...

[maxicon]

I dunno about that. I watched a guy trying to show his wife how to fire his 12-bore at the range. Simple hip-weld and fire. She kept forgetting to pump the gun and this wasn't her first trip to the range.

I borrowed my buddy's 20-ga Remington semi and let her try that. Much better. While his holds only 6 rounds with the extended tube, the simpler operation was easier for this guy's wife. (Yeah, I know what they say about a sample of one.) But for non-shooters, a ready shotgun means loaded w/empty chamber. For family members it's simply "pull this lever all the way back, let go. Push the button here to the left, pull trigger until empty."

I'm with you on this.

Unpracticed shooters are much more likely to have trouble with pump guns in my experience. Short strokes, forgetting to pump, whatever.

A well-exercised semi is not only less dependent on the shooter's muscle memory and amount of practice, it's also got less recoil.

YMMV, as always!

[savasyn]

Your points are well taken on the pump vs semi issue. Having re-looked at the issue, having a properly functioning, ready to fire semi would be simpler for an unpracticed person.

I guess I was looking more at clearing jams being less problematic(note the "less" and not non-existent) and almost no "sticky bolt"(cycling) issues in a pump. Watching even moderately experienced shooters fumble to clear their semis during a 3gun stage has given me impression that even practiced shooters can be caught off guard due to malfunctions.

If no jams are encountered, semis are, as you point out, literally "point and shoot".

[savasyn]

Getting back on topic, let's discuss the individual parts that are pictured in the OPs post.



So barring any more pump vs semi-auto debate and steering clear of the Mossberg vs Remington dead horse, that leaves us with:

*Pistol grip only - most people agree that this is not the way to go unless you really need a compact package and not for general HD service.

*Top folding stock - again, most people agree that this is not the way to go either, though it's better than the PG only in that you you get the shorter, easily storable length with the option of deploying a shoulder stock, albeit a crumby one.

*Heat shield - there seems to be a louder "why do you need it?" voice about these than I'd ever heard before. While I can understand that it's not necessarily something that adds directly to the performance of the gun or the shooter like say, an extended mag tube or weapons light, I don't see how it hurts anything. I'm curious as to what people are reacting to regarding the shields. I personally think it would be valuable to avoid burning yourself during a reload or possibly a butt-stroke. Unlikely, yes, but possibly, so why not have the shield just in case?

*Ghost ring sights - two issues here, one being ghost rings in general, the other being ghost rings mounted on the heat shield.
1)There seems to be a general consensus that ghost rings are great for some things but HD isn't one of them as they are slow to acquire. I have to agree with that based on my competition experience having started with ghost rings and moving to "rifle sights", which I find much quicker.
2)I haven't heard anyone chime in saying that they think sights attached to a heat shield are a good idea. While it's nice to not have to fork over the bucks to have them mounted to the barrel, you get what you pay for, or in this case, possibly less than that.

*Flash hider muzzle device - while the OP stated that his will not have this thing, most seem to agree that it's a bit odd. I'd never seen a flash hider on a shotgun before so my initial reaction was "A shotgun, being a close quarters weapon, you don't exactly have to worry about giving away your position so, why would you need it?" A muzzle brake seems more effective if you really want to hang something out there as both the added weight and nature of the device will help control muzzle rise. After thinking about the flash hider for a while, it occurred to me that, if it actually does a halfway decent job, it might actually be worthwhile to reduce temporarily blinding yourself if you have to shoot in a low light situation. You're most likely going to be deaf for a while, might as well avoid being blind too...
All that said, considering how uncommon flash hiders are on shotguns, I think it's fairly safe to assume they are not greatly effective.

[pmrtruck]

Now that is Tacticool!

Check ebay for a plastic type barrel mount and simply use a black Mini Mag AA with a Nitelite switch. Last saw those at Walmart. Install it within finger reach and you are good to go!

AA batteries are a plus, plenty available and cheap.

Enjoy!

[an actual gun]

I think too many people discount ghost rings. I think ghost rings have their place even on a KISS home defensive shotgun.

We often hear so much from shotgun gurus about how Hollywood makes the shotgun out to be this weapon that covers everything 20 feet in front of it with lead-- 180 degree spread, and there's no way you can miss! Nothing could be farther from the truth, of course. We hear the general rule of thumb is one inch of spread per yard. I think this number is reasonable, though results vary. From across the room distances, at least as far as the size of the spread of the shot goes, the mass of projectiles from the shotgun act more like a single projectile. In that instance, having some kind of rear sight is a definite consideration.

This is the rationale I hear defending sights on a combat/defensive shotgun. The shotgun is harder to aim up close. That said, my shotgun has nothing but a brass bead and I don't lose any sleep at night over it.

[sierrawoodsman]

I think it would work fine for HD. It's not my cup of tea but if you like it thats all that matters.

[sirgiles]

its a pretty prop shotgun.