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Gear Review: Adrenal Line’s The Feathered Finisher

Conner W. - comments No comments

Waterfowl hunters know first-hand how tough it can be to watch a wounded bird struggle. We don’t always make perfect shots that immediately kill the birds we seek to harvest. Sometimes it takes your own two hands – or a specific tool – to finish off a bird.

Adrenal Line’s original The Finisher (above) is a metal tool designed to quickly put a bird down, reducing the suffering a harvested bird may experience. It’s primitive, but effective, efficient, and generally considered a humane method. To finish a crippled bird, insert the tool in the back of its skull to dispatch it once and for all (video demo here).

Every once in a while I’ll stumble across a homemade version when I’m on public land. Last year I found the one above, which certainly works, but not as well as The Finisher.

I’ve used The Finisher many times but never thought to own one until Adrenal Line’s newest version The Feathered Finisher (above) caught my eye.

Not only does it offer a unique look and, well, finish, it doubles as another wing shooter’s field necessity – a 12-gauge choke tube wrench.

Constructed of cast brass and coated with a dark brushed bronze finish, which also gives it its antique look, The Feathered Finisher is well made, free of burs and sharp edges that would otherwise pull threads on garments. It also has a satisfying weight to it.

I wanted my Feathered Finisher to live on my waterfowl call lanyard and lay a specific way that couldn’t be accomplished by using the provided split ring. So, I attempted to drill a small hole in it. I forgot how tough bronze-coated brass is! Nevertheless, I finally made it through and secured it to its new home. 

Over the course of the past month I’ve tried the choke tube wrench feature on a variety of 12-gauge shotguns including models by Benelli, CZ USA, Stoeger, Winchester, Remington, and Beretta. While the tool fits some chokes slightly better than others, I had no trouble removing or screwing-in any factory or aftermarket choke tubes.

The bronzed feather’s full-curl provides one-finger operation, but also plenty of surface area and contour for those that just want to grab it.

Some may be wary of sticking a “pokey thing” down into the tube of their shotgun due to a perceived risk of scratching the inside of the barrel. Fortunately, there are three factors working in favor of The Feathered Finisher.

The Feathered Finisher's spike falls just short of a 2" choke's bevel.

First, the length of the tool is such that it will remain within the confines of nearly all choke tubes – short to extended. So don’t worry about it scratching your scattergun; you’d be hard-pressed to actually contact your barrel with the tool.

Second, the tip of the instrument is nicely rounded, leaving little surface area and no sharp edges to contact the inside of the tube. And, finally, brass and bronze are considered soft metals, much lower on the hardness scale than gun barrel or choke tube steel. Anything that would appear to be a scratch in your choke tube is most likely just a removal of shotshell residue.

In past seasons, a choke tube wrench was always something I’d have to dig around in my bag to locate – often unsuccessfully – and often found rusty. The Feathered Finisher won’t rust, will hang off your waterfowl call lanyard or from a zipper pull on your jacket/waders for easy access, serves as a fail-proof 12-gauge choke tube wrench, will help you finish birds quickly, feels great in your hand, and looks slick as well! The Feathered Finisher is a great field tool for the avid waterfowler and would also make an excellent gift.

Specifications: Adrenal Line The Feathered Finisher

Price as reviewed: $24.98 MSRP

Ratings (out of five stars):

Quality: * * * * *
Don’t judge this field tool by its small size. Made of bronze-coated brass, The Feathered Finisher stands a great chance of outlasting your shotgun. It’s a well-made, sturdy instrument with a great-looking, smooth finish.

Features: * * * *
This tool has two main features – finishing crippled birds and wrenching choke tubes. It states that the choke tube feature is compatible with 12-gauge only. It would be excellent to see 20-gauge on there as well.

Effectiveness: * * * * *
It does the job on waterfowl, humanely putting them out of their misery. The Feathered Finisher’s choke tube wrench feature, meant to service most all tubes, undoubtedly fits some more snuggly than others. Even with a little wiggle room, this tool grabs the steel tube well and can help free or secure even gummed-up tubes without slipping.

Overall: * * * * *
Adrenal Line’s The Feathered Finisher field tool is a great-quality, multi-feature instrument that will quickly dispatch wounded birds and serve you very well when your 12-gauge choke tube needs attention, too. Reasonably priced and backed by a lifetime warranty and 100% money back guarantee, The Feathered Finisher may be the one and only choke tube wrench a waterfowler ever needs.

 

0 thoughts on “Gear Review: Adrenal Line’s The Feathered Finisher”

  1. hello any one knows if the fab defense stuff fitst the walther mp5 ? looking to get info on fab defense folding stock and handfore grip and top rail all fab defense mp 5 9mm do they fit the 22lr version also? please let me know also what is a good fore grip with tri rail for the mp5 22lr? hk part.net does not ship to Ireland? any one thanks

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  2. That looks strangely out of place on an American camo-clad waterfowler. It seems like something a tweed-wearing, bespoke-shotgun toting, continental pheasant hunter would keep in his fitted vest pocket.
    Way too classy and nice to see out in a marsh where the typical hunter has no issue with simply picking the bird up by it’s neck and giving it a hard twist.
    ????

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  3. Smart. I’ve always just used a #11 scalpel, but the additional utility of a choke wrench and something I can just hang off my calls lanyard is a great idea.

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  4. I don’t have a problem with them coming down if it’s done the right way, community pententioning their local government or a local vote. Not a fan of the bullying tactics that are used by media and social media, groups that force cities to react. Honestly most ppl drove pass these statues, walked pass them and didn’t have a clue what the statue represented. Now all of a sudden these in adamant objects are the source of pain and suffering for people of color. As a man of color, those statues never stop me from doing anything. Just typical hysteria generated by twitter activist and media.

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  5. Being from the South, having members of both sides fight in the war…have to say…yeah they should come down. In fact, they should have never gone up in the first place, unless it was in a museum that used donations of private money to do so. It was an awful war that needed to be fought, while not primarily over slavery, but state powers. The ending result was the end of slavery, which should have ended in 1791 with the ratification of the US Constitution. But the forcible taking them down I do not support, we have courts, let them decide the legal outcome of this issue.

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  6. Oh Chiraq WILL get worse. Now their telling the boys( and way too many gals)in blue they can’t normally even taser the miscreant rabble. I avoid the city like the plague it is…

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