something.
Sweet! I’m going to have to try that. Sounds like a blast (ha!).
Yeah me too
If you have automatic ejectors, you’d have a matryoshka doll on your hands. lol
This is the kind of stuff I want to read here. Gun and gear reviews please! Lately it’s been all politics which is fine but as we all know it’s always the same story. However I’ve come to enjoy reading reviews. Not to mention it helps sell these companies products.
If you don’t pay attention to the politics then you might not have a choice in what gun you want down the road or worse you might really need the ones you have.
Same here. We need to know the political stuff, and I do usually enjoy reading it, but too much of it gets very old; it can be very stressful.
What never gets old is reading about GUNS. That’s fun, not stressful. And guns are the real point of this whole thing.
I’ve been into guns since 2008. They have become my escape!
Yes to bad all the gun crime crap, because guns are more then just shootem ups and DGU’s. Some are even art.
I’ve been thinking about getting these adapters for my Taurus Judge revolver for several years now. However they are Smooth Bore. But they just recently came out with rifled 9 mm adapters in 410 and 12 gauge. They are pricey however I think we will have ammunition shortages in the future. Just like we did in 2012 after Sandy Hook. If they were to put out rifled adapters in multiple calibers, in three inch sizes I would definitely invest in a set.
A break action shotgun With a rifled insert in 32 caliber was better than nothing at all after Sandy Hook.
The Democrats will eventually control the White House and Congress in the future.
BTW
There are videos of these adapters being used in pump action and semi-automatic shotguns on YouTube.
“Let’s just say, if that target had been a rabbit, it would have had a really bad day.”
FPS Russia, is that you?
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