Shot gun reloading device idea

[want2race]

One of the things that makes reload practice take so long is unloading it. I like to do dry fire at night once the kids go to bed and shucking the rounds out by cycling the action is a tad loud.

Here is an idea for a dry fire device. I didn't think of it but was privy to some converstions about it.

Replace the mag tube with a dry fire specific tube that allowed the rounds to eject out of it. The trick is to mimic the spring tension of the follower. Taking the mag extension tube off and just putting rounds into the factory short tube is OK but you don't have to overcome the mag spring tension to load. I have a few ideas on how to make this work. What I would love to be able to do is load 4, then as I loaded the second 4, the first four are ejected from the mag tube. Then I could just keep loading and loading until my fingers bled.

Would anyone else be willing to replace the mag tube with a dry fire tube to enable faster dry fire practice? I would mount the tube up after a match while I'm cleaning it, then leave it in place until before the next match. It would sit in my safe ready for practice any time I wanted to. In 20 minutes I could load twice as much if I didn't have to unload it each time.

[John Tuley]

What about a tube where the last few inches (just enough to hold the spring and follower) can capture the spring/follower and then break open, allowing all the rounds to slide out? Maybe before breaking it open you'd have to manually insert a pin to capture the follower, but that's not so bad, right?

Of course, optimally some sort of mechanism would automatically engage when you started to open the front end of the tube and do the capturing for you, but this would add a degree of mechanical complexity and thus increased chance of failure.

--John

[want2race]

My idea was to be able to load 20 shells at a time without stopping. I'm drawing it up now.

Edited February 18, 2011 by want2race

[GentlemanJim]

You could use an old mag tube, open at the end

Put in a spring (finger) that each shell has to depress as it passes into the rear most part of the tube

It would not exactly mimic mag spring pressure, but could be close

As you load into it...shells would be expelled from the open end.

It would be pretty easy to build

Jim

[want2race]

That was my first idea actually. Would be the cheapest. The goal is to be able to load 20 shells at a time without stopping. 5 shell carriers worth. As long as the finger was long enough and tight enough to offer enough resistance it could work.

[GentlemanJim]

That was my first idea actually. Would be the cheapest. The goal is to be able to load 20 shells at a time without stopping. 5 shell carriers worth. As long as the finger was long enough and tight enough to offer enough resistance it could work.

The finger would only contact one shell at a time

Its resistance would give a force to load against..mimic mag spring

You could load as many as you want..as they go in...they come out

You would have to (pre load ) shells in the mag tube untill they came in contact with the spring in the device

Jim

[wide45]

I don't cycle the action to unload it. Just push in the feed latch, and the shells come out of the tube the same way they went in.

[philg80]

The bolt release on a Mossberg 930 also acts as a unloading button....they designed it so that you push the lifter up and press the button and a shell ejects out of the mag tube. Also there is a way to do this and "dump" all of the rounds in a tube at one time......make sure to do this over a box or you'll be chasing shells down all the time!!!

[want2race]

I have a hard time pressing the latch enough to kick out the shell quickly. The last round (1st in) is the worst. Horner warned against doing that as it wears the leaf spring on the Benelli. He was using an FN by then and the FN has a coil spring that last longer so it was OK do unload the FN that way. Still can only load 8 at a time. I know it won't be for everyone since you have to swap tubes, but for me, I'll use the hell out of it.

Edited February 18, 2011 by want2race

[Pro2AInPA]

If you come up with a way to make it work, and want to make one for the Remington platform, sell me one.

[RH45]

If you come up with a way to make it work, and want to make one for the Remington platform, sell me one.

+1--depending on the price

[cas]

I was doing this the other night, sitting on the bed with the muzzle on the floor with the cap/spring/follower removed. When the tube would fill I'd just pick up the muzzle and dump it out. Of course there was no tube spring resistance but I was more interested in trying different things with my hand, working on dexterity and getting the rounds into the port, so the pushing in wasn't all that important.

But I was thinking if I has some sort of elastic tube, like a piece of bicycle tire tube, or that expanding plastic mesh they ship rifle barrels in... something to attach to the end of the tube that the shells would have to squeeze out of to exit, that might provide the resistance needed.

[geoff]

I was doing this the other night, sitting on the bed with the muzzle on the floor with the cap/spring/follower removed. When the tube would fill I'd just pick up the muzzle and dump it out. Of course there was no tube spring resistance but I was more interested in trying different things with my hand, working on dexterity and getting the rounds into the port, so the pushing in wasn't all that important.

But I was thinking if I has some sort of elastic tube, like a piece of bicycle tire tube, or that expanding plastic mesh they ship rifle barrels in... something to attach to the end of the tube that the shells would have to squeeze out of to exit, that might provide the resistance needed.

Not dry firing, but reloading................heres how

Take a 4" length of 1" internal diameter car heater hose. At one end cut lengthways slots, 2" long, then hold the fingers thus created together with elastic bands. More bands, more resistance to simulate stronger mag spring. The other, uncut end is then secured to the forward end of the mag tube with a jubilee clip, which also holds the forend on. You can then spend many hours loading shells into the mag tube and even more hours picking them all up from the floor.

See y'all Hungary 2012

Geoff