Hey Mike, I was given a NEF Survivor 45/.410 for Christmas a couple of years ago and have really enjoyed it as a knock around "Jeep Gun" for camping and fishing. Mine is the nickel version and I am not really happy with how well the finish stands up, I can see a coat of rustoleum in it's future. I replaced the "Survivor" buttstock with one from an H&R "Tamer" which is shorter (for the 'ole lady) and holds 4 rounds out in the open, (the forend will hold 12 rounds of 3" .410).

As far as the twist rate goes, mine is 1 turn in 14" and has proven very accurate with boolits from 230-405 grains even with the poorest of sights (front bead and my own black mark on the receiver). First trials with 45 Colt ammo were pretty poor, the short case in the 3' chamber created a poor performing, odd sounding combo that leaded badly due to the lube being blown off while the boolit was finding it's way into the bore. Since I didn't know of a source of 3" .410 brass I substituted 444 Marlin brass which went through a rather long series of annealing and expansion operations to become 45 cal. Although case ejection is more often extraction (by dropping an old broken Lee Loader decapper used to help unscrew the choke tube down the barrel), the longer case is just long enough to allow the 405 grain Lee boolit (sized down to .452) to enter the bore before leaving the case. I have been very careful to not over pressure the SB-1 (much weaker than the rifle SB-2 ?)  shotgun receiver, most of my heavy boolit loads have been 21 grains of IMR-4198 which does right at 1000 FPS.

With the cost of .410 ammo the way it is, reloading is an absolute "must" for me. I only use 3" hulls and 15.5 grains of pulldown WC-820 (MY LOT) with 11/16 oz of #8 shot in Win. hulls and 3/4 oz shot in the slightly larger Rem. hulls has proven to work quite well on clay birds, real birds, snakes, beer cans and the like. Shot patterns are acceptable with the rifled barrel and "spin brake" choke tube and absolutely hideous without it.

All in all it is a very fun gun and a cheap way to get both a small bore shotgun and big bore rifle in one purchase although not quite the best of both worlds.

Paul