Budget ghost ring setup (or... what in the trailer park is that?!?!)

Jayne

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10+ years ago I took a shotgun class with my multi-role M500 wearing the 18" barrel (had previously been using it with the 28" barrel for upland game and a 24" ported barrel with a turkey choke for turkeys). It was fine for the shot stuff, but the guys with rifle sights or ghost rings were cleaning up when we started doing slug work. With just the bead front I did ok at shorter ranges but that's not what slugs are for. I vowed to some day have a shotgun with real sights.

Fast forward to last month when I sorta noticed I still didn't have a shotgun with real sights. I had toyed with a red dot on it a few years back but never warmed to it. Dropping $700+ on a 590A1 magpul edition with the spiffy sights would be awesome, but for something I use every few years at best, it was a poor use of money.

Looking for something totally unrelated, I found these, basically a tension mount front and a rail rear for shotguns. I already had the rail section from before, so this little test would set me back less than $40:

shotgun_sight_upgrade_1.jpg shotgun_sight_upgrade_2.jpg

I ordered up some of the Federal Truball Slugs that are supposed to work well in smooth bore 18" guns and hit the range.

yes, I removed the light and temporarily mounted a bi-pod on there.

IMG_5400.JPG

Only took a few rounds to establish a 25 yard zero adjusting just the rear. I ran out of 'down' adjustment to get it exactly there I would have had to move the front sight and I figured this was close enough.

Funny thing about slugs, even though each adjustment moved the POI significantly, the holes were still touching. :)

IMG_5401.JPG

The small holes in the center were someone else's, I was reusing their target. The 30 cal-ish looking holes are from #1 buckshot that I fired at 10 yards using the adjusted sights just to see if it patterned about where it looked like it should.

Back when I took the class, I remembered having to aim way to the side to make solid hits, and the adjustment on the sight agrees. The gun sorta shoots funny:
IMG_5404.JPG

With the 25 yard zero I moved out to the 100 yard steel and after 2 shots and 2 hits, I called it good enough because slugs hurt. I'm delicate.

Behold, the budget special. $229 Big-5 Sporting Goods Mossberg 500A with a krylon paint job, $40 ghost rings, $12 mag tube rail adapter, some random sling adapter and a $10 gun show sling, velcro shell card system, $30 LED light. I was told that if a 17 year old was building a shotgun in 1993, it would look like mine.

shotgun_sight_upgrade_4.jpg

For it's role, it works just fine.

Since it sits a lot, I replaced the original spring with a new one (Wolff). Lotta difference in the spring length between new and old... the old one seems to have compressed just a touch over the years, and both have the same coil count:

m500_spring_replacement.jpg
 
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100yd hits on an 18" barrel impresses me!! Thats a deer knocker right there.
 
100yd hits on an 18" barrel impresses me!! Thats a deer knocker right there.

It's a 10" steel plate and I was using a bipod off a bench with a rear bag, so it's minute of duck in ideal conditions. Pretty sure anyone can do that.
 
I was told that if a 17 year old was building a shotgun in 1993, it would look like mine.

Ha! Ya gotta love an honest self assessment. Nice looking rig!
 
I've got an old 590 that looks like it was dragged behind a truck. This thread gives me some great ideas! Thanks!
 
I learned in BLET that bead sighted shotguns were good for beating up my face & little else. I credit my rugged cro-magnon looks. So, when I decided it was time for a HD/SD shottie, I went with the least expensive M590A1 with the ghost ring sights. Some NOS wood furniture cut down to fit me & fitted a Limbsaver. Love that gun.

You should try the Federal 'LE' 00 buck with the Flight Control wad. Noticeable difference from regular 00. From my 20" 590A1, it tears a 10" hole in the target backer at 15 yds. Performs similarly from the Shockwave as well.
 
I like it. Looks like it will "Keal" and proves it on paper without breaking the bank! Good job!
 
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