The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Butt-cuff or sidesaddle ?

EAF · August 22, 1999, 07:00 PM

I prefer neither. I use a belt of 25 shells in addition to whatever is in the shotgun.

I've had a sidesaddle, but that tended to shoot itself loose after even just a few rounds. As mentioned in other posts, I too, thought it threw the balance off, tending to twist the gun in my hand toward the sidesaddle. When the receiver would get hot, the plastic that held the shells in would expand and the recoil would drop the shells out (I had my shells in the sidesaddle, brass down).

I've seen the elastic buttcuff move around on the stock (hadn't thought of the idea to fix it to the sling swivel, I'll keep that in mind). I've also had the shells fall out through a combination of bad elastic, recoil, buttcuff moving around on the stock, and poor hand placement on the grip squeezing rounds out of the crummy elastic.

Sooooo...I go with the belt. No tinkering with the shotgun, no worrying that the rounds might not be there after I shoot a few times, no buttcuff moving around and so on. The downside is that when I'm going to really, really need the shotgun, I'll have to pick up two things (the loaded shotgun and the belt of extra shells) instead of just one thing (the loaded shotgun with the extra shells attached to it).

Ah, well. To each his own, huh?

EAF

August 22, 1999, 07:00 PM	#11
EAF Member Join Date: May 8, 1999 Posts: 18	I prefer neither. I use a belt of 25 shells in addition to whatever is in the shotgun. I've had a sidesaddle, but that tended to shoot itself loose after even just a few rounds. As mentioned in other posts, I too, thought it threw the balance off, tending to twist the gun in my hand toward the sidesaddle. When the receiver would get hot, the plastic that held the shells in would expand and the recoil would drop the shells out (I had my shells in the sidesaddle, brass down). I've seen the elastic buttcuff move around on the stock (hadn't thought of the idea to fix it to the sling swivel, I'll keep that in mind). I've also had the shells fall out through a combination of bad elastic, recoil, buttcuff moving around on the stock, and poor hand placement on the grip squeezing rounds out of the crummy elastic. Sooooo...I go with the belt. No tinkering with the shotgun, no worrying that the rounds might not be there after I shoot a few times, no buttcuff moving around and so on. The downside is that when I'm going to really, really need the shotgun, I'll have to pick up two things (the loaded shotgun and the belt of extra shells) instead of just one thing (the loaded shotgun with the extra shells attached to it). Ah, well. To each his own, huh? EAF