Guns.

[mclaincausey]

Just took @DougNg advice and picked up an Elzetta flood lens and shotgun kit for my 870. Stoked...

[DougNg]

I didn't like the shotgun mount that Elzetta offers. I kept ramming the tip of my thumb against the button

The Magpul forend and IWC Mount N Slot mount is perfect though. The light travels with the forend so no ramming of my thumb

[TheHappyHatter]

See the pocket dump thread @Snowy , I think that @TheHappyHatter has you covered.

Man, @Megatron1505 I couldn’t cover anybody with my tiny little spoon. I really love this thread though. I also love shooting guns as they give me a massive erection. (Am I allowed to say erection?)

[rocket]

in words yes, in pictures no....

[mclaincausey]

I installed some Ameriglo night sights similar to the Heinie Straight 8 layout, a large dot up front outlined in a bright orange ring, and a rear dot at the bottom of a U notch, on my Glock and tested it out at the range. Really like them. Also checked them out in a dark room and found it easy to line them up. The one thing I would change is that I think they really missed an opportunity by not putting a white outline around the rear tritium vial for daytime shooting. It's not strictly necessary; if you see the outlined front sight through the notch you know you're roughly on target... But I think it would be helpful nonetheless. Perhaps I'm still in Glock sight mode...

[mvb]

Do you guys live on the Gaza Strip ?

[DougNg]

I installed some Ameriglo night sights similar to the Heinie Straight 8 layout, a large dot up front outlined in a bright orange ring, and a rear dot at the bottom of a U notch, on my Glock and tested it out at the range. Really like them. Also checked them out in a dark room and found it easy to line them up. The one thing I would change is that I think they really missed an opportunity by not putting a white outline around the rear tritium vial for daytime shooting. It's not strictly necessary; if you see the outlined front sight through the notch you know you're roughly on target... But I think it would be helpful nonetheless. Perhaps I'm still in Glock sight mode...

I don't think you're missing much. I find that white outlines are very distracting. My eyes go in and out of focus when there's something to see on the rear sight. Just tritium isn't so bad, and is kind of a necessary evil

[mclaincausey]

Do you guys live on the Gaza Strip ?

Man thank God not. What a mess.

I don't think you're missing much. I find that white outlines are very distracting. My eyes go in and out of focus when there's something to see on the rear sight. Just tritium isn't so bad, and is kind of a necessary evil

Yeah, I think it's just an adjustment, I don't look at either of the sights really. I look at the target and frame up a reticle picture composed of the rear and front sights in my periphery over the target. Kind of hard to explain but it seems to work for me and is pretty rapid as well. The Glock shape in the periphery is the squared U with the dot in the middle, this one is just an orange circle with a tritium dot inside of a U notch... which I think just kind of fades into the background instead of becoming a part of the reticle I place over a target. The tritium dot on the rear sight I ignore in daylight, my instinct is to just use that for indexing things in the dark. It's just a matter of getting used to the new picture.

Happily I really found it easy to frame up the "8" in the dark, so I'm encouraged by that.

Now I'm turning my attention to my shottie. Aside from the light and mount and a side saddle I'm rebuilding some of the internals first and then I'm going to add a Hogue pistol grip, SOCOM M4 stock and absorber, and possibly a different foregrip, though I'm not minding the factory one. I'm trying to space that stuff out a little for budgetary reasons though.

[DougNg]

Why are you going with a pistol grip and an M4 stock?

[mclaincausey]

I like the way they handle and like the adjustability because I have to wear heavy layers during the winter.

[Megatron1505]

I'm really enjoying the voyeur nature of this discussion btw...

[grandmasterben]

Do you guys live on the Gaza Strip ?

lol

[mclaincausey]

I have finished building out my 870 for the time being. All-in, less than $600 for a police-grade gun built up from the Express consumer line:

• Police grade trigger group. Parkerized, with an aluminum trigger guard instead of the polymer one that shipped. What do I care, I shoot Glocks. It's all about the internals, which are a bit more robust. If this weren't a mission-critical gun I wouldn't have bothered.
• Machined shell extractor: Remingtons only have a single extractor to Mossberg's two extractors, and while the thing has a pretty significant hook I don't want to take any chances. The factory extractor on my model is stamped. This one is used in the police grade versions and is machined. It has a really nice hook on it and works flawlessly.
• Wilson Combat oversized safety: This is nice ergonomically, and I wouldn't much use visual confirmation of "see red, see dead," but I don't understand why they wouldn't have put a red ring on this when it sticks out to clearly indicate that the safety is disengaged. Seems like they took the ball to the 5 yard line and fumbled by not including that. As a righty using a ghost sight who may move to a pistol grip in the future, this is as good as the safety ergonomics can get for me on an affordable combat shotgun
• Wilson Combat stainless magazine spring: This seems nice, though I wasn't having problems with the stock spring. I thought it might be necessary though with the much heavier...
• Stainless steel shell follower: The stock shell follower is this cheap-feeling plastic thing. I feel better with stainless. I never had problems with the plastic one, and so far the steel one is solid too.
• Elzetta Beta light and mount: this is nice, I have it where I can reach the light from the pump but it doesn't get in the way. The light is a bit heavier than I expected but I don't mind it
• Mesa Tactical 6-shot side saddle: This is nice, feels super solid. Aircraft-grade aluminum, etc. What's disappointing on this $60 side saddle is that the purchase of each slot on the shells is inconsistent. The back one is so loose that I actually decided to store the shells upright because I was worried it would fall out. The do ship a replacement piece, but I'm not sure if that tightens or loosens things, and I'm happy with the other slots. I have a feeling this is just due to the way the thing is designed. What's great about it is how solidly constructed it is and how firm its purchase on the receiver is--it almost feels like part of the weapon. Happy with it all in all.

Things on the radar include

• Big Dot in replacement of the dovetail front bead sight (there are 4 different height models that would fit and I'd have to figure out the right one)
• some chokes. I'd like to be able to convert the weapon to various hunting platforms for a survival situation
• possibly grip and stock replacement
• if the latter happens a new harness

[madmonday]

Never got the use of those type of dot sites unless you are in competitions. 9 out of 10 times it is point and shoot within 3 to 10 yards & it happens so quickly it's almost all muscle memory & the good & bad habits u picked up along the way. Of course all that stuff is fun to look at but at 200 in the morning in a dark house or alley I'm not convinced . . .

[Megatron1505]

Same logic applies to martial arts, I spent many years as a child/ youth studying Chinese Boxing and Shotokan Karate but when I've been unfortunate enough to get into a sticky situation all that training goes to shit part from how and where to direct a good punch and some of the more basic defence techniques for preventing serious damage.

In essence 12 years of training is forgotten in favour of what you learn in the first month.