Daves Metal Works Oversized Safety

This will be short and sweet because frankly its pretty simple and I'm really only writing this because I'm bored out of my skull. Once again, this is relevant to the Remington 11-87, so bear that in mind if you have a different brand of shotgun.

This is a pretty straight forward mod. Knock the stock safety out from the left side of the frame. There is a spring inside the trigger frame that will fall out, and as far as i can tell there is not much need for it with this part. The only issue I had is that the fit is extremely tight, so you have the option to either reduce the diameter or bore out the trigger frame to fit. I chose to take some steel wool and polish down the surfaces, and that seem to help immensely (its not perfect yet, but its functional enough for what I need it to do; further polishing will be in order as I have time and/or get annoyed at this particular part).

Overall: A nice addition, but not strictly necessary. Makes it easier to pop the safety off without disturbing your shooting grip, but its not all that tough to pop the stock safety off before assuming that grip either. Call it a luxury upgrade. lol

Daves Metal Works EZ Loader

Ok, I know this is nothing particularly new in the firearms world, but Ill throw my thoughts in there as well (in typical cynical, sarcastic, profane fashion). Basically what this little gizmo does is make it easier to quickly load shotgun shells into your magazine tube. I have the one that fits my Remington 11-87, so that is what my experience and observations are geared towards.

Good Stuff: Once I got this little sucker installed, I saw an immediate decrease in reloading times. The stock Remington loading gate is a hell of a lot smaller and harder to hit on the run, to the point I was having to drop the gun off my shoulder and load with my strong hand (something I wasn't thrilled about). Also, the stock button makes it nearly impossible to execute a TWins or Quad load, a serious disadvantage in this day and age where most people can drop 8 rounds into the tube in under 6 seconds.

 I have read about many people trimming the front end down to avoid sticking shells or fingers in the action, but I have yet to encounter that problem. I am in the process of transitioning to TWins style loading, so the extra length doesnt really phase me that much and actually provides a smoother transition of the shells into the tube. But thats just my experience.

Bad Stuff: This fucker is a serious pain in the ass to install if you don't know what you are doing or don't have the patience to do a careful job. The diss-assembly is straight forward, but the factory roll pin is flattened to keep it in place and must be filed/dremeled on one end to allow removal. Installation of the EZ loader requires you to file down portions of the shell carrier and takes a good deal of time to do correctly (the spaces in question do not lend themselves to a dremel, so a good jewelers file was my tool of choice).

If you are in any way unsure of your ability to complete this operation, you would be better served by sending it off to DMW for installation instead. It beats the absolute shit out of me why they wouldn't offer a fully assembled trigger assembly with it already installed, but I guess that is their privilege. Still, would be a hell of a lot easier if they would offer a slicked up plug&play assembly and you could save your stock trigger group for the spare parts box in case of a malfunction.

 Overall: Great mod if you need to load quickly. Pain in the ass to install. If you have some common sense about you and are good with hand tools, then by all means give it a try. Otherwise, just send the fucker in and let the pros do it.

AR Stoner Extended Scope Mount

I was in the market for a mount for a lower end beater kinda scope, and ran across this option on midway (near as I can tell, AR stoner is basically MidwayUSAs in house store brand line of products. Good stuff if you're on a budget). I was originally going to go with a larue QD mount, but money being a bit tight on this build, I decided to find a more permanent mount that I could just dedicate to that particular upper receiver (which was a good call, since this thing was tricky to get installed and I don't feel like fucking with it anymore).

There are 10 screws holding this little bastard together, and the construction is remarkably simple; just two halves that clamp together over rail and scope all at once. Remove all the screws and dry fit the mount around the scope (you should be doing this with your mounts before installation anyway) then slide the mount onto the rail and adjust your eye relief, before leveling the crosshairs. Tighten the two large screws to 20-25lbs, then insert and tighten the four smaller screws below the scope ring. Lastly, make sure everything is kosher and tighten the top four screws. Simple, right? Lol

Turns out, after a trip to the range, this little "cheap" scope mount is solid as a piece of granite. The simplicity of the design (so long as it is used correctly) reduces the number of ways for this mount to fail, and does just as good of a job as some products costing two or three times as much. I don't know how they managed to price this fucker so low, but god bless their accounting department!

Nordic Components Free Float Handguard

Another pretty straight forward AR upgrade. If you can turn an armorers wrench, you can install this barrel nut and the handguard itself can be hand tightened if need be (so long as you have a solid upper receiver fixture, a solid grip and a vise). Be aware that this handguard does not come with any rails or rail mounting hardware.

The model I used was the extended rifle length one, out of consideration for my long gangly ass arms. Even at over 15 inches, it is very light compared to the railed handguards I have used in the past. It does have a tendency to ring metallically when the bolt is sent forward, I think due to the lightweight construction and the material itself. Not a deal breaker, just something that I noticed.

Rail mounting holes are drilled and tapped, and positioned at every angle you could possibly need a rail at (top, bottom, left, right, as well as the 45* positions in between) and rail sections are available from NC for a reasonable price.

Overall a good handguard in the under $100 range. The price is right and with construction like this, it's a great value.