Accessory dilemma

[mons-meg]

After reading Frenchy's post about his new 590 with red dot scope, it got me to thinking. My 590 has the much-vilified heat shield. I happen to like it because I don't burn my hands after rapid-firing a full magazine. Trouble is, with the heat shield, you can't put on ghost rings. I suppose I could do a red dot or similar, though, with the proper rail attachment? Anyone have any experience with this?

Jay

 

[Al Thompson]

Which part of the sight won't fit? The front? Seems to me that you could do a little hack saw and file work on the shield to make it fit.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

I attached the front sight on my 590 by milling the appropriate flats in the front sight and screwing it on with some number 6 screws.

since the heat shield slides on from the front, the large front sight would normally preclude installation even with the proper relief cuts unless you installed the sight after installing the shield.

If i wanted to, i could put a heat shield on my gun by unscrewing the front sight, cutting the appropriate notch in the shield, sliding the shield on and then replacing the front sight.

 

[mons-meg]

That sounds like a good idea, but I hate to think what kind of mess I would make if I got out any kind of power tools.

 

[jthuang]

Jay,

IIRC the Mossy 590 manual says you cannot put a heat shield on a gun that has ghost rings, not that you cannot put ghost rings on a gun that has a heat shield?

Justin

 

[Bruce626]

Last week I posted a "range report" of my experience using bead sight, ghost ring sight, and red-dot sight all in one "let's do a comparison" day at the range under tactical competitive conditions. To save you the trouble of searching for it, my bottom line on adding a red-dot sight to my Mossberg 500 is two-fold:

First, I liked the red-dot but it offered little improvement over my bead results under 50 yards. At 50 to 100 yards, my tired old eyes really loved the red-dot sight picture, and I shot just a little bit better than i did with a bead (YMMV... the instructor said I shoot really well with a bead among a sea of ghost ring shooters). With practice my short-range snap shots with the red-dot might get as fast as I do with a bead.

Second, you'd need to figure out which mounting system you want with the red dot... anything that does not allow you to instantly use the bead (e.g., a see-through or see-under mount) is a disaster waiting for a battery failure to happen.

I'm now trying to figure out why, for my shotgun usage scenarios, I'd want to spend money on a ghost ring sight, even tho I really liked my results with it.

--Bruce.

 

[Bruce626]

I just re-looked at Frenchy's pics of the 590 with BSA Red Dot (which is what I have) and noticed that it looks like it is mounted on a solid top mount base, maybe the "Weaver 88A" base. I have one of these and chose not to use it because it blocks the view of the existing front sight (bead, in my case). You really gotta have faith in the Energizer Bunny battery in the Red Dot to be fully happy with this setup.

Other than that, I wish I could get a deal like that!

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

I'm primarily a rifleshooter a heart, and I prefer ghost rings, since i son't have to change anything, sight picture wise.

 

[mons-meg]

Maybe I'll just keep mine sight-free, and use the bead. After all, I wouldn't want to break an expensive aimpoint when I went into HTH with the bayonet, right?