I HAVE NEW VERSA PACK

[Nebraska Kelly]

Hi forum
I have been reading in the forum about the experience people are having with there versa-pack 22/410.  Well I got one a month ago and thought I would share my experience with it. First off I love the little thing!  It is as handy as a rifle gets. Mine has the black plastic stocks. Thats ok with me.  The first thing I did was to place a LIMB SAVER small size slip on recoil pad on it.  It is a perfect fit for the gun.  It is still short, but not to short for me now. Before adding about 1 1/2 inches in pad I could not easily shoot the 410 barrel.  Now it is about the handiest thing around.  I bought it for the 22 long rifle barrel.  I wanted cheap and accurate shooting.  I put a tasco 2X7X32 world class on the barrel. A perfect scope for it.  Here is how it shot.

50 yards CCI VELOCITOR 1 1/2 inch 5 shot groups.  That is give or take from one group to another depending on how well I held it that time.  It was shooting to point of aim. No wandering zero. It did not shoot anything else well at all. Not yet anyway.  I think it needs a barrel polishing job.  I read with interest the results others got when they used JB or Flitz.  I am going to try it.  I did set the target at 75 yards and got a 5 shot 2 1/2 group with the velocitor ammo.  I have not shot a hundred rounds yet.  The barrel may be rough.  I can hardly wait to polish it and try again.  It seems to "want to shoot" but is being held back.  It could very well be the rough barrel.  I will get back to you when I polish it and reshoot it.  NOW FOR THE 410 BARREL!

When I got the gun I thought the 410 barrel was just a toy.  It is so short and after all it is just a 410.
I could not have been more wrong.  I had a box of 3in #6 shot Winchester shells.  I thought I would give it a try. The barrel just seemed to short to be any good. I was so wrong!  I took a couple shots at water in a creek. I was surprised at how big a splash they made.  So I started patterning the gun.  I walked 35 steps from my target. I aimed dead center and fired.  I knocked the target over.  It really hit it hard.  I picked it up and I was extremely surprised  to see the pattern (old piece of plywood).  Nothing could have gotten away.  That tiny little 410 full choked barrel really works well.  After I put the recoil pad on the stock to add length I took it out to shoot a practice round of trap.  It was a blast.  I did 19 out of 25 with it.  I now realize it is a REAL GUN.  But the tiny little barrel and light weight make me think it is a toy.  Well to sum it up I love the 410.  It is much more gun than I thought it would be. I will be using it as a shotgun to hunt with.  I have two other shotguns, remington 1187 12g and a bolt action 3 shot mossberg 20ga. with a poly choke on it.  I love them both.  But for low noise and no recoil and very easy to carry I will be using the 410 single shot frequently this fall and winter.  It is just the ticket for stomping out the overgrown brush piles around old abandoned farm places.  I do that a lot in the winter.  I am not satisfied with the 22 long rifle barrel yet but I love the 410.  I have a NEF case that both barrels and the stock fit in.  I picked it up for 20 bucks at my local dealer.  When it is all packed away in the case I think what a toy it is.  But I know better now.  It is a ton of fun and quite usefull.
Nebraska Kelly

[quickdtoo]

Congrats, and thanks for sharing!

Tim

[xhare]

You are not the first person to realize just how powerful the smaller shotgun shells can be.  Not that the 410 should be used on such birds, but I started pheasant hunting with a 20 gage when I was stationed in North Dakota.  After 2 seasons, and a lot of hunting, I only ever lost one bird that I hit.  My hunting buddies all hunted with 12 gages and several soon started hunting with the 20 as well.  Also, there has been a small resurgance of the 28 gage as well.  A perfert tool for Quail and such. 

[Nebraska Kelly]

I have just read about a barrel polishing system from a world class shooter named David Tubbs.  They call it FINAL FINISH. It uses 100 coated 22 long rifle bullets. I am ordering them monday.  I think this will be just thing to smooth out the 22 barrel on this rifle. I will take before and after pictures when I get the project done. I have not posted pictures before but I will try with my digital camera. I am also ordering there barrel polishing kits for 223,243,270,308.  I will try it on all my rifles. I dont think it will hurt them any. The 223 and 243 and 270 I have are all Stevens Model 200's. These are low cost production rifles. I think they will benefit greatly from this treatment. I think just about any  handy barrel would to. I will let you know what happens with the 22 handy barrel. The website is   http://www.zediker.com/tubb/finalfinish.html
Kellly (nebraska)                        l

[Nebraska Kelly]

Update on 22 barrel after using JB bore paste.

I worked on the barrel with JB for about an hour.  I then cleaned it well.  I then went out to shoot it at 50 yards. It did much better than before. The ammo I used is  Velocitor 40gr hp and  CCI Mini Mag hp.  They both shot very well.  I got a ragged 4 shot hole and one flier that opened the group up to 1 inch with cci mini mags.  Then I fired the velocitor ammo.  I got 5 shot groups of 3/4 to 1 inch.  This is a BIG improvement over my first try with it.

I had also read about fire lapping bullets from Tubbs.  I tried them in my 223 and my 243.  It made no difference in the 223. It still shot bad. 

The 243 was already a decent shooter and the accuracy was improved overall with fire lapping.  It was not improved enough though that I would do it again. 

I think if a barrel is bad nothing will fix it.  I dont think it was worth the effort.  I sold the 223 and I kept the 243.
Nebraska Kelly