Magpul (finally) releases Mossberg Stock, Forend

Pre-order on Brownells.

While I'm content with Project 590A1's current stock, I'm curious about the Magpul offering. Might pick one up for review if there's interest.

Project 590A1: Railed Forend

Looking at light options for the 590A1 led me to consider a variety of routes. The easy answer for putting a combat worthy light on a shotgun is usually to just buy a Surefire forend for $270-ish and slap it on. Unfortunately, Surefire's forend apparently doesn't work well with the 590A1's bayonet mount/sling mount--you have to basically file that part of the shotgun off, which was a no-go for me.

Yes, there's always the options of just drilling out the existing forend and adding a piece of Magpul railing - cheap, and generally works. But, I wanted something a bit less redneck and a bit more sturdy for Project 590A1.

The Ergo railed 500/590 forend was just the ticket. Remove the factory forend/pump and this baby slides right into place, giving you three sections of mil-spec picatinny railing to slap whatever tactical accessories your heart may desire.

Disassembling a Mossberg shotgun is not particularly hard and there are an abundance of videos on YouTube to help with the job. Switching out the forend is more involved then changing out something like the stock, but it can be done in 15 minutes with minimal tools on the kitchen table.

I'm very happy with the Ergo rail--it's rock solid and does the job well.

Project 590A1: Sling

I'm of the mind that fighting guns need slings on 'em. Heck, I think even range guns need slings on 'em. But especially fighting guns, because, while you can hold the gun in your off-hand and shoot with your strong hand, it's not ideal.

I wanted to keep the sling simple on this beast. No frills but functional. Simple equals cheap, so that's good to. Basic 2 point slings work plenty good for most things and that's what I was going for.

Parts:
- Uncle Mike's QD Sling swivels (only used one)
- Cheap-o Blackhawk! sling; basically just a piece of webbing and two tri-glides. Yes, you could make it yourself for cheaper if you had the materials on hand.

Cost out the door: Less than 20 bucks.

You can see how I've attached it to the shotty. The Choate stocks offers numerous attachment points, which is a plus.

Can't say I've run a class with it, but it has held up totally fine in the dry fire drills that I have run with it. Not much to go wrong with it, and that's a good thing in my book.

Project 590A1: Esstac Shotgun Card Sidesaddle

For the Project 590A1 shotgun, I've added a patch of industrial Velcro to the left side of the receiver and attached an Esstac Shotgun card. When empty, the shotgun card can be peeled off and a new one slapped in its place.

The elastic shell loops on the Esstac card are quite tight, which means they have great retention and a firm grip on the shell. But, that also means they can be a bit difficult to load the shells onto the Shotgun case. and a bit slow to retrieve. They should loosen up well with use, though. I doubt they will be as fast as a kydex type material, but they are pretty good.

Running a shotgun is a lot about managing your ammunition and regularly topping off. The shotshell cards are excellent for this--fire one, load one; fire two, load two.When the card is empty, slap on a new one and continue.

The shotgun cards are $15 a pop, so you can pick up a few for what you'd pay for a decent conventional side saddle. And install takes all of about 5 minutes--cut Velcro, add to receiver and then let the adhesive set.

The cards will also fit in most magazine pouches--I've run mine in my Costa Leg Rig, where they work quite well. The Leg Rig's mag pouches, at least, oddly had some loop strips on the inside, which needed to be removed/covered, else the shotgun card's Velcro hook would latch on and make drawing the shotgun card quite difficult.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the system. If you're planning on running a sidesaddle for reloads, this is probably the best way to do so.

The Shotgun cards are available from SKD Tactical or direct from Esstac. Industrial strength velcro can be found at your local hardware store.

Project 590A1: Stock Swap

The 590A1's factory stock has a very long length of pull - 14.5 inches, I believe. For a modern shooting/fighting stance, standing squared up towards the target, it just does not work unless you have very long arms. It's just too darn long. So, pretty quickly after purchase, I went out in search of a more useful stock.

Originally, I went with Hogue's 12 inch length of pull stock. Despite great reviews, I was unimpressed. The build quality was no better than the stock Mossberg, and, instead of being too long, the 12-inch length of pull was too short. Doh!

In working with these conventional style stocks and the 590A1, I also began to notice the shotgun's weight, especially during reloads and one-handed manipulations. The 590A1 is not a light gun, and when you add 8 shells to the tube, it only gets heavier.

So, I decided to stop screwing around with different fixed length stocks, and try out something with an adjustable/collapsible stock length. I was also curious to see if a pistol grip stock would help better control the 590A1's weight.

I contacted Choate Machine & Tool and asked to give one of their telescoping shotgun stocks a try. I've previously reviewed their AR-15 collapsible stock and knew their shotgun stock would be solid and sturdy, certainly what I'm going for with this build.

Project 590A1: Tritium Bead Nightsight

View down the barrel after swapping in a night sight bead.

First up in our 590A1 upgrade series is some work on the sights, or perhaps more correctly, the sight, as the stock 590A1 ships with a plain jane bead front sight.

Bead sights on shotguns are fine and dandy, but when things get dark and chaotic, they can be tough to see. Sure, you might say "Bro, it's a shotgun--who needs to aim?". To which, I call BS. Yes, buckshot will spread, but only a few inches at home defense distances we'd be employing a shotgun in. Aim poorly and you can miss, and who is to say if you will get a second chance to hit.

So, aiming is important, and having every edge to help you get buckshot on target is smart. And that's why they invented night sights, which we're used to seeing on pistols but maybe not so much on shotguns. Replacing a stock bead with a tritium night sight is a simple, inexpensive project that takes only a few minutes to complete.

Project 590A1: Intro

A few weeks back, I picked up a Mossberg 590A1, with some uncertain plans for performing some upgrades to the shotgun. Taking a cue from TSLRF's Project 870 (Thanks Ryan!), I thought I would let the T-Blog Tribe follow along as I went through the upgrades--and some trial/error--to the 590A1.

The 590A1 is, of course, an already upgraded version of the popular Mossberg 500. The 590A1 is the heavy-duty, milspec version of the 500, with all metal parts, a thicker barrel and a different magazine tube--the mag tube opens at the end, facilitating cleaning. Parts between the 590A1 and other 500 series shotguns are largely interchangeable; if you've got a 500 or 590 (or Maverick--I'm pretty sure those are patterned after the 500), you'll be able to follow along, too.