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Thread: More Vang Comp goodness

  1. #1
    Member LHS's Avatar
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    More Vang Comp goodness

    Finally got my stamp back for this beauty. It's a full-house Vang Comp 870 SBS, with Vang's ghost ring sights and optics rail, barrel work with abbreviated porting on the 14" tube, +1 extension, follower and big dome safety (albeit in a lefty trigger pack, which I'll be swapping out for a righty shortly), Magpul stock, Mesa sidesaddle, and an old Laser Products-marked forend with a replacement LED bulb assembly. Best part is the provenance of the gun: the receiver's engraved with the emblem of the Phoenix PD "Special Assignments Unit", i.e. SWAT. It's good to bring this one back to Phoenix where it belongs.

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    Matt Haught
    SYMTAC Consulting LLC
    https://sym-tac.com

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    SUPER cool!! I didn't know you were local.

    I could very easily be wrong about this, but I thought Phoenix SAU went to Benellis a long time ago. Either way, glad this got back into circulation instead of being melted down. I'd love any gun marked Phx SAU

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by LHS View Post
    Finally got my stamp back for this beauty. It's a full-house Vang Comp 870 SBS, with Vang's ghost ring sights and optics rail, barrel work with abbreviated porting on the 14" tube, +1 extension, follower and big dome safety (albeit in a lefty trigger pack, which I'll be swapping out for a righty shortly), Magpul stock, Mesa sidesaddle, and an old Laser Products-marked forend with a replacement LED bulb assembly. Best part is the provenance of the gun: the receiver's engraved with the emblem of the Phoenix PD "Special Assignments Unit", i.e. SWAT. It's good to bring this one back to Phoenix where it belongs.

    Name:  Vang_SAU_SBS_870_Right_S.jpg
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    Name:  Vang_SAU_SBS_870_Markings.jpg
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    That's awesome! Considering the same thing with an 870 I have. What was the turnaround for both the work and the stamp?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Up1911Fan View Post
    That's awesome! Considering the same thing with an 870 I have. What was the turnaround for both the work and the stamp?
    I didn't have this one built, it was a police trade-in I found on the secondary market, so I don't know how long the work took. The stamp was submitted last May and finally came back last week.


    Matt Haught
    SYMTAC Consulting LLC
    https://sym-tac.com

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Balisong View Post
    SUPER cool!! I didn't know you were local.

    I could very easily be wrong about this, but I thought Phoenix SAU went to Benellis a long time ago. Either way, glad this got back into circulation instead of being melted down. I'd love any gun marked Phx SAU
    It's been a minute, but I'm pretty sure I saw one of them in a class in 2007 with a 14" Benelli, but it's possible they had both in service.


    Matt Haught
    SYMTAC Consulting LLC
    https://sym-tac.com

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by LHS View Post
    Finally got my stamp back for this beauty. It's a full-house Vang Comp 870 SBS, with Vang's ghost ring sights and optics rail, barrel work with abbreviated porting on the 14" tube, +1 extension, follower and big dome safety (albeit in a lefty trigger pack, which I'll be swapping out for a righty shortly), Magpul stock, Mesa sidesaddle, and an old Laser Products-marked forend with a replacement LED bulb assembly. Best part is the provenance of the gun: the receiver's engraved with the emblem of the Phoenix PD "Special Assignments Unit", i.e. SWAT. It's good to bring this one back to Phoenix where it belongs.

    Name:  Vang_SAU_SBS_870_Right_S.jpg
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    Name:  Vang_SAU_SBS_870_Markings.jpg
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Size:  83.8 KB
    LHS:

    What kind of LED unit are you using in your fore-end? Thanks in advance for your help on this. I used a 14 inch 870 when I was chasing bad guys. It is a great platform. Nice blaster by the way.

    Bruce
    Bruce Cartwright
    Owner & chief instructor-SAC Tactical
    E-mail: "info@saconsco.com"
    Website: "https://saconsco.com"

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Cartwright View Post
    LHS:

    What kind of LED unit are you using in your fore-end? Thanks in advance for your help on this. I used a 14 inch 870 when I was chasing bad guys. It is a great platform. Nice blaster by the way.

    Bruce
    I'm not sure what's in this one. It's not marked at all, but it's clearly an LED assembly of some sort rather than the original incandescent module. It looks a lot like the old Surefire replacement LED bulb assemblies except for the complete lack of markings. I'd guess it's about 100-120 lumens, it's not terribly bright but works well enough for target ID indoors.

    I've used Surefire's replacement LEDs in other forends of this time and they work well, albeit without the level of output you see in modern lights. I've been wanting to try out Malkoff's replacement heads, as they're 320 and 450 (1-cell and 2-cell, respectively) lumens, but this one will likely stay as-is for historical purposes. I love seeing how guns of a given era reflect the knowledge, preferences, tactics etc of that time and place, and I have another 14" Vang gun that I use for training and teaching so this one will likely remain as I got it.

    It's interesting because I will bet money the gun was built in the last 10 years, but it's got an ancient forend on it. Probably something lying around the PD armory from previous builds. About 15 of these guns hit the market at the same time, and I've seen several of the others. The majority had similar-era forends.

    All in all the gun's in reasonable shape. Ejection's a skosh weak with hollow dummy rounds, but a trip back to the mothership should solve that. The action is smooth as glass, well worn in. I can't wait to get it out to the range and see how it runs.


    Matt Haught
    SYMTAC Consulting LLC
    https://sym-tac.com

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by LHS View Post
    Ejection's a skosh weak with hollow dummy rounds, but a trip back to the mothership should solve that.
    Serious question, you obviously know your way around 870's, what do you think Vang would do to make ejection more sure? I'm assuming you know what an 870 ejector and spring ought to look like, is there something else to look at?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Lehr View Post
    Serious question, you obviously know your way around 870's, what do you think Vang would do to make ejection more sure? I'm assuming you know what an 870 ejector and spring ought to look like, is there something else to look at?
    Did you ever watch that old Clint Eastwood movie "Kelly's Heroes"? There's a scene where Eastwood and Telly Savalas go to talk to Donald Sutherland's tank commander, "Oddball", and they find him sitting around drinking wine while someone works on the tank. Savalas asks him why he's not helping fix the Sherman, and Oddball just replies "I only ride 'em, I don't know what makes 'em work." That was me with 870s for many years. I could do basic parts replacement and swapping, but armorer-level tasks were beyond my skill level. In the last little while I've started trying to address that so I can fix some things myself, but I'm not quite up to the level of drilling out rivets and replacing ejectors.


    Matt Haught
    SYMTAC Consulting LLC
    https://sym-tac.com

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Lehr View Post
    Serious question, you obviously know your way around 870's, what do you think Vang would do to make ejection more sure? I'm assuming you know what an 870 ejector and spring ought to look like, is there something else to look at?
    I have an 870 that I sent to Wilson for the "Remington Steal" rebuild package. As part of that package, they convert it to 3", which involves replacing the 2-3/4" ejector with a 3" one. With my gun, I found the ejection to be kind of sloppy and sluggish after the conversion. I have another 870 which has not been converted to 3" (circa 1971) with positive ejection so I could a/b both of them and diagnose the problem. What I found was that the 3" conversion was releasing a shell from the tube before the spent shell was fully ejected, and interfering with the process.

    What I did to fix this was grind down the front tab on the end of the right shall latch (right when the loading port is facing the ground, left when the loading port is pointing to the sky), this delayed the shell release from the tube until the spent shell ejected fully. Worked great. I also added a Volquarsten extractor which required some fitting with a dremel tool, probably not as necessary at the shell latch adjustment but didn't hurt. I'm pretty sure regarding the left/right latch description, whichever shell latch holds the shell in the tube while the empty is ejecting, then releases the new shell. You might want to get a replacement shell latch just in case if you try this. Always good to have both new latches as spares on hand, as they do wear out over time. I got mine via Brownelles a few years ago.

    Note that as per Brownelles, the latches do not need to be staked to work properly. Staking makes disassembly/reassembly easier, but is not need for proper function.

    Note: The tab on the front of the shell latch that I ground down is what interfaces with the action bar on the pump tube that fits over the magazine. It looks like a 1911 in someones hand to me. I ground (shortened) the barrel of the 1911 (my visual), which delays the release of the new shell during the ejection process. Work the action slowly with dummy shells and watch the interaction between the latches and the action bars before trying this, you need to understand exactly what's happening.
    Last edited by Tabasco; 02-08-2021 at 12:32 PM.

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