Picked up an old depression era 20 ga. Davis and Sons coach gun a couple of weeks ago and after giving it a through inspection and function test, I decided to take it out for a run on father's day. Ran some low power shot through it first and it patterned decent enough for a relatively short barrel... certainly good enough to put a rabbit in the pot at 30 to 40 yards. Ran a few slugs through it too and was hitting pretty good (although it is a very light gun so it kicks much harder than you would expect from a 20 ga). Then I decided to play. I put in a couple of .38 special chamber inserts and started pretending it was a rifle. I was very impressed. For what amounts to a pair of 1 inch smooth bore offset barrels, it did really well. Ran a box of .38s through it and hit the 8 inch plate 48 out of 50 times at 35 yards. Again for a chamber inset and a single bead sight, I thought that was pretty darned good. Recoil with the inserts was almost negligible... could have shot 1,000 rounds that way and not gotten tired. Had fun, and it is always gratifying to take an old gun out for a walk.
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