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Silent Professional wrote:3. While we're on the subject of butt stocks, I highly recommend that you ditch the adjustable stock and go with a fixed, shorty stock. I recently finished up teaching a shotgun instructor course to 30 instructors, all LE and military. One department had installed the useless Knoxx (now Blackhawk, I think) stock on their department's weapons. When I set up the short stoke / double feed stoppage clearance drill, the folks with the Knox pogo stick on the end of their 870's could not clear the double feed. Ditto with the adjustable stocks. If you need to hold down the action release and pull down hard on the fore end while slamming the butt stock as hard as you can on the deck, it's a no - go with the Knoxx stock and collapsible stocks.

Curious here, and I know this is diverging slightly from the topic, but with this stoppage/jam/malfunction, are you referencing the stoppage induced by having a round stuck between the bolt and the shell lifter, with the bolt closed? I ask, because I'm not conceiving of how a double-feed requiring impact to clear would be possible with my Mossberg 590, but I have experienced that exact user-induced failure with an 870 during a stress course, and witnessed it a few more times with worn retention teeth on 870 magazines (combined with clumsy/fumbled reloading), allowing the just-loaded round to pop out of the magazine and between the lifter and bolt.

If this is indeed the jam you're referencing, I'm in full agreement on the Knoxx/Blackhawk stock. If it's not, I'd like to know exactly what jam you're inducing, so I can figure out a way to avoid doing it with my own Mossberg (fitted with the said pogo stick, which is wonderful for recoil reduction, but admittedly has its short points).

I would get something along these lines for the front sling mount: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/377468 ... teel-matte" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This ought to eliminate the tendency of the shotgun to "flip" on its sling and ride upside down. The sling itself is a matter of personal preference and comfort.

They're also available for the rear sling mount, if you wanted to move that mounting point up to where the stock and receiver meet. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/347876 ... inum-matte" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That being said, if it's a home-defense gun, you really don't need a sling. The primary purpose of a sling is to carry the weapon, either to give your arms a break, or to let you have your hands free to manipulate something with the weapon slung over your shoulder/back/chest/etc. In a home defense situation, you're talking short-range, close-distance encounters; you're not going to -want- to let go of that shotgun as long as there's a threat present. Once the threat is gone, retreated, or incapacitated, then you can set the shotgun down, or hold it by your side while you dial 911. Keep things simple. Unless you're a cop, having to sling the shotgun while you apply handcuffs, there really isn't much reason to use one. Whether he's dead, dying, wounded, incapacitated, given up, or run away, you want to keep that shotgun -away- from any burglar, etc., not sling it while you get within arms-reach. In the dark, in the middle of the night, responding to a broken window, adrenaline pumping, the sling is just one more thing to get tangled up in, one more thing to remember "how was this supposed to go?" And while yes, a sling can help you keep the gun attached to yourself, keep it from being taken away, it can also provide a handle, a means of leverage, to be used against you. Positives and negatives.

Slings for long guns make great sense for hunters, Border Patrol agents on long hikes trailing narcotics smugglers, or soldiers on deployment. They don't make quite as much sense, in my opinion, for use in "tactical" work, especially home defense. They're great for use as a "makeshift bipod" if you know how to cinch one to shoot with. They look cool, they're snazzy, and they give you something extra to hold on to. But they flop around, can drag you around if someone gets a hand on your weapon, get in the way, and make nuisances of themselves, too.