Nice looking setup you have there, shotguns are my favorite for an all around firearm.
Be sure to shoot your “upgraded” shotguns in a HD or Tactical class m, though. That’s how I found out that my gadgets were just in the way instead of assisting. I had the magpul furniture on mine with a pict rail mounted with a flashlight on the forearm. That setup tore my thumb apart while shooting and I removed it mid class. During the class I came to the conclusion that the magpul furniture is not for me on the shotgun so, I will eventually change it out for something different or go back to the OEM stock. The fiber optic front sight also came flying off the barrel (the light rod) and left me with just the mount up front. I switched back to a brass bead sight when I got home. I also found out I prefer a single point sling vs a two (personal preference) so that’s another change needed to be made.
All this was found out during a 300 - 400ish round tactical/self defense shotgun course. At home on a static range, all my gadgets and upgrades performed well. But, that was with only a few rounds down range tested. The class opened my eyes to what really worked (for me) if I ever needed to use it for real world problems.
YMMV.
A little bit late to the party but I'm just catching up with threads...
Good point about using you SG in a class. I ran my simple 5 shot in class and learned the some things.
-First the sling just gets hung up and snagged on things. It also gets in the way sometimes when loading. I only put the sling on it when transporting it from place to place.
-Second, the fiber optic front sight only works if there is enough light to illuminate it. Even then it is likely to fly off.
-Third, elastic shell cards don't work. It's almost better IMO to carry shells in a suspended bag (either on your belt of from the shoulder) instead of on the gun, in two different places (receiver and stock). It makes the gun lighter and more maneuverable.
-Lights, optic sights etc just add weight and get knocked around or in the way.
-I didn't have this problem with my 18" bbl 5 shot but I noticed guys struggling with the weight and handling of long barreled, long mag tube, decked out shotguns. Not much of an issue when shooting competition where the stages are measured in seconds. But we were required to carry our SGs all the time, everywhere.
-Capacity didn't really make any difference in performance. We were constantly topping off our mag tubes. Shoot 1, load one, shoot two load two and so forth. Hi cap shotguns had no advantage using that rule/technique.
-Plastic stocks/slides, no mater how well ribbed get slippery when sweating or bleeding. When I got home I immediately took a soldering iron to mine and stippled the grip and slide/fore end. Took it out and ran through some drills we did in the class and it was much better. Having said that, it was so rough you basically needed gloves to run it. Which brings up the point of if you had gloves do you really need to stipple the grip and fore end? Well, maybe yes unless you intend to have gloves with you whenever you need your shotgun for HD.
I love this quote from Clint Smith.
