Posted: 3/21/2013 8:29:04 PM EDT
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After attending the inaugural AR15.com Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro Am in 2011, I was hooked! For the most part since then, I have relied on borrowing equipment and guns to keep active with the sport. But that is coming to an end, finally starting to get off my ass and put some gear of my own together.
Bought myself an M&P Pro 9mm last year, which I only have a couple 100 rounds through but have had some issues with. From the factory...about 150 rounds in, the front sight had worked itself almost all the way off the left side of the slide. After getting that fixed up, centered, and a little loctite applied, should be up to par once I can finally find some 9mm ammo in stock anywhere. As for the shotgun, after about 7 months of waiting and searching, I finally managed to get my hands on a 24" 930 JM Pro 2 weeks ago. In the last 2 weeks I have managed to put around 600-700 rounds through the gun and it has functioned great. Majority of the loads have been the Federal Walmart Value Packs, 2 3/4", 7 1/2 shot. Gun has not had a single FTF or FTE, however the one and only issue I have had is with the mag tube and the follower getting stuck in the tube. I have read that this is fairly common and the easy fix is to take some sand paper to the tube at the joint of the mag tube to the tube extension. This will be worked on this weekend. I have spent the last 2 days with dremel in hand carefully working on opening up the loading port. Having not ever personally handled and played with a gun that has had this modification made to it, all of my reference was from the Enos forums and the like. For those of you with experience with opening the port and doing it "correctly", I would appreciate any tips and or recommendations based off of what I have knocked out so far. Just getting started, I planned to take the front lip of the loading port to about halfway up the "930 12 GA." stamping 
Here is my attempt at working on beveling out and putting a nice smooth plane along the loading port walls. 
First go at the front lip of the loading port, slow and careful.... 
Decided I had taken off as much as I was comfortable with until I get some experienced feedback. 
I plan on shaving down the forearm a bit as well, to help with the TWinS loading method. Which brings us to gear... So last weekend, I picked up an ELS belt and inner belt from Midsouth Shooter Supply, best price I found online after a bit of searching, got the ELS comp belt for 35 bucks and the inner belt for 11 and some change. I have a Comp-tac double mag pouch for the M&P mags and most recently (today) received my pair of Carbon Arms SSLP6 Pinwheel shell holders from The Shooter Source. The Pinwheels took a bit of time to get adjusted with the SSLs and the ELS Forks, but I eventually got it all together. The SSLP6 Pinwheel and backbone out of the box 
On the belt, set up for weak hand TWinS loading for now... 
I absolutely have been impressed with the ELS belt and its solid feel. After only about 10 minutes or so of reloading practice with the SSLs and having never attempted this loading method before, I was hitting 8 rounds in under a 6 second par time. 
As for the rifle, that is still a work in progress. It is currently a bag of parts waiting to be given some attention in the near future. As I said before, with the shotgun modification, I have never attempted anything like this before and any feedback from those with experience would be greatly appreciated! Edited to add better quality video taken on day two of practice with the Carbon Arms SSLP6 Pinwheels. (Par time still set at 6 seconds)
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Have you trimmed your mag tube spring at all? You seem to have a lot of tension in the first video. Your load port looks pretty good, I would focus on trimming the forearm next, especially if you move to the quad load. Here is my load port that was done by RAS
This is prior to me trimming the forearm back a bit more though. |
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Spent this past weekend working on trimming down the forearm, creating the preferred lower profile and gradual slope away from the loading port. Turned out pretty good, but we will see how she feels once I can get back onto the range. Been in the 30's and snowing here past few days, but it is looking good for this weekend.
I have not trimmed down the mag tube spring at all, still stock length from Mossberg. The only issue I have had with the gun is the follower getting hung up in the mag tube about 5 rounds deep...so I have wanted all the tension the current spring length provides until I can get that issue resolved. |