Lighting up a Mossberg

Topical Discussions include anything pertaining to Gunsmithing.

Moderators: JackF, Harold_V

Post Reply
User avatar
steamin10
Posts: 6712
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Lighting up a Mossberg

Post by steamin10 »

In my travels, I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, and a shtop at the gunkey store cured that. I bought a mini flashlight that is cute and powerful, and fits on the side of the picitiny mount. So now there be light, beside the scope. The new light made a diference in the store, with lighting on, and about 40 ft of distance to the back wall. So it may just be enough to pick up eye shine in darkness, and a scope image in twilight. We shall see.

Two mags are loaded out for this thing. A twenty round has a full compliment, and a thirty round loaded with twenty more, for weight. I dont intend to blast away in the tight quarters I have here with high power rounds. It is sniper rules. One shot only. Dead on, or dont shoot.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
User avatar
BadDog
Posts: 5131
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: Better looking SKS

Post by BadDog »

Great upgrade! In my mind, almost all guns should have lights, the only exceptions are my wheel guns. I use a 12GA for CQ home defense type duties. I modified a 3 way rail to fit on the magazine tube, and a "tactical" LED light is mounted there. Has a waterproof dome switch on the back, perfectly positioned to actuate as needed with my thumb without moving my hand out of position on the slide. The light is really bright and I like it a lot, but flashlight fanatics (who knew there were such things, but they have their own forums like this, only more active!!!) would hate it because it has a very distinct bright spot in the center with a wide field of very clear light providing a huge field of vision beyond the bright center. But what I found was that the bright spot corresponded very well with the pattern of the gun with the LEO buckshot rounds I use. At typical/expected/likely ranges, the pattern is a bit under half the size of the bright light center and about 1/3 off center to the right. I keep meaning to fiddle with it some more to make an aiming/tuning mechanism, but it's a scatter gun, and the relationship is very easy to visualize without any real thought. In low light situations with the light on, it's almost like having a laser on a 12GA! It's almost spooky shooting rapid from the hip (letting arms take the recoil) and time after time obliterating the center of each target arrayed out around our little shooting range. It was fantastic. I also had a spare laser I picked up cheap but didn't like so well on my bull pup, just too big. I mounted a top rail on the receiver, put the laser on that, again with the but button where my thumb could flick safety and/or laser button without moving out of position. So if I don't want to give away my position, I still have an aiming device on my pistol gripped 12GA shot gun. With that LEO buckshot loads holding a pretty tight pattern in my Mossy with light and/or laser marking the approximate center of whatever is about to no longer exist, I think it's pretty slick...
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
User avatar
steamin10
Posts: 6712
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Better looking SKS

Post by steamin10 »

That sounds like a good match. I have been thinking of putting an LED penlight on my 500 Mossberg. I dunno about a mount for the barrel, or the magazine tube. It is possible the light would be subject to alot of bumps and lumps, because of the habit of leaning the thing in a corner. The more things hang out, the more they snag on things.

What say you, under the barrel near the end? A C shaped clampy thing would be easy to m ake, and not go over the top of the barrel, and hold the light secure.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
User avatar
BadDog
Posts: 5131
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: Better looking SKS

Post by BadDog »

Yeah, stuff hangs out and best avoided. I try to keep everything in tight so that there are no gaps to hang behind, though there are vertical faces at transitions. However, this isn't ever intended to be a brush gun, so the fact that the flashlight hangs out a bit off the magazine isn't a huge issue, and the huge blind shadow that would have resulted from any tighter mounting was unacceptable for the purpose. That's also why it moved from its or original location, which was the top mount where the laser now lives.

Anyway, they appear to no longer sell it, but I started with this (attached image) from Amazon (very inexpensive by UTG). Sorry for the small size, all I could find from my past order details, the page is missing. Zooming it understandably distorting, but show clearly enough how it works. It's meant to go over both barrel and magazine tube. But that's not what i wanted, though I recognized the desired part could be found within the product. Not only was the tube spacing not perfect, but I also had a heat guard and some other issues, so I removed the entire upper tube/plate thingy and remove a lot of excess material from the blocks supporting the side mounts. I now have a smooth mount plate/tube thingy for the bottom is I chose, or a bottom rail if I prefer. Same size and bolt pattern. At the moment, I have the smooth bottom and the light on the side. Also, with my 8 shot "Cruiser", the magazine is the same length as the barrel. If I had it to do over again, I would probably do the same thing, assuming I could find a similar cheap quad mount to start with. With the mounts used for laser it is held very tight and almost looks like part of the receiver (if you don't look close, or know what you are looking at). The light is out a bit, but for my purpose, that's acceptable.
Attachments
quadmount.jpg
quadmount.jpg (2.52 KiB) Viewed 17607 times
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
User avatar
steamin10
Posts: 6712
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Better looking SKS

Post by steamin10 »

The Mossberg has the barrel moiunt right on the magazine tube, so unless you want a wWnchester style magazine, there is just too much to fiddle with. So leaving things as is allows a barrel change to rifled deer barrel and its sight mount, that stays with the barrel. So to light up the bird barrel I think I will go with a small penlight or such LED bright light as available, and rig a clamp that will not get into the sightline of the bead on top. Something that can be wing or thumb screw removable for regular use.

This gun is getting beat, because of its standby status for home defense against predators in the night. So it is the KISS rule all the way. Keep It Simple Stupid.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
User avatar
BadDog
Posts: 5131
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: Better looking SKS

Post by BadDog »

Agreed. But for reference, the modified mount I used attaches solely to the magazine making magazine removal or barrel changes absolutely no more or less difficult.
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
User avatar
steamin10
Posts: 6712
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Better looking SKS

Post by steamin10 »

BadDog: I picked up a LED mini flashlight that is like 600 lumens on high to experiment with. After looking at the situation with the Mossberg, I think a magazine mount f a clamp on type will work sust fine without any real issues. I had thought of putting the light near the end of the barrel, but this seems not to be vital, so I am going with the mag tube.

The Light is of a high low beam type, and rated for 6 hours use on high. Uses AA cells, and a back cap button for operation. so we will see how this goes.

Harold, if you are watching, could you break this into another string, as the subject line is no longer valid for the shotgun portion of this dialog. Like lighting it up, or some such.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
User avatar
BadDog
Posts: 5131
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: Better looking SKS

Post by BadDog »

You want it forward as possible to reduce shadow from the barrel and magazine. Mounted as mine, and that back button makes it easy to select and deselect. Mine remembers which of 3 modes I left it in. Hi, low, and strobe. When I hit the button, it comes on in that last set mode. I hate the ones that always come on in high.
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
User avatar
steamin10
Posts: 6712
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Lighting up a Mossberg

Post by steamin10 »

Well Russ, I took a few minutes out and put the flashlight together, and it looks like I shot down some ideas already. The 9 AA cell flash is a medium size chosen for its 700 lumen focusable lens. (Guidesman aluminum body, about $20 at the big box wood store, Mantards) The forward lens bushing just slips forward to a stop, and it is narrow beam. The heel button cycles with a low-high-off, and is a midsized flash with a barrel about 1 1/4 inches through.

First off, the magazine is too short to fit this thing without fouling the forend, that has to slide. So, it is going to be barrel mount. I dont have a plain barrel, so the vent rib will make a positive stop, to keep it from slipping round if bumped. So, I will get out the calipers in the AM and mark out some 5/8 aluminum plate I have and begin to rough out a figure 8 mount with a clamping screw in the middle and see how this works.

Should be simple is our battle cry. I hope Murphy stays out of the shop.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
User avatar
BadDog
Posts: 5131
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: Lighting up a Mossberg

Post by BadDog »

Yeah, differenet magazine lengths, heat shields, all sorts of things to be different and cause trouble. Not that it's much help, but here is mine. A bit dusty I'm afraid. But this is a "working gun" and stays out of sight but at hand and at the ready at all times, not in a display case or in my safe, so it does get dusty. I clean it every few months, but these are very resilient and don't mind a bit of harsh treatment, unlike some other options that are more fiddly.

And for reference, this is the flashlight. Barrel is same size as standard light mount, so it's mounted with this offset light mount conveniently locating it where I wanted it. I've really had good luck from those lights, and have others with quick-mount adapters and other options. I even made an adapter to add a rail and mount to my pellet gun for night time dispatching of the doves and pigeons that love to roost over my pool and enjoy their morning crap all over my deck, chairs, and picnic table...
Attachments
light.jpg
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
Post Reply