Side saddle upgrade solution

[wonderwolf]

Hey guys/gals, long time lurker and finally joined.

The 870 has been of great interest to me for the last 5-6 years and I've been working to continue to improve my guns in cost effective ways. I have a solution I'm sure isn't original but something I came up with after I stripped out the last "spare" side saddle I had in the parts bins here in the wolf den. I'm not a machinist by trade but started doing my own work out of interest to build it better and save money on buying costly upgrades that might not work out.

Anyways here is what I came up with to fix stripped out side saddles its fairly straight forward. They should never strip out from recoil or field stripping with this system and are far more robust (lots more thread engagement) than the 1.5 thread we had to work with before. See below

http://wonderwolfs.blogspot.com/2016/07 ... icati.html

I hope you find that info enlightening. I just wanted to add some stuff to the bank of upgrades here before I start gleaning more tidbits myself

[Vitaly]

Interesting and useful information, thanks!

[Synchronizor]

Neat. I thought of something very similar when I stripped out the front hole on my first TacStar sidesaddle, but I didn't have access to any of the machining tools to do it myself, and after inquiring with a local machine shop, I decided to just buy another sidesaddle and some better screws. Haven't had a problem yet, though I honestly don't run it much.

[wonderwolf]

Neat. I thought of something very similar when I stripped out the front hole on my first TacStar sidesaddle, but I didn't have access to any of the machining tools to do it myself, and after inquiring with a local machine shop, I decided to just buy another sidesaddle and some better screws. Haven't had a problem yet, though I honestly don't run it much.

"better screws"? care to elaborate on that? did you stick with the Tacstar or go with a different mfg? the screws on mine have been fine...I still need to get some spares to stash away but I'm not worried about them stripping anytime soon.

[Synchronizor]

No, I got another TacStar. My first one failed because the front 10-32 screw had poor tolerances, and only engaged the threads in the baseplate for 1 full turn and some change. Didn't take long for the aluminum threads to strip. The fully-threaded screw also let one of my shell latches drift backward, so I had to realign it before I could use my original trigger plate pins.

When I got my second TacStar sidesaddle, I went out and bought a longer 10-32 screw that was partially threaded, and then cut it down. The end result was a fastener that was a 3/16" cylinder for most of its length, with just a bit of 10-32 thread on the end. This better supported the shell latch, and the threaded end engaged 100% of the available thread in the baseplate. When I install my sidesaddle, I just make sure not to over-torque the thing, and I haven't had trouble yet.

I'd probably still pay more for a more heavy-duty sidesaddle if I worked in law enforcement or something, though.