Stippling the Mossberg Forearm

[MarkB1]

I had said in an earlier post that I was going to try to stipple the factory forearm. I went to look for my pencil soldering iron and found the rubber covered cord wasn't. It was old and cracked (like me). I went to Lowes and picked up a Weller wood burning kit for $17.99 minus my veterans 10% discount for a final of $16.19. In case you don't know, Lowes gives veterans a 10% discount on most items. The kit has three tips that work for stippling. a sharp cone, a medium round tip cone and a rod tip with a larger ball end. I plan on using the sharp cone on the small ribs of the Mossberg forearm. I'll let you know how it works.

 

[Rico]

Have fun.

 

[ripjack13]

Take pix as you do it.....post em up.
Good luck!!

 

[John A.]

I really would have expected that woodburners would have been a lot more than 25 watts.

That would only be about 1/4 of an Amp of power used.

Hmmm.

Anyway, sorry for the slight hijack. I was just thinking out loud. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[MarkB1]

I know the 25 watts is lower than some other irons. It does a good job on polymer though. The package does say "up to 900 degrees" - maybe, but how long to get there? This cheap package had the different tip shapes I needed for stippling. It will take a while for me to start the project. I don't have much free time because of family matters. I'll be using the needle tip and I plan on making three rows for each rib. One centered on the top of the ridge and another on each side of the rib. I won't be stippling the ends of the grip. The ends are not gripped with the strap in place.

 

[John A.]

Long as it works is all that matters. I was just surprised the power rating was as low is all.

Still looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[MarkB1]

5 ribs done; 12 to go. It takes about 8 minutes or so to stipple each rib. I can already feel that the grip is vastly better and should not slip under recoil. I stippled the top of each rib first and then put one row on each side of the top row.

 

[Rico]

That's very clever Mark. Looks good.

 

[MarkB1]

One word of caution DO NOT do this indoors unless you like the smell of burnt rubber! It will stink up a room. I did this on my back porch outside and I had no problems.

 

[ripjack13]

Nice....looks great!!!

 

[MarkB1]

Done! I'm pleased with how the stippling turned out. It is much more grippy than the stock forearm. The finish is aggressive but not enough to hurt the hand (I think). It also doesn't look that bad. It will be awhile before I can get to shoot it.

If you wanted to make it a little less aggressive you can just stipple every other rib.

 

[ripjack13]

Looks great Mark!

If it is too sharp/aggressive you can knock it back with some sandpaper....fold it to get into the middles....

 

[MarkB1]

Thanks ripjack. I'll take it slow if I have to knock it back.

 

[Rico]

Awesome job Mark. That is something to be proud of. Are you thinking of doing any on the birds head grip?

 

[MarkB1]

Awesome job Mark. That is something to be proud of. Are you thinking of doing any on the birds head grip?

Nope. I'm happy with the Talon Grip Wrap.

 

[MarkB1]

I haven't had a chance to fire the Shockwave with the new stippling on the forearm. I did, however, rack the slide a few hundred times to get an idea of how the stippling would work.. I found that I needed to knock back the stippling just a little. I could feel the irritation the original stippling caused. I sanded the grip with 180 grip emery cloth. Now the forearm is still very grippy but the irritation appears to be gone with the sharp edges removed. One additional benefit of the multiple racking is that the action is now as smooth as butter. It is very smooth to rack and feels very solid. I just held down the action release while I racked the slide back and forth.

 

[Kalashnikitty590]

That look great Mark! Thanks for sharing your stippling adventure with us.

 

[MarkB1]

Now that I've stippled the forearm and improved the "gripabiity" of the forearm I'm thinking of removing the strap and adding a hand stop to the forearm. I find the strap gets in the way when I go to mount the gun from the sling on my shoulder. You have to do an awkward move to get your hand in the strap when you grab the forearm to lift the gun off of the shoulder. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[MarkB1]

I have removed the safety strap (gasp) and installed a hand stop to the stippled forearm. I find that the stippled and sanded forearm is much easier to grip than the non-stippled forearm. I also have had some problems getting my smaller hands into the safety strap. I think it would be a lot harder with gloves and larger hands. I can now just grab and mount the gun from the shoulder sling without having to twist my hand into the sling. It is faster and easier to do.

I picked up a Midwest Industries keymod handstop and modified it to fit the stippled forearm.

http://www.primaryarms.com/midwest-industries-key-mod-handstop-mi-3khs

I cut the hand stop just in front of the existing hole and drilled a new hole (5/16") for the screw. I also removed the keymod nub on the bottom of the hand stop so the hand stop would fit the stippled forearm. I then drilled a smaller hole (7/64") in the front of the forearm between the two existing holes for the strap screws. I used one of the strap screws to hold the hand stop in place. It fits tight and does not move. The hand stop provides the needed safety stop on the forearm that is really needed so I can keep my fingers.

Edit: One thing I did do was round off the two sharp corners of the hand stop where I cut it. The corners don't bother me now.

 

[MarkB1]

I decided to stipple the forearm of my 20ga. When I looked at the 20ga forearm I noticed that the top of the ribs was flat. The 12ga I did earlier had rounded ribs so I did three rows of stippling on each 12ga rib (one row at the top and one row on each side of the top row). The flat tops of the 20ga ribs allowed me to use just two rows on each flat top and still get a major increase in the "gripabiity" of the forearm.

The first two photos show both the stippling and the flat top of the 20ga ribs.




The next two photos show the stippled forearm.