I have researched, and finally ordered a heat shield. Ordered one of the Masen polymer heat shields, as it got good reviews, mostly, and it will serve a very good purpose for me. One of my favorite features of the Mossbergs, in contrast to my past of 870'dom, is the open feed chamber. You can flip it right upside down, use gravity to just drop the shell in, and push forward. I really love that, and another of several ergonomics and ease of use features that has made Mossberg the permanent shotgun brand for me.
What surprised me, is in my research and reading of many forums (many of my google searches led me to threads here) and reviews as to the effectiveness of heat shields, is how many people regard the shotgun heat shield as a novelty, or tacticool, looks only item.. I never cared for the look of a heat shield on a shotgun.
Many of these people said, that you'll never get a shotgun barrel hot enough to scorch or burn your hand.. Well. I run my shotgun when I'm out, and I run it quick and pretty hard. I have almost grabbed the barrel once or twice, and even the low walnut forend sometimes lets thumb and fingers get kinda close. Forget flipping it over onto your off forearm while dropping shells in to reload if it's hot.
All I know (we all know this) is that, my AR-15's all have some sort of forend, handguard, heat shield, etc, that don't let you get near exposed barrel near the receivers. I feel shotguns should be the same, even though they inherently aren't by design.
Thoughts? Reasons why this has become known as a novelty, or dumb idea? I get the added weight, but polymer heat shields are great, and near weightless. ARs run polymer heat shields like there's nothing else for them; very few AR handguards are metal anymore, unless you go rail systems.
Thanks!
What surprised me, is in my research and reading of many forums (many of my google searches led me to threads here) and reviews as to the effectiveness of heat shields, is how many people regard the shotgun heat shield as a novelty, or tacticool, looks only item.. I never cared for the look of a heat shield on a shotgun.
Many of these people said, that you'll never get a shotgun barrel hot enough to scorch or burn your hand.. Well. I run my shotgun when I'm out, and I run it quick and pretty hard. I have almost grabbed the barrel once or twice, and even the low walnut forend sometimes lets thumb and fingers get kinda close. Forget flipping it over onto your off forearm while dropping shells in to reload if it's hot.
All I know (we all know this) is that, my AR-15's all have some sort of forend, handguard, heat shield, etc, that don't let you get near exposed barrel near the receivers. I feel shotguns should be the same, even though they inherently aren't by design.
Thoughts? Reasons why this has become known as a novelty, or dumb idea? I get the added weight, but polymer heat shields are great, and near weightless. ARs run polymer heat shields like there's nothing else for them; very few AR handguards are metal anymore, unless you go rail systems.
Thanks!