Fighting with Shotgun

Posted on August 8, 2010

I have found a very good article about home defense with shotgun:

Fighting with Shotgun

It has a lot of tips and pictures. Recommended.

Remington 870 Police Forend

Posted on August 4, 2010

As I wrote earlier, Mesa Tactical Shotshell Carrier doesn’t work with long forends, so I had to choose the shorter one.

I have planned to use Hogue forend but when I have tested it on the shooting range it turned out that it is not a good idea to use Hogue forend and Knoxx stock. When shotgun moves backward after the shot Hogue forend moves together with your skin and it hurts. This happens because Hogue forend is overmolded and allows very good grip. It is fantastic but not with Knoxx stock.

So, I started to search for another short forend and have found police forend. I have tested it on the shooting range and it was great. It allows a good grip and can be used with Knoxx stock.

Here it is:

Actually, I don’t like that Knoxx stock has many limitations. It cannot be used with S&J and Vang safeties and now it is not comfortable to use it with Hogue forend. So, I may look for a different stock. If you have any advices, please leave a comment.

By the way, after numerous problems with Choate magazine extension I decided to replace it. And today I have received Nordic Components magazine extension and it looks like I have found the best extension possible! You will see review with photos later this week.

Mesa Tactical Sureshell Shotshell Ammunition Carrier 12-Gauge Remington 870

Posted on August 2, 2010

Mesa Tactical Sureshell Shotshell Ammunition Carrier 12-Gauge Remington 870

This receiver mount shotshell ammunition carrier is a high-quality product and looks and works great. I have chosen 6-round version and needed to install a shorter forend. Sureshell Ammunition Carrier will not work with standard forends.

System Concept
It holds shells securely thanks to the elastomer tube. Here is system concept description from Mesa Tactical:

What I like about the Sureshell is that it is attached to the receiver more securely (using 4 special screws), it is made of metal not plastic. Another thing is that it doesn’t cover shotgun serial number which may be useful in some cases. But elastomer tube has a disadvantage. It is not recommended to store shells in carrier for a long time.

After testing it on the shooting range I have found it very useful and convenient. Highly recommended for home-defense and competitive shooting.

TacStar SideSaddle is a cheaper alternative which I have successfully used for about one year.

Please leave a comment if you have experience with TacStar or Mesa Tactical products.

TacStar SideSaddle Advice

Posted on July 31, 2010

I had a review of the TacStar 4-Round SideSaddle about a year ago. Now it is time for some tips. First of all it is a very good product and helped me a lot in competitions. But there are two important things you should know about it:
1. Do not overtighten the screws which attach SideSaddle to receiver. One of my friends have broken his SideSaddle this way.
2. Check 4 small screws often. I have lost two of them somewhere on the shooting range:

By the way, I have received, installed and tested Mesa Tactical SureShell 6-Round Carrier for Remington 870 and will have a review about it tomorrow.

Small Test of Tactical Flashlights (Shotgun Recoil)

Posted on July 26, 2010

My friend Andrew and I decided to make a small test of 2 tactical flashlights I have: SureFire G2 LED Tactical Flashlight and FAB Defense Speed Light. I have installed both flashlights on my shotgun using CDM Gear clamp:

We have tested them using birdshot, buckshot and slugs. We have made about 15 shots with each type of ammunition. After this small test everything was good and flashlights were ok.

Remington 870 Shotgun Gun Cleaning Mat

Posted on July 16, 2010

Just received my Remington 870 Shotgun Gun Cleaning Mat! It looks fantastic and I really like it.

It has a history of the Remington 870 shotgun and description of all parts.

Pump-Action Shotguns in Shootouts (North Hollywood shootout and 1986 FBI Miami shootout)

Posted on July 13, 2010

There are a lot of talks about the effectiveness of shotguns. But we need to understand the role of the shotguns and what they can and can’t do.

Let’s see information about the shootouts where shotguns were used: North Hollywood shootout and 1986 FBI Miami shootout.

Brief description of the North Hollywood shootout (from Wikipedia):

The North Hollywood shootout was an armed confrontation between two heavily armed bank robbers and officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles on February 28, 1997.

Local patrol officers at the time were typically armed with 9 mm or .38 Special pistols on their person, with some having a 12-gauge shotgun available in their cars. Phillips and Matasareanu carried fully automatic rifles, with ammunition capable of penetrating police body armor, and wore military grade body armor of their own.

The patrol officers were armed with standard Beretta 92-type 9-mm pistols and .38-caliber revolvers, and some also carried 12-gauge pump-action shotguns, but the body armor worn by Phillips and Matasareanu was strong enough to resist penetration.

The robbers were protected by body armor which could not be penetrated by the officers’ handgun and shotgun ammunition.

The ineffectiveness of the pistol rounds and shotgun pellets in penetrating the robbers’ body armor led to a trend in the United States toward arming selected police patrol officers with semi-automatic 5.56 mm AR-15 type rifles.

As you can see from the video, policeman used his 12 gauge shotgun from the distance of about 50 yards (he was behind the kiosk). Policeman saw that shotgun pellets hit the robber but had no effect. Robber returned fire.

So it is not a very good idea to use a shotgun (birdshot and buckshot) against the enemy with body armor. Especially on a long distance (20-50 yards). Slugs are more effective on such distances. But remember that shotgun is a Close Quarters Battle weapon. Shotgun is one of the most effective short range weapons and it is extremely good for a home defense use.

Brief description of the 1986 FBI Miami shootout (from Wikipedia):

The FBI Miami shootout was a gun battle that occurred on 11 April 1986 in Miami, Florida between eight Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and two serial bank robbers.

The incident is infamous in FBI history and is well-studied in law enforcement circles. Despite outnumbering the suspects 4 to 1, the agents found themselves pinned down by rifle fire and unable to respond effectively. Although both Matix and Platt were hit multiple times during the firefight, Platt fought on regardless and continued to injure and kill the officers. This incident led to the introduction of more powerful handguns in many police departments around the country.

Unfortunately, FBI agents didn’t have enough weapons. Only two of the FBI vehicles contained shotguns. Also, it turns out that shotgun pellets are not very effective against enemy inside the car. Another important thing to know is that it was difficult for the FBI agent to reload his shotgun able to use only one arm.

Do you know any other shootouts where shotguns were used? Please leave a comment.

Limbsaver Recoil Pad for Knoxx Stock

Posted on July 5, 2010

I like the Knoxx SpecOps stock because it reduces recoil as advertised. But I have always wondered if it is possible to reduce recoil even more. This weekend I have tested Knoxx SpecOps stock with Limbsaver Recoil Pad. I haven’t noticed much difference. So, I think it is not necessary to change the standard Knoxx recoil pad.

Loadmaster Systems (Reload Your Shotgun Faster)

Posted on July 1, 2010

I am happy to see more and more readers of this blog. Also, it is very interesting to receive information from manufacturers of the interesting Remington 870 upgrades.

As you know Scott Dew from CDM Gear and Simon Beeson from S&J Hardware have already sent me their products for review and answered questions from readers of the Rem870.com blog.

Today, I want to tell you about another interesting upgrade for Remington 870 shotgun: LoadMaster Systems. Joe Masten will send me one for tests soon and I will be able to write a review about this new tactical/sport upgrade for Remington 870.

Meanwhile, you can check the Loadmaster Systems website:
http://www.loadmastersystems.com/

This system looks interesting and I can’t wait to test it:

Remington 870 Blog

Posted on June 28, 2010

Dear readers of the Rem870.com blog,

I was very busy at work and didn’t have time to update blog regularly. But now I have more free time and will have new interesting articles published soon.

If you have any photos, tips or reviews please send them to me and I will publish them.

All the best,
Vitaly.

Kiev Spring Shotgun Competition (IPSC)

Posted on May 28, 2010

Photos from one more shotgun competition:

Benelli Cup, Kiev, Ukraine, 17 April, 2010

Posted on May 2, 2010

Little review of the Benelli Cup which took place in Kiev, Ukraine on 17th April, 2010.

This was a fantastic event with many interesting stages. My Remington 870 shotgun proved its reliability and didn’t have any malfunctions during the all competition. During 7 stages I have used following ammunition: birdshot, buckshot and slugs. Distances were from 5 to 70 meters. 70 meters distance was for slugs.

This shotgun competition was very successfull for me and I took 6th place out of 19 shooters.

Some photos:

Home Defense Remington 870 Shotgun

Posted on April 28, 2010

Dear readers of Rem870.com blog,

Today I want to share with you a great article by Jonathan Paul about his Remington 870 Police shotgun. Jon, thank you very much!

I recently purchased my first shotgun, a Remington 870 Police Magnum. I had my local Scheel’s Sporting Goods store special order me the Remington Model 25015. This model came with the 18.5” parkerized barrel seen separately below, no magazine extension, and walnut furniture.

The matte finish of the parkerizing is even in color and non-reflective. The finish applied to the aluminum trigger housing is a little shinier and blacker, but doesn’t detract from the appearance of the weapon. It doesn’t appear to be a chemical finish however, and durability may be an issue, only time will tell. The bore of the barrel is very bright and smooth with no machining marks visible.

The walnut furniture is nice in appearance with a matte finish. The reflectivity is higher than the parkerizing as seen in the picture above, but it is still a matte finish. The close-up below show the grain and ribbed pattern on the fore end and the smooth grip area of the butt stock. The smooth pistol grip may need to be roughed up with some epoxy or grip tape, but I want to run a few more round through the gun and maybe try a polymer stock set before I start modifying the wood.

Most of my shooting history involves rifles and this is the first non-autoloading weapon I’ve owned. That said the action is tight and a little clunky, though I’ve been reassured that a few thousand rounds will have it sliding smooth as butter. The trigger is also heavier, longer and grittier than a finely tuned precision rifle trigger. The grittiness I’m sure will go away with use; as for the weight and length, this is a fighting shotgun and those are not exactly undesirable qualities in a serious weapon trigger.

Now onto the modifications. There were several modifications I knew I wanted to make right out of the box and those were: 20” bead sighted barrel, a magazine extension, large head safety, and an improved magazine follower. I purchased a 20” bead sighted parkerized barrel from the Remington Country Store. The finish matched with the receiver perfectly and the quality was identical to the quality of the barrel that came with the gun from the factory.

The magazine extension I chose to go with was the Sage International extension designed to be used with 20” barrels. This extension gives the shotgun a total capacity of 7 rounds in the magazine plus one in the chamber. The extension is very nicely machined and the fit was flawless. I did not use the supplied magazine clamp, but it looked to be similar in design to the Remington factory clamp. My only complaint with the extension is the finish. As you can see in the picture below it does not match the parkerizing found on the barrel. It has a little slicker feel to it almost like galvanizing. As I mentioned, I did not use the Sage magazine clamp because I was planning on using the Mesa Tactical magazine clamp. I like the beefy appearance and upgradability of this magazine clamp. The machining and finish on this item are superb and surprisingly the anodizing of the aluminum clamp almost perfectly matches the parkerizing of the steel barrel.

Mostly due to Vitaly’s articles I decided to go with the S&J Hardware manufactured jumbo safety and machined Delrin follower, pictured below. Like Vitaly described, I found the safety easy to activate, but not in the way while I was firing. The magazine follower is bright and gives both a visual and tactile indicator that the magazine tube is empty. Also, in 50 rounds firing from a fully loaded magazine, the follower never bound up in the magazine tube.

Also wanted to mention that I followed the instruction here: Rem870.com to install the safety and had no problems.

As it stand right now the shotgun is a very capable weapon and I got the look and feel that I wanted. There are however, other options and accessories I want to try out and see if I like better. These accessories include:

-SpeedFeed IV-S shortened tactical stock set – The LOP of this shotgun with the walnut furniture was a little long to comfortably assume a tactical squared off stance. Since I also wanted to try out a pistol gripped butt stock this product would allow me to try both.

-Mesa Tactical Side Saddle – Right now I don’t have a provision for additional ammunition on the weapon and if the quality of their magazine clamp is any indication, one of their side saddles would be just the ticket.

-XS Big Dot sight – I am a little worried about the visibility of the standard bead sight in low light conditions and I want to try one of these sights to see how they will work for me.

Links:
Remington Law Enforcement
Remington Country Store
Sage International
Mesa Tactical
S & J Hardware

Jon, thank you very much for the article and photos!

Rem870 Blog

Posted on April 28, 2010

Dear readers of rem870.com blog,

I am sorry for such a big delay between posts but I had problems with my PC (my Windows stopped to work completely). You will see many new articles soon.

And if you have something you want to share with other readers (more than 5000/month) of rem870.com blog please send photos, stories and tips to me: info@rem870.com

All the best,
Vitaly.

Ameriglo (Trijicon) Tritium Night Sights for Remington 870 Shotgun

Posted on April 12, 2010

This set of night sights for Remington 870 is manufactured by Ameriglo. They use tritium elements from Trijicon in their sights.

This set is very sturdy and well made. I have tested them in day light and they were very good and easy to use. Of course they don’t glow in the daylight as light gathering sights but easily identifiable thanks to the white ring around tritium tubes. Also, Ameriglo sights glow in the dark thanks to the tritium elements (which will be glowing for 12 years). You can choose several colors for your sights, I have front dot of the green color and yellow dots on the back sight. You can choose all green elements if you want. These sights are little higher than standard ones but I like it.

Installation was very easy and took just 15-20 minutes.

The only disadvantage of this set is a high price of $99. But if you want to have tritiums sights for your Remington 870 I recommend this set.

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