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I recently found a pretty good deal on an open-box (but apparently never used) Knoxx recoil-reducing collapsible stock for a Mossberg 500, so I grabbed it. I wanted to write up a quick mini-review.
First impressions - nice quality. The stock and forearm are made of some sort of glass reinforced plastic that seems very solid. It definitely feels stronger and more substantial than the stock black plastic stocks that come on most Mossbergs. The springs used for recoil reduction are very stiff and it takes a lot of pressure to get them to move at all. It came with a long ball-end allen wrench and decent instructions.
Installation - (Note - I installed on a "New Haven by Mossberg 600AST," that I picked up used for short money. The 600 is basically a store brand version of a 500.)
Installing the stock was super easy. Remove the butt plate / pad on the old stock and then unscrew the one stock screw (you need a long screwdriver for this.) Then, remove the sliding portion of the new stock, line up the included bolt, use the included allen to tighten, and reinstall the sliding portion. Easy stuff, took maybe 10 minutes tops.
The forearm was a different story. It looks like they use the same forearm for many different models of shotgun, and as such the fit was not great out of the box. It was a VERY tight fit just to get it on and I needed to do a ton of dremel work to get enough clearance for the forearm nut to fit right. I used a small sanding wheel and just started to clearance out a little bit at a time. Sand a little, test fit, sand some more, repeat. Once I got the fit pretty close I used a plummer's torch to (carefully) smooth out and clean up the jaggy plastic shavings. This took me probably about an hour. (All the dremel work was inside where it's not visible so it looks fine.)
Test fire - I screwed on the new 18.5" barrel that I got online and went out to the woods behind DanG's house for some testing. I also brought my unmodified Mossberg 500 with the standard black plastic stock and forearm for comparison. For shells I used some Winchester White Box #8 lead shot (100 round bulk pack on sale for $24.95 at Dicks.)
The stock feels pretty good. The recoil reduction was noticeable but not dramatic. The adjustable part is very solid and doesn't wiggle or rattle at all. The pistol grip is about perfect for my medium-sized hands - a bit bigger than a stock AR pistol grip but not huge. (I find the stock AR grips a bit small.)
Overall, I like it a lot. I'm going to try to find a place to test some bigger shells this weekend, I expect the recoil reduction will be more significant as the power ramps up. For the $90 bucks that I paid I think it was a great deal and I consider it money well spent.
-JasonS
First impressions - nice quality. The stock and forearm are made of some sort of glass reinforced plastic that seems very solid. It definitely feels stronger and more substantial than the stock black plastic stocks that come on most Mossbergs. The springs used for recoil reduction are very stiff and it takes a lot of pressure to get them to move at all. It came with a long ball-end allen wrench and decent instructions.
Installation - (Note - I installed on a "New Haven by Mossberg 600AST," that I picked up used for short money. The 600 is basically a store brand version of a 500.)
Installing the stock was super easy. Remove the butt plate / pad on the old stock and then unscrew the one stock screw (you need a long screwdriver for this.) Then, remove the sliding portion of the new stock, line up the included bolt, use the included allen to tighten, and reinstall the sliding portion. Easy stuff, took maybe 10 minutes tops.
The forearm was a different story. It looks like they use the same forearm for many different models of shotgun, and as such the fit was not great out of the box. It was a VERY tight fit just to get it on and I needed to do a ton of dremel work to get enough clearance for the forearm nut to fit right. I used a small sanding wheel and just started to clearance out a little bit at a time. Sand a little, test fit, sand some more, repeat. Once I got the fit pretty close I used a plummer's torch to (carefully) smooth out and clean up the jaggy plastic shavings. This took me probably about an hour. (All the dremel work was inside where it's not visible so it looks fine.)
Test fire - I screwed on the new 18.5" barrel that I got online and went out to the woods behind DanG's house for some testing. I also brought my unmodified Mossberg 500 with the standard black plastic stock and forearm for comparison. For shells I used some Winchester White Box #8 lead shot (100 round bulk pack on sale for $24.95 at Dicks.)
The stock feels pretty good. The recoil reduction was noticeable but not dramatic. The adjustable part is very solid and doesn't wiggle or rattle at all. The pistol grip is about perfect for my medium-sized hands - a bit bigger than a stock AR pistol grip but not huge. (I find the stock AR grips a bit small.)
Overall, I like it a lot. I'm going to try to find a place to test some bigger shells this weekend, I expect the recoil reduction will be more significant as the power ramps up. For the $90 bucks that I paid I think it was a great deal and I consider it money well spent.
-JasonS
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