Mossberg, Remington, and other manufacturers include a plastic trigger guard on many of their shotgun lines. A lot of folks I know think that these are pieces of crap, but I've never heard of one breaking before. Opinions?

Quoted: Mossberg, Remington, and other manufacturers include a plastic trigger guard on many of their shotgun lines. A lot of folks I know think that these are pieces of crap, but I've never heard of one breaking before. Opinions?

i've never seen one break, and i've never heard of one breaking.  i have several shotguns with plastic trigger gaurds and they've never given me any trouble.

...yet, i always hear people saying that they're shit

On another forum we had a post asking anyone who'd ever actually SEEN a broken plastic shotgun part to report it.

We had a couple of plastic Remington Police gun magazine followers that apparently got hot and deformed, several broken Mossberg safety switches, and ONE broken Remington Express plastic trigger group.

In that case, the damage was so catastrophic that even a steel guard would have failed and the receiver was also damaged.
I've seen several Remington guards that were bashed pretty good, but none broke, or put the guns out of service.
Most were deformed, but returned to close enough to original shape so as to be usable.

Wear-wise, the plastic Remington Express group seems to be wearing just as good as the aluminum, has the advantage of not having a finish to wear off and look ratty, and is self-lubricating.

With all that, I'm like everyone else, I just don't like plastic.

I asked the same question of Wilson Combat/Scattergun Technologies. I was considering having them replace my plastic trigger group with an aluminum one.

Their response, "Why"?

Seems they've found them to be as, if not more durable than the alloy ones.  Also, they told me that they use standard 870 Express guns to build from, not Police models. According to them, the differences are negligible and not worth the extra cost, especially considering the mods they make to them anyway.

Quoted: ...yet, i always hear people saying that they're shit

I have always been one of the people. I've always looked for the "older" Express models with the alloy trigger guards. Just picked up a new 870HD over the weekend. Gonna try the plastic trigger guard. I'm sure it will be fine......

Anyone with a plastic trigger guard want to trade up to a used aluminum one?

I have seen a broken plastic trigger group.  It was just a few months ago when I was cleaning/ inspecting a Mossberg 500 8-shot.  As I removed the trigger group, parts went airborn.  The back of the trigger ensemble had cracked where it holds the hammer spring.  This gun is 15 years old, had thousands of rounds put through it, and has seen some abuse and neglect.

Before this, I acquired a used Mossberg Slugster.  The trigger guard was cracked at the rear.  The gun had all kinds of obvious signs of medling and tampering from unskilled hands.  It was probably the result of a previous owner doing something stupid or just mistreating it.

Does this scare me?  No.  Plastic on guns doesn't bother me at all.  It's been my experience that the plastic lasts longer than the metal parts do.  I've replaced a whole lot more worn metal parts on guns.

What the experience did teach me is that I don't like Mossberg Cust. Service.  You don't work on Mossberg trigger assemblies, you just replace the whole thing.  That's the way they've designed it.  Now, when you try to order a replacement trigger assembly from them, they want a copy of your gunsmithing certificate from a "certified" gunsmithing school.  Needing a certificate to push a pin out of a receiver is about like needing a health inspector to verify you have wiped your butt and washed your hands according to state regulations.

You don't get that treatment from Remington.  Remington customer service will help you build a custom gun by giving you part numbers and supplying the parts.

With all the plastic I hang on guns from stocks to sidesaddles, and with all the plastic I put in guns (remember, shotgun shells are more plastic than brass), I'm not afraid of plastic at all.

2guntom
454 Casull +