[charleskieffner]

well after last sundays combat wombat .22 match from hell. yes every month they change the format and this last sunday was a TOTOL BEEATCH! ie. in other words yer shooting angles you never thought you could should or would. havent gotten results back yet , but lets say this...............my body was feeling muscles i havent used ever. yea no poo they really put us thru the ringer this time. cant wait til next month. hell i'll probably have to shoot over my shoulder backwards! some of the pipe was soo low the really old guys had to sit down in a chair cuz they couldnt bend over enough!

anyway as discussed prior here about snotguns and my love for benellis(2-M-1 and a M-2) and my hate for rem 870 clubs(1-ONLY), i had mentioned the spec ops recoil reducing stock. i was about to give the "club" the heave ho, when i saw these spec ops folders and fixed stocks(quite a few 3-gunners are using them) from knoxx industries now blackhawk. did a ton of research on them and finally sprung the bucks for a folder. hell a .416 rigby kicks less than these damn 870's!

well when i decided to throw bucks at the "club" like everythang else i own i cant leave well enough alone...........i added the following items to the "CLUB".

1) daves metal works.com aluminum (red) shell follower. replaced the old plastic orange follower that had seen better days.

2) a set of LPA ghost ring sites, same as benelli OEM. both these and above i picked up from the 3-gun match championship vendors.

3) from cactus tactical here in az. i added a streamlight TLR-1 LED light.

4) a nordic components mag tube clamp with mini-picatinny rail for streamlight.

5) a new firing pin

6) a wilderness 3-point combat wombat sling.

7) a GG&G front mag tube sling mount.

8) removed jumbo safety and re-installed standard REM OEM safety as spec-ops stocks will not work with jumbo safetys.

9) removed side saddle. no workie with spec-ops folder.

so after getting LPA ghosts installed by "the gunsmith" dr. nelson ford, i proceeded into the bat cave with a poo-load of beer and evil diabolical surgical gun tools.................................

and when sunday 4:00am arrived i was foaming at the mouth to go shooting this damn thang BIG TIME! after the .22 match i saundered over to the shotgun side of rio salado where they have a "patterning" range. wayyyy cool marked off in yards. one lane/one person/nojuan around. set table at 25yd line and heres what we came up with out of a smoothbore 18-1/2" cop barrel(no choke system)

1) we shot 50 rds of federal #7 and #6 birdshot at the armour plate. what ya do here each time is go to armour plate and paint the entire plate with gray paint so you can see yer patterns. after a few times of this with either size it was very evident the 4' w x 6' tall armour plate was completely covered top to bottom side to side with pellet marks. no brainer here. the spec-ops folder stock worked great folded or extended. hell its sissy boy 3" birdshot for chrissake.

now onto the BIG DAWGIE STUFF!

2) next we loaded up some MCNASTY 3" mag remington sabots. oh boy the moment of truth. lit the first juan off and got a lil bit of a cheek slap from folder. rearranged my cheek on stock and off we went with 7 more rounds. hell all of them in about 15". not bad i thought about the spec-ops stock. it does work reducing recoil!

3) next we took some federal 3" OOO buck 10 pellets and lit them off. all 10 pellets hit armour plate within 15" of juan another. OUCH if yer a bad guy.

4) next some rem 3" OO buck. all the pellets impacted armour plate in roughly same size pattern. picture both flavors patterning from a humans top left shoulder to bottom rights waist.

5) next we took some breneke slugs in 3". OH BOY NOW WERE TALKING RECOIL!

heres where the spec-ops folder shined big time. lit 8 of those MCNASTYS off and all impacted roughly within a 15" circle also same as buck. i walked away with my shoulder intact and NOT HURTING LIKE HELL THE FOLLOWING DAY!

SO my questions is:

has anyjuan VANG COMP'd their 870. if not familiar with VANGCOMP go to their website and it will explain in detail their drill. basically they port the very front of the barrel and play with the forcing cone at the breech end. they say better slug groups, better OO/OOO buckshot groups, better birdshot groups with a choke system or without! less muzzle rise and less muzzle flash. this system is in use by gunsite/u.s border patrol/DEA/and a host of other characters around the world.

and yes the streamlight was turned on the entire session and was tested completely without fail. and we hammered the hell outta that thing.

what my goal is: a down and dirty simple as possible bear/ZOMBEEZ gun that i can throw in backpack/truck/quad etc. and have some ser-i-ass home protection(tent) when out in the wilds of america. my goal also was to strip it down weight wise to the bare bones. i had removed metal barrel heat shield. after our test session, that damn barrel remained SCALDING HOT for a good 1/2 hour. the heat shield was re-installed that evening. do NOT let somejuan tell you they are only TACTI-COOL and worthless! try turning yer snotgun upside down for a combat reload without A FREEKING HEAT SHIELD! ask me how I KNOW! OUCH MO-FO MO-FO! WTF WAS I THINKING!

so anyjuan with some VANG COMP or SNOTGUN CHOKE EXPERIENCE , please chime in. since im on a 870 roll right now im thinking of waiting for ROBAR to have a special on NP3 and get the damn thing coated, so its impervious to dirt and weather. at that point i really dont think there is a damn thang you can do to a 870..................aside from maybe hanging xmas lights and dingle-berries off of it!

guessestimated weight in its present config. 9-9.5 pounds unloaded.