Defender Tactical Safety Sight - Mossberg Series - Simple and possibly good upgrade

[diananike]

Yesterday I installed the highball bead and the safety sight on my .410 Shockwave
Installation was easy once I mangled the old plastic safety with a big sharp screwdriver. There’s no going back to that one. The security one way screws on the Mossberg safety are not a good system for user serviceability.

The sight works well on a shockwave. When held out with the gun in front of your face you get a perfect express style sight picture. Not crisp and precise, more like fast and crude.

I was concerned that the rear sight would sit too high on the 410 receiver as it seems shorter in relation to the safety button then the 12 gauge model.
So I took it out to a gravel road on the way to my in-laws place and tried a few different kinds of ammo in it.
At 10yds the shockwave used to shoot about 4” high with the factory bead.
Now it seems right on the money. See attached picture.
Unfortunately the Hornady Critical Defense ammo I tried (2 buckshot and one .40 cal hollow point slug) didn’t work that great. The buckshot pellets hit to point of aim but the slug went spinning up and hit sideways near the top of the 8.5x11” paper. I repeated another shot with similar results.
Federal Personal Defense 3” 5 pellet 000 buck worked awesome.
And Remington 3” #6 lead shot patterned well out of the short cylinder bore. At least at this short range.
Herters 000 buck was acceptable and Challenger #8s were kind of crappy.

All in all a great upgrade that fixes my sighting issues with this cute, svelte, formerly belly button gun. And gives you a way better safety to boot.

[ECVMatt]

Quick update after 300 mixed rounds:

From a shoulder fired shotgun, I don't see this being much of an advantage over a bead. It is actually a bit slower for me because it becomes out of focus as it nears my eye.

However, as it is also a safety upgrade, it still has some merit. A simple red dot is probably a better option, perhaps with this as a back up.

I think this product works better as designed, when combined with a Shockwave.