MOA lightning load lifter vs. J kenny Auto loading lifter?

[raz-0]

So with covid and the lack of shooting it seemed like a good time to get a lightning lifter from MOA precision for my stoeger. Unfortunately they haven't had stock in like forever. 

 

J kenny has stock and costs like 150% of the price. 

 

Neither has a lot of reviews, although I have seen the lightning lifter in person and it seems to work as advertised. 

 

Anyone have feedback on the j kenny part? Anyone know why the lightning lifter has been out of stock forever and if it will ever be back in stock? 

 

 

[AustinWolv]

Haven't had the MOA.  My understanding is that it is small business that the owner is great, but may have had some health concerns?  

Have seen the MOA in action at matches, and it ran well, but can't speak on longevity or reliability other than a few stages.

 

Have indeed owned and used the J.Kenny for a little while.  It auto-loaded every time in my gun.  However, after a short while, gun would almost every time lock back the bolt prematurely with the last or 2nd to last shell half-sitting on the lifter out of the tube (forgive me, don't recall the exact symptom as it has been over a year ago).  As soon as regular lifter was swapped back in, the gun ran 100%.  There has to be some tolerance difference between receivers and the lifters that were causing some issues as others had similar situations as I recall it.  Moreover, I think the lifter is sensitive to the custom spring that it comes with to raise it reliably, such that the spring needs to be switched out with regular maintenance as a FAR higher rate than one would expect.......enough that it gets to be a pain in the ass.  Perhaps the lifter should have been designed with two springs instead or a far stronger, more resiliant one.  Anyway, might also be that Americans run longer mag tubes than J.Kenny does, so the set up isn't as reliable as we expect it to be. The auto-loading worked great however.......every time.  But could not trust it to run through a mag tube full of shells by any means, so I stopped using it and haven't bothered to mess with it to get it working right.

The parts certainly looked nicely made and finished however.

 

As for stock, sorry, don't know, can't help there.  

[021411]

There was a small thread here where a few of us were having issues with the Benelli auto loader from J Kenny when it was first released. I want to say most ended up swapping back to stock due to feeding issues of sorts. 
J Kenny released a stronger spring but I’ve yet to order one. I’ll revisit it one day. Can’t afford time consuming issues at while on the clock. 

[Snausages32]

No experience with the J Kenny, but I own and use the lightning lifter from MOA, and it is amazing - an honest game changer. After you break it in a bit - lots of dry loading - haven't had a single issue (be sure to use a strong spring - one that isn't cut too short).  One of the ROs where I shoot 3 gun is an actual, real life, pro, and the look on his face when I ran my Stoeger dry and just started loading...  priceless.

[sheepdog566]

Have the moa in a Roth XB3G and have been experiencing random fail to feeds. Looks like my lifter is not going all the way up. Wish I had my original trigger group back except you have to send him your lifter to have it altered.

[louu]

The thread on here about the j Kenny was a train wreck so I obviously didn't get that one. I got the MOA in my M3k and only had about 2 malfunctions and they were minor. All I had to do was hit the charge handle a little to get it running again. I believe both of the jambs were a combination of it being new/not broke in and the gun being really dirty. Now I keep it clean, use very little, very light oil and it runs 100 percent. 

 

Call (like people use to do) MOA and he will get you one. 

[raz-0]

Thanks, sounds like the moa is the way to go. 

[ABarrow]

I have the J kenny which had nothing but problems to begin with. After ordering and installing the extra power springs it appears to be working but i am only a few hundred rounds into it so time will tell. A few buddies that I shoot with locally have the MOA and I have never seen a malfunction.

[SuperTed]

MOA still out of stock on them as of today.  I've called several times and left messages and used the "contact us" form on their site as well and I've gotten ZERO response.  I may be forced to go with the J.Kenny since it's the only other one besides MOA that makes one for the Stoeger M3000.

 

Could it be that Tom had his health issues rear back up?  Anyone have any updates?

Edited October 4, 2021 by SuperTed

[Jasepryce]

Bought the j. Kenny lifter for my m3k and it never worked.  In all fairness they were prompt with advice but I could never get it to work.  Gave up in the end and £180 out of pocket

[Baynewrady]

Thought I'd chip in with my experience on the J Kenny lifter in my Benelli M2 field (heavily modded) with an A&S trigger guard. 

 

Overall it works great, I've only put ~1500 rounds through the gun since installing it, but have run into some issues that were fixable. When installing the J Kenny lifter it is IMPERATIVE that the torsion spring is set correctly, I can't help but think many people who say it isn't working are not setting the spring correctly. Another thing to note is that the addition of that torsion spring will cause the trigger guard to be "wider", and thus the shell release lever will be closer/interact with the shell latch. This is probably the culprit for many people's issues with the lifter (failure to feeds specifically: shell sitting on lifter). The shell latch/shell release lever are not interacting with eachother as they should during cycling. My fix for this was to file/stone a bit off of the backside of the shell latch that interacts with the shell release lever. Otherwise it was a drop-in part. Another thing I will say is Josh (the owner) is awesome in terms of customer service/trying to help with troubleshooting issues, if you have troubles you can just message him on bookface and he responded to me within 24 hours. 

Edited May 16, 2022 by Baynewrady
redundancy

[drock17]

Sent in my trigger to MOA for the lifter upgrade 2 months ago and still don't have it back. Have tried multiple phone calls and all I get is voicemail with no call back.  I have tried e-mail with the same issues. So right now I have a shotgun with no trigger. Would not recommend.

[Blaise1]

Any updates on these? 

[ABarrow]

My J Kenny was still going strong when I last used it with probably another 1k rounds through it since last comment. Due to personal preference I went back to a taran extended lifter, the slight difference in the 2 piece lifter was enough for me to notice when loading. I also prefer my factory m2 trigger guard over the A&S but that’s probably just me being comfortable with how I learned to load my gun. I can say with confidence the j Kenny is working as advertised with extra power spring.

[erwos]

On 7/24/2022 at 11:19 PM, drock17 said:

Sent in my trigger to MOA for the lifter upgrade 2 months ago and still don't have it back. Have tried multiple phone calls and all I get is voicemail with no call back.  I have tried e-mail with the same issues. So right now I have a shotgun with no trigger. Would not recommend.

For what it's worth, I called MOA a couple weeks ago, and Tom actually picked up. He's doing much better, and is back in the shop. They are working on getting their inventory sorted out, but the lightning lifters WILL be back. They have a whole bunch of them, and just need final fitting.