In the quest to appropriately gear-up the yet-unnamed (suggestions are welcome) home-defense shotgun, I have ordered and, in some cases, installed a few random fiddly bits, as documented below.
First up, the bead sight. Ok, I understand why it is there – this gun is never going to be used for long-range anything, so complicated sights (or even a rear sight) are not really necessary. However, in this case, I could possibly be using the firearm in a variety of lighting situations, and that little metal bead is not always going to be visible. Enter the TruGlo Glo-Dot III
snap-on sight. The little fiber-optic rod (red in my case – I know green would be more tacticool, but I am too cheap for green lasers on future equipment, so I figured I should standardize colors) collects surrounding light and directs it back at you, giving a clear point-of-aim in most any condition. Better yet, the entire assembly simply snaps onto the barrel, with no gunsmithing or even alterations required. So easy, even I can do it. (Be advised, though – once you snap that thing on, it is on, and any attempts at moving or removing it will probably involve power tools… Also, it does not fit in front of the extended tube support bracket on the 870, and no, the bracket is not movable.)
Before:
After:
Second, the feature of a shotgun that simultaneously hampers it and increases its flexibility – its magazine tube. My particular model already came with a magazine tube extension pre-installed by the factory, increasing its overall capacity to six 2.75″ rounds in the tube, and one in the chamber. I shudder to think of a situation where I would need more than six or seven rounds to discourage a home-invasion, but the possibility exists, and unlike handguns, shotguns have no removable magazines for easy reloading. What they do have, however, is receiver-mounted shell saddles, like the one made by Scattergun Technologies. Six additional shells ride on the side of the shotgun’s receiver, allowing you to not only reload on the fly, but also carry different types of ammunition – my current plan is to have low-recoil 00 buckshot loaded in the tube, and 300-grain hollowpoint slugs riding in the saddle (at least once my ammunition arrives, whenever that is). If the situation calls for more firepower than that, I am pretty much screwed regardless. (Scattergun Technologies must have done something right, by the by, since they were bought out by Wilson Combat.) Installation was a little tricky, in that you have to get the screws past the detents that used to hold the receiver pins in place, but, again, if I can do it, just about anyone could. Just be sure to function-check afterwards…
Before:
After:
Finally (at least for this batch of upgrades), the stock. As mentioned previously, Better Half did not find the stock stocks (hm…) of any of the shotguns we looked at terribly comfortable – the length of pull was simply too long. Thankfully, in addition to providing an adjustable stock that is quite comfortable for her at its lowest setting, the Knoxx/BlackHawk Recoil Reducing Adjustable Stock also has the added benefit of, as its name implies, reducing the felt recoil of the gun when it fires. Unfortunately, unlike the previous installs, I will have no pictures of this particular one.
Despite me having told myself not to do business with them due to their post-election price gouging, I ordered the stock through Cheaper Than Dirt, due to the $10-$20 savings (As my father says, “Every man has his price, mine just happens to be lower than most.”). Three days later, I get a friendly little email informing me that their warehouse has informed them that this item is out of stock, it will not be shipped to me, and my credit card will be refunded. Fine and dandy. Then why did their webpage not indicate that the item was out of stock, and why does their webpage not currently indicate that the item is out of stock? Just a little shady, that.
Thanks to all of this, Cabela’s will be getting my money, and I will be receiving the stock about a week later than I had hoped. Sometimes, you just want to throttle that little voice…
And now comes the point in this post where I stop showing off, and start asking for help – short of spending almost as much on a Surefire fore-end as I did on the firearm itself, what is a good way to mount a flashlight on an 870? The light in question will probably be a Surefire G2L (or possibly one of these OLIGHT T20 monstrosities), so a 1″ mounting ring should work just fine (yes, I know it is not technically a weaponlight, but it does have an LED bulb (incandescents suck on high-shock mountings like firearms) and, for its price, I can replace it about four times before we get near the cost of a “legitimate” weaponlight)… just how do I mount that to the shotgun? After all, better sights and more shells do not do me a whit of good if I do not know what I am shooting at.
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