They “claim” heat shields are useful, but I’ve never gotten a shotgun hot enough to have ever thought I needed one

 

I have. And once it's hot, the heat shield doesn't do a damn thing.

 

I always wanted a GI trench gun... So when I found an OEM Mossberg heat shield on eBay cheap, I added it to my home defense Mossberg 500.
I don’t mind a little extra weight out front with my shotguns thin wall barrel, and on my short 500 with its cutdown 18” barrel and 12” LOP stock, it looks good to me.
Don’t have a bayonet lug, but when you are hunting Huns in the trenches, or facing down a fanatical banzai charge, you don’t want to burn your hand going all fixed bayonet...

 

Yes, for looks. Like half the stuff people put on their AR's and shotguns, it's tactical mall-ninja bling.

 

They're so you don't burn your hand when you do this

 

While it's possible to shot a shotgun enough that it gets too hot and a heat shield could be handy, military combat sure doesn't seem like the place that would occur. If you are in need of rapid fire in combat it will be with your M4 not the shotgun. Guys shooting skeet or duck hunting are firing at a much more rapid pace and no one feels the need for a head shield.

 

But they do have a ventilated rib to breakup the mirage from heat coming from the barrel.

 

How else do you make a shotgun tacticool? [emoji3]

 

View: https://youtu.be/qxQKF2gkMgo


Grumpy

 

It's just bling, remove that thing and maybe you can sell it.

 

They are the things of Liberal nightmares because they "go up"

 

They're so you don't burn your hand when you do this

Haha! My suspicions were confirmed.

I did not anticipate the entertainment value this thread would generate. Thanks to all

 

My Shockwave has no heat shield.
And I have no interest in adding one

 

When I was farming years ago, I had blackbirds that ate about 50% of the yield in a 70 acre field of sunflowers. Needless to say, I burned through shotgun shells by the case blasting those damn birds. I did manage to get my Norchester trench gun hot enough that the heat shield came in handy but for most normal uses, not really necessary.

 

Damn........that’s a crap load of birds.

 

I had one once. It's spot welds at the rear broke under recoil. I removed it and never owned another. tom. :cowboy:

 

If I'd purchased an original Winchesrer 1897, Remington Model 10 or Ithaca M37 trench gun with heat shield I'd keep it on the shotgun. Other than that instance, I just don't see the need for a heat shield.

 

I think they look slick on wood-stocked shotguns like the Win 12 and 1897. Functionality be damned.

 

Useless unless belt-fed.

 

:crazy:

 

"Heat shield." Isn't that one of those shoulder things that goes up?

 

My Mossberg 500 Persuader I bought back in the early '90s came with a metal one and I've never taken it off.

Sent from my Galaxy S7 using Tapatalk

 

But they do have a ventilated rib to breakup the mirage from heat coming from the barrel.

Never thought of that, however unlikely to occur.

 

3 gun stage 25 rounds basically as fast as you can load them gets the shotgun plenty warm. New shooters that load rolling the gun over learn a weak hand glove is a must or a better way to load it.

Previously they would fire a few rounds a minute so they never learned that.

 

I've put tons of rounds through a shotgun and got the barrels close to steaming. A heat shield does really nothing. It might buy you 20 rounds between burning your hand and not. Once you hit a certain round count the whole thing feels like fire. Don't get wrong, they look cool, but in terms of usefulness they are pretty limited.

 

I had some light barrel rusting issues with the mossberg metal heat shields at the points of contact. I'm not sure how a polymer heat shield would do.

I just take them off!

 

Hottest shotgun I can recall was my Winchester model 12 - shooting doves.

Artisan well in the middle of a sorghum field - you could shoot until you were tired.

Doves - full of sorghum seed would just keep coming to the water to get a drink.

I don't know what the legal limit was back in 1970 something - or if there even was a limit - the farmer that owned the land considered them to be rats with wings.

He would sometimes drive out to the well while we were shooting and give us free shotgun shells. I reloaded back then - and it was a special treat to have store bought shells - and also gave me some new hulls to reload.

Not sure if this is normal or a waste - but we only kept the breast - my mom cooked them up and they were really good - although I will admit I can't imagine eating one now.

I didn't even know what a barrel shroud was back then - and have never owned one.

 

I don't and won't even own a Shockwave. I have a beautiful old Winchester 13, with a burled cedar root hip stock, and that's enough for the shoot from the hip shotguns for me. NO PLASTIC! No more pistol grip shotguns, unless it has some kind of pretty wood on it. I'll put my Ithaca the 18 1/2" or the 20" Ithaca against any Shockwave, and win at hitting steel. I can't hit as well or as fast with that dumb pistol stock. It looks cool, but the lower ET and lack of penalties look a lot cooler. By the time the barrel gets hot on that old 20" Ithaca trench gun (and I do love that gun) the heat shield is pretty much too hot to touch too. I did stick my pinky through one of the holes, and I'd guess that the heat shield might be the difference between 2nd degree and 3rd degree burns. So blisters, and discomfort versus, no more skin on your hands. I remember so dove shoots that lasted long past when we should have stopped. Some of those farmers would come out with free food and more shells, and take the dove away to feed to their hogs. What we did keep, mom would cut the breasts off and make stew. The older birds are really gamey, bordering on really raunchy. By mixing them into a stew, it kind of evens everything out, so you can eat it, and not have anything bounce back up. I can't see where the heat shield would do much there either. The military, and not just our military, decides they want goofy stuff on all sorts of small arms. The 1911 got the grip safety. The French gave the Hi Power the magazine safety. The trench gun got a heat shield that was of dubious effectiveness, but they stuck. I pull that mag safety off the Hi Powers, and do a little other trickery, that has allowed me to dump 14 rounds within the 8 ring in under 3 seconds. 2.4 is about my best time, and no Glock can touch it, and keep a group that tight. Removing the heat shields? They don't do too much to detract from the gun's performance. They don't do much at all, to be honest. What little that the do so seems minimally beneficial. Maybe it's a like a heatsink that keeps the barrel just little cooler a little longer?? It looks scary to liberals. That's not a bad thing! They are too damned dumb to know what does what on a gun. Al Sharpton thinks he can stop a freight train with an AR15. I CALL FREIGHT TRAIN! Al has to stand on the tracks, and square off against me!