MetropolisLake

But doesn't that ruin the balance? If it helped with this aspect, people everywhere would do it, even when shooting skeet, not just when they can get away with more shells in the tube. Hell I did it myself, +9 on a super black eagle II and plan to use it coyote hunting at night due to regulations that ban rifles after dark. I'm not about to say that it helped with the balance though. I can stuff more shells in, that's about as far as it goes. It feels better without it.

I don't agree that all 3-gun modifications are the best in general. An extended magazine tube alone negatively affects balance, weight, size, and how it swings. Target sights that you often see also brings worse performance unless you're shooting slugs. Other modifications like ghost loading / out of battery / bolt carrier lightening / etc., are at best pretty useless in the hunting world, so hunters don't do it. I believe that stippling falls into this category, yet it's not like hunters are immune to the environmental factors that stippling is supposed to help with. If anything, they're exposed to worse. So, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

If it were that useful, we would see it somewhere else in a shotgun specific outlet. For example if it helped for wet weather and muddy stuff, you'd think that duck hunters that trudge through the swamp would be all about it. They're not as far as I know. The 3-gun and sometimes tactical crowd does it but I've yet to see it anywhere else. Best I can tell there's a coolness factor in some people's eyes but that's about as far as it goes.

Was thinking about a long shotgun stage at a local 3-gun match too. Of course I'm slow so "not sucking so bad" would help a ton, but otherwise... it was 24 rounds broken up into 4 groups of 6. With the long tube you could have just topped the thing off right off the buzzer then only fully reload the thing one time. Any other tube length would have required an at least a slightly more awkward and time consuming combination of reloads.

My favorite rule that you guys adopted and quote all the time is "don't shoot the RO"!

I just went with the +9 after reading an article that Jesse wrote about how to set up your Benelli and posted it to multiple forums. From it: "When I first started 3 gunning and bought my M2 I was running a +5 tube that held 8 rounds simply because it looked the most tactical being lined up with the end on the barrel. I then got over how it looked and realized how important it was to have an extra round or two in the gun. So I bought a +6 tube that held 9 rounds. I then added an XXL end cap which bumped my capacity to 10 in the magazine tube. I ran that setup for several months. I finally went to a +8 tube w/XXL cap that holds 12 rounds. I realized that the extra length wasn't a problem but being able to weak hand load all four shells out of my caddy on top of a full gun after the start buzzer was huge. Having extra room for shells affords you so many more options on when and how many shells you can load during a big shotgun course of fire. Nordic now makes a straight up +9 tube. So you don't have to buy the longer cap." So, that sold me. Pic is attached. It's friggin long, big enough I can't seem to get a decent pic that shows any of the extras. If I get tired of it I'll bump back down to a +7 but fitting in a normal case seems to be the biggest disadvantage at this point. Ended up making an SBE II 53.5" long so hopefully it will still fit in an extended 54" Brownells 3-gun soft case. Interestingly enough when you are looking down the rib, you can't tell it's there. Probably not hardly any heavier than a +7 either. I do not plan to run this for anything other than 3-gun and maybe coyote hunting. If I go turkey hunting or skeet shooting I will probably be taking it off.

For handling alone... probably "The Raid: Redemption". All the firearms in the entire movie was a bunch of airsoft replicas with muzzle flashes added with a computer later. Problem is, all the actors apparently didn't know how anything recoils. Yet, they had to mimic this motion. So you had scenes like in the hallway of the hotel where guys were lined up on the staircase shooting down, and they've got full auto M-16's and M4's that are seemingly cycling so hard they can barely hold onto it, jerking their entire body as if it were a .50 cal with every shot. Yet, when they shoot a pistol, it doesn't flip at all. Just really ridiculous.

I have only been in one USPSA meet, but what I noticed was that some of the best reloading times, such as when moving from one bank of targets to the next, would have been after I had expended 16-18 rounds. 15 rounders had me reloading in some less than opportune times, so I'd have to reload before I got done with one bank, then had nothing to do while moving. I'm sure it didn't hold me back due to me being a crappy shooter but it's still something I noticed.

I usually use industrial foam plugs. Have some low profile shotgunning muffs that I use when I have to talk to people between other people shooting which is usually ok for shotguns and pistols and rifles at a distance. Neither by itself sufficed when the rifles came out at the bays and we were next to a compensator spitting out half a mag every 3 minutes for what, 1.5 hours straight.

The ones of Joyce (pink), Pike (flag), and the barrels with no shooter was. My cell does a better job. These were mostly from a Canon Rebel so I could time it just right and use the zoom. Notice the multiple cases in the air on Brian's rifle pic and some shotgun hulls being ejected. I can't do that on my phone. I'm not trained in the art of photo processing though so the colors are wishy washy with the Canon.

Unfortunately it did not survive the 4-stage test. It made it 3 stages, I guess actually 2 since one was a shotgun only stage, then fell off the adjusting ring and there was no getting it back on. Worked great until that point.

I took a whole bunch of pics, here are a few that turned out pretty well. If anybody recognizes themselves and still doesn't want their pic posted please tell me.

That was the first time I experienced rifle fire in a multi-bay situation. I still can't hear worth a crap, even a week later! Guess I'll be doubling up on hearing protection even when I think I don't need it next time. The classifier stage was especially harsh, apparently standing behind and a bit to the side of a guy with a compensator is the worst place to be. You live and learn I guess, will know better next time. I told Ray and Vaught this personally but the best part about this series is that the newbies such as myself are encouraged and given a chance. It's obvious that it takes upstanding guys with good character to put up with it all. It's really appreciated. Just really some top notch guys that are putting this thing on.

But what is the ultimate length for 3-gun if matching the barrel isn't a priority? As long as you can get it?

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my opinion don’t count because I don’t know what I’m doing, but since you asked about MY idea of the ultimate scenario, meaning simply an opinion, this is what I would like to see, but have not so far, and some of which I understandably never will: 1. Hunting oriented stages. Meaning, just as one hair brained example, provide a 30-06 with a good long distance scope and one round. Make somebody hit a pie plate at 200 yards or something in a typical hunting position. After that first round, the “deer” runs off so you don’t get to try until you hit it, you either hit it once or you don’t. Put clays or something up in trees to mimic a squirrel or something. Even forcing people to occasionally shoot off-hand at any decent distance would be interesting. Have a coyote target hidden in the weeds maybe. I’d like to see stages where a typical 3x9 or 4x12 scope is perfectly normal and wouldn’t screw you up on “hoser” stages. Basically anything that could be practice for hunting where a more surgical and accurate shot at mid distance is required. 2. Flying clays. Running through a whole box of shells as fast as you can is fun and all but I’d like for stages to incorporate skeet. Other matches have tried this and supposedly really good shotgunners did awful, so the idea isn’t popular, and it’s hard to translate that into a “time plus” scoring system, but you know, it’s THE critical shotgunning skill in the real world. I don’t know how somebody can call themselves a good shotgunner if they can’t hit flying clays worth a crap. 3. Transitions. I like the idea of what appears to be the FNH and 2-gun stuff. I don’t particularly like all the bucket and trash can dumping and table retrieving. I’d like to see you start with the rifle then quickly transition to the pistol by slinging the rifle. Seems like that’s a simple request but I never see it, probably safety concerns, but still. 4. More realistic retrievals. I’d like to see things like a car jacking scenario where you start with your pistol and have to get out of the car and retrieve a rifle from the trunk, or similarly, go retrieve your shotgun from a makeshift “safe”. Anything to spice it up from long guns laying in the perfect position on a table. 5. Lots of decent sized pistol steel. I am starting to love the sound of steel being hit with a pistol but it doesn’t happen all that often. Lots of poppers and plate racks would be fun. I realize these are expensive though. 6. Lots of reactive targets. Poppers as mentioned earlier, but there’s also swinging and twisting paper targets. These are a lot of fun. I’ve seen them in USPSA but not 3-gun yet. 7. A good flow. I like stages that have an obvious flow to them, where you are walking through an obvious path through a sea of targets. I don’t like ones that give you a ton of choices on what order and gun to do things in and you have to study it for awhile. If I were better I'd probably like the challenge but where I am now, it's more fun if I don't have to think too much. 8. Woods walks. Hitting stuff hidden in the woods while running down a trail is cool. 9. Everything on the same day. If I could somehow shoot 9 stages in a day then go home I’d be all about it.

I have a Benelli SBE II with a 26" barrel that is getting built. Was going to go with a +7 since that is close to the end of the barrel. Should I go longer since I'm already doing it? One caveat I'm hung up on: it needs to swing well. This will also be a skeet and hunting gun. But, for hunting I'd have to take the tube off anyway in order to install a dowel to limit the number of rounds. So why wouldn't I just put the factory cap back on so it wouldn't be a magnet for game wardens / conservation officers? With that in mind I wonder if I am being dumb and should just get however long of one I need for 3-gun and just take the thing off any other time. Dudes would laugh at my rig anyway at the skeet club.

I've heard people say they can't find affordable soft bags for their shotgun once they put an extended tube on it. Maybe they were talking about a +10 or something, but if not, for whatever it's worth, a Benelli super black eagle II with a 26" barrel and +7 extension will fit perfectly in a Fender gig bag for bass guitars. They come with a large pocket you could put chokes and whatnot, not to mention that they are available with backpack straps, plus the things are only like $30 no more than $50. I happened to have one laying around so I'm going to use it. Anyway, something to consider maybe.

Sorry but I have to ask... what the hell does everybody do for 3-4 days straight if they only shoot like 2 stages per day???

Dremel'ed it this morning, works fine. I was under the impression that I would have 20+1 shots with .40 though but I can only fit in 17. I guess I'll call back next week.

Hopefully we get to start with a full tube!

I just called TTI about it. They said time to whip out the dremel, either cut a V-notch in the magwell or make it go up as far as it can then grind off the base of the pin. I guess I'll be cutting the magwell's plastic body and see how far that gets me.

Yes, pretty much 100% 3-gun except for local IDPA'ish stuff where they're not too picky about equipment. I have two BladeTech WRS holsters and love them but they're for a Glock with cerakote and an FNX with a stainless slide, not a nearly $2,000 gun with a blued slide.

Is an open/race holster really that big of a no-no for 3-gun? Can they really just fall out?

This is the nicest gun I've ever owned, I'm not quite to the "it's just a tool that was meant to be worn out" mindset yet.