Mesa Tactical SureShell holder

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pcf

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May 5, 2003
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Arlington, TX
I have a love/hate thing for Side Saddles. It's nice to have 6 rounds extra rounds on the shotgun, in a place where they do not interfere with right or left handed shooting. I don't like the way that they affect the balance of my shotguns, that they use two different sized allen wrenches (instead of a flat or phillips screw), and there durability could be better.

I've had the screws that hold the mounting plate and shell holder work loose, stripped out the base one, and had one that lost tension on two of the shell holders. I pretty much gave up on side saddles.

On a whim I ordered a Mesa Tactical SureShell Holder, it's a side saddle that's machined out of aluminum and uses a rubber tube to provide tension to hold shotshells.

On initial inspection it's well machined, and has a flat black anodized finished.

Mounting hardware consist of two internally threaded pins to replace the trigger plate pins, 4 screws, 2 washers, and four allen wrenches. Installation was fairly simple: replace the trigger plate pins, and then insert the screws into both sides of the pins to hold the side saddle on the reciever.

Once I got it mounted I ran some dry fire drills with some a-zoom aluminum dummy shells. First problem I encountered, the rubber tube that is used to hold the shells in place would get pulled out of its grove and make inserting shells into the holders a major PITA. I would have to take a knee and use both hands to load the side saddle. Once I got the shells inserted and wiggled them back and forth a bit the rubber tube would pop back into its groove. When trying to extract shells from the holder the same thing would happen, not as bad, but it's difficult to keep the muzzle remotely on target and extract shells from the holder, and it's really slow.

I tried loading real shotshells in the holder and had the same problems.

I'm going to return this product it's poorly designed, has too many parts in its mounting system, and it's very hard and slow to use.
 
One significant downside of the Mesa Tactical SureShell Holder is that the instructions warn against leaving shells in it. They can deform the plastic retaining tube so that eventually it won't retain the shells. The user is supposed to load the shells into the holder just before they are needed.

I suppose the Mesa Tactical SureShell Holder could be useful if one is attacked by villains courteous enough to schedule the attack enough in advance so that the user has time to fill the holder. Otherwise it doesn't seem useful to me.

Mine will be returned too. Fortunately I bought it from Brownells, which has a no questions asked refund policy.
 
In my opinion the Mesa Tactical sidesaddle is made to suit a specific situation where shells aren't needed to be stored in the unit but instead put in when needed. It is a very high quality shell holder that just isn't for everyone. Just because you can't keep shells in it while your scattergun is sitting under your bed/in your closet doesn't mean it's a piece of garbage. The factory magazine spring of most shotguns is strong enough to hold shells for extended periods and that should suffice for anyone wanting quick firepower in a shotgun.
 
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