My first shotgun - Mossberg 500 - suggestions for accessories, ammo?

Status
Not open for further replies.

JohnCrighton

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
54
Mostly for HD but occasionally for hunting. Has a SpecOps recoil-reducing stock, heat shield, 8 round extension, everything else stock.

I have a nice coupon from Cabellas and was wondering how to get another $50 on my order to use it.

I have NO ammo, so I would be open to ammo suggestions for HD as well as small game loads.

Any recommended slings?

Light mounts (I have a G2 Surefire and Viking Tactical light mount, but no way of attaching either to the shotgun - any suggestions?)

Any other performance upgrades I should consider?

Thanks!
 
Doesn't look like theres much anything extra you need. Maybe even take off a thing or two (heat shield :p).

Anyways, all that money would be well spent on ammo, half bird shot and the rest buckshot.

Don't accessorize first. Shoot it and then discover your personal needs.
 
Exception to the shoot first, accessorize later rule: Sling.

I long ago (thirty-forty years?) crafted a sling keeper for under the magazine cap screw and installed a regular one from a rifle on the stock of Irving, my Mossberg 500, and hung a sling on it.

Good for slogging around afield and ...ummm... otherwise.

Having discovered the utilty of a sling on a shotgun, I am forever amazed that I don't see slings on scatterguns more often.

Tradition, I guess.

The other thing you might want to do is put the L-Note toward a rifled, sighted slug barrel for it. I'm going to order one of these barrels in a week or so from Midway.

Ammo? Suggestions abound everywhere, including this site. No sense my adding anything now.
 
Has a SpecOps recoil-reducing stock, heat shield, 8 round extension, everything else stock
A heat shield? You mean a barrel shroud? You must be a criminal because those are only on assault weapons made for killing:neener:
 
^^^ I thought a barrel shroud ("that thing that goes up on the shoulder") was a bra strap.

No?

I'm wrong?

C'mon, yesit'sloaded. You can tell me.
 
Ha, are you in NC? I just sold an almost identical gun on consignment in the RTP area, it would be a hoot if I saw the new owner posting about it.
 
I second the recommendation on a sling. I have a two-point tactical sling on my Saiga S12 and it's very convenient. Not so much for HD - but anything that involves carrying it for any distance benefits from it.

There should be some mounts to attach your G2 -- there are a variety that clamp on to the barrel and hold the light.

Jim
 
.Just spend the rest on ammo and practice shooting the gun. Getting a feel for what you need and what you want makes a big difference for when you really need it. Do you really need a heat shield? Maybe, maybe not.

If there is a trap range around you might want to try some trap out, don't just concentrate on buckshot only. Birdshot is relatively cheap compared to buckshot or slugs, and there is much less recoil. The more you shoot the more comfortable you will become with your gun.
 
Thanks for the advice so far. Now, for slings - give that this has no front attachment point, and I'm used to 3-point slings a la AR-15 rifles, what slings would you recommend? The SpecOps stock has a very AR-15 like stock and attachment points. They also sell a sling:

http://www.knoxx.net/accessories/Tactical_Sling.php



I'm just wondering if there is another sling out there that maybe isn't as expensive that will work on this shotgun - like maybe the Safari Sling.

Seems like this is a bit of a problem - I don't see how to attach the sling to the front of the shotgun.

Is there a store that has decent prices and specializes in lots of tactical shotgun accessories?




Any suggestion for clamp-on mounts for the light? I've seen a few, but all seem really cheap Chinese-made stuff - are they any good?
 
The magazine cap screw which goes through the barrel mounting lug and into the magazine end cap has a lttle circlip "keeper" on it. remove this keeper and the magazine cap screw comes out. You will have to do this any time you change barrels anyhow unless you get a spare cap screw.

I fashioned a flat piece of steel with a hole in it for the cap screw to go through, and bent over to accept a forend sling swivel.

This goes under the head of the cap screw when you are mounting a barrel. By now, I'm sure someone has made an equivalent device to accomplish this. The circlip is stored away somewhere for safe keeping and not used in this application.

I'll post a pic later on this device (see EDIT below). I made it, as I say, decades ago, as a quick expedient, and it served so well that I never bothered to upgrade it to a prettier one.

..........

If there is a trap range around you might want to try some trap out, don't just concentrate on buckshot only. Birdshot is relatively cheap compared to buckshot or slugs, and there is much less recoil. The more you shoot the more comfortable you will become with your gun.

While you are practicing at the skeet or trap range, hold the gun at low ready and other positions in which you might actually be carrying the shotgun before yelling "pull." You are not out to hit 25 x 25, but to simulate real conditions where shots appear while you're just walking around doin' nuthin'. Most of the folks who are out there shooting skeet and trap start from the shoulder-already-mounted postion, ready to shoot.

I would go out there and practice with the shotgun slung over my shoulder, just as if I were taking surprise shots while walking through the fields and forests.

[SHOULDER SELF PAT]
With this kind of more realistic practice, I was hitting 15 to 18 X 25 clays out of the high house, with a companion yelling "pull" for the surprise effect with a 30" full-choked goose (or trap) barrel.
[/SHOULDER SELF PAT]

Yes, I was getting wierd looks and smirks when I took my position with the shotgun slung over my shoulder, but I felt I didn't need practice in walking around the woods with my gun at the pre-mounted-to-the-shoulder position.

This, mind you, was long before we civilians got interesting in "tactical" shooting, and probably long before that word was applied to any kind of shooting.

------------

EDITED TO ADD:

Pix of the sling attachment I put together "just to try it out" decades ago. Rough & dirty, but worked well enough that I left it alone. The piece was made from a hunk of chrome plated steel and in finishing it, some of the chrome wore off, revealing the copper underplating. That's why it looks discolored in spots.

As one manufacturing engineer once told me, "Perfection is the enemy of production."

The first pic shows the quick-detach "swivel" open, ready to remove the sling. Second pic, disassembled, is slightly blurred. Apologies for haste, but once again,"Perfection is the enemy of production." :) I wanted to get pics posted in a hurry.
 

Attachments

  • ASSEMBLED CROPPED.jpg
    ASSEMBLED CROPPED.jpg
    50.2 KB · Views: 31
  • DISASSEMBLED CROPPED.jpg
    DISASSEMBLED CROPPED.jpg
    77.2 KB · Views: 27
Last edited:
Sling it if ya gotta, then ammo by the trailer-truckload.

And a person to be the ammo carrier/target thrower.



Don't know why, I'm just in the mood to be a Wise N. Hiemer today..
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top