Has anyone ever heard of a liner that goes in the barrel of a shotgun and allows the user to fire a different cartridge? I'm thinking of kind of things that would allow someone with a 12ga. to fire 20ga. shotshells, or someone with a 12ga. to fire a pistol or rifle round. I know that they existed at one time in the past and maybe I'm not doing a very good job at describing them, but I'm hoping that someone out there can give me hand finding them.

Thanks,
Robert
Paradude54@comcast.net

For shotguns they make full length tubes that will convert certain gauges to smaller ones. A competition skeet shooter can get a set of tubes for his 12ga that allow him to shoot 20,28,410 out of the same shotgun. There are also simple chamber length adapters but I doubt they would work very well. I haven't seen any that allowed firing a rifle round in a shotgun, but there where/are(?) chamber inserts that allowed one to fire a lesser cartridge in a rifle chambered for a more powerful cartridge. ie. 30 carbine in a .308 Win

For shotguns they make full length tubes that will convert certain gauges to smaller ones. A competition skeet shooter can get a set of tubes for his 12ga that allow him to shoot 20,28,410 out of the same shotgun. There are also simple chamber length adapters but I doubt they would work very well. I haven't seen any that allowed firing a rifle round in a shotgun, but there where/are(?) chamber inserts that allowed one to fire a lesser cartridge in a rifle chambered for a more powerful cartridge. ie. 30 carbine in a .308 Win

Thanks for the info, I knew that they had to be out there somewhere and I wasn't just making things up in my mind!

Do you have any idea where I can get these tubes?

Thanks again,
Robert

The Savage Four-tenner works decent at least in my 20ga. Range / pattern density is shorter than a that from a full length bore but these are 12" long adapters work far better than the short chamber length ones.

The full length tubes work best as they come choked unlike the others that are cylinder bores however, a set of these for a SxS or O/U will cost you darn near as much as a whole new lower grade shotgun. Never personally tried the pistol adapter for the shotgun but heard several people complain about poor accuracy.

We have used the 410 er quite a bit and it works fine.
We have also made several inserts for shotguns. The pictured insert shoots .222 Remington. It works fine in the pumps. The break open shotguns require the firing pin to be reduced in size and the hole bushed.
If you ever run into a Zepher Woodlander 12ga. side by side with short barrels and open chokes - and the left firing pin bushed, it was stolen from us! It has killed several deer with this insert.

The two most interesting inserts we fooled with were the .45 ACP and one made for the Sheridan pellet. The pellet insert was powered by a shotgun primer. Dad used a brass shotgun shel to hold the barrel, with a nylon bushing we could rotate to change the point of impact. At fifty feet it was a good snapshooter.

Thanks for the info, I knew that they had to be out there somewhere and I wasn't just making things up in my mind!

Do you have any idea where I can get these tubes?

Thanks again,
Robert

Briley is one maker of the tubes. As other posters stated: they are not inexpensive. The main purpose for the full length tubes are for competitive skeet and sporting clays shooters who want to use the same gun in all gauge classes, albiet with a bit different swing due to the added weight of the tubes.

If you do some internet searches of tube sets you should come up with a few additional makers.

Briley is one maker of the tubes. As other posters stated: they are not inexpensive. The main purpose for the full length tubes are for competitive skeet and sporting clays shooters who want to use the same gun in all gauge classes, albiet with a bit different swing due to the added weight of the tubes.

If you do some internet searches of tube sets you should come up with a few additional makers.

William, you said that you made yours, do you sell them also? I don't think that the full length tubes are what I'm looking for. Basically I'd just like to be able to increase my options if for some reason in the future I don't have access to the 12ga. ammo. Pistol caliber inserts and sub-gauge shotgun inserts are what I'm really looking for. From what I've read so far it seems that a middle length would best suit my purposes.

As for an internet search I've tried and come up with nothing. Maybe I'm using the wrong key words, but it hasn't gotten me anywhere so far.

Thanks everyone for your help,
Robert

try here http://www.mcace.com/adapters.htm
Copy and paste this into your browser adress bar. They have a fair selection of insert tubes for shotguns pistol cals. and lower pressure rifle rounds. Good luck

If you go to http://www.cabelas.com and search for skeeters you'll see the short chamber inserts to shoot smaller gauges in larger gauge guns. They work surprisingly well even though they sound a little funny when you shoot. They are a PIA to use for more than just occasional fun.

No, nothing for sale. I looked around a little for a link. I am certain that someone does sell inserts. I'll come up with a name if I can.

The mcace.com link is a good one, and they do sell adaptors for about every sub-caliber conversion imaginable. They are well designed and made.

I made an adaptor to shoot 7.62x39 in my various 20 gauge break-open guns. I particularly like having it for the little Savage 24C which is a rather short-barreled, 20 ga/.22LR combination gun. The insert was made from a SMLE .303 barrel, cut off, and rechambered, and the breach end contoured on the lathe to 20 gauge shotshell dimensions, the muzzle-end is closely fitted to the inside dimensions of the 20 ga. barrel and held snugly in place with the use of a rubber o-ring fitted to a groove in the adaptor muzzle-end. This little rig will shoot into under two inches at fifty yards with good ammo, and under five inches at 100 yards in two of my Savage 24 combo guns. No, it's not target accuracy, but it is quarter-minute-of-whitetail to a hundred yards! Surprisingly, the 10" insert tube is very portable, in that it nicely fits in the rear game-pouch on a traditional wool hunting coat, and delivers very respectable velocity as well. Too, interestingly, the remaining length of shotgun tube tends to act like an expansion-chamber, and the report is not nearly as sharp as one would expect.

While this project was an interesting pursuit, in practical terms, I've never harvested anything noteworthy using the insert, it only adds versatility to a package that, if it were your only tool of harvest, might come in mighty handy. However, with so many better choices for serious big-game hunting, I guess the project has fallen by the wayside as an interesting interlude by an incessant tinkerer!

Be blessed,