Some shotgun steel plate shoots are coming up in my area and I’m hoping to improve my performance at these compared to the one I attended last year.

In an attempt to do that I’ve gone and, possibly, upgraded my 870 Wingmaster a bit. I slapped a TacStar 6 shot side saddle onto it. Last year I was fishing shells out of the same pouch I use to hold shells for trap, skeet, and sporting clays. Not exactly high speed.

Installation was easy. Just drift out the two pins holding in the trigger guard and replace them with the screws and washers provided in the package:

The flip side:

Note: The slide is pulled completely to the rear here and I’ve got plenty of clearance. That was nice because heaven forbid I’d have to take some sandpaper to that pristine foregrip you see in the picture, eh?

Here’s how the whole thing looks:

The barrel you see on it is a Mossberg made clearance special that I found for about $90, 20 inches long, cylinder bore, with rifle sights. The rear leaf folds down and I just use the front post much like one would a bead, though it is a bit high. Works well enough for 15 yards and under.

Of course, it’s not the hardware that makes a good home defense shotgun. It’s the software. I’ve run thousands of shells through this gun in the old configuration. Now I’m going to have to start drilling reloads off the side saddle before it becomes of any practical use.

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