This time, the thoughtful people at Enerdine have come up with a recoil reducer for those applications that let you attach an M4 collapsible stock to other types of weapons. I know of two shotgun, one M14, and an SKS stock system that use a standard M4 stock.
Here's the Mossberg with the stock removed, showing the empty action tube, and the Enidine replacement.
So instead of a solid assembly that transmits all the recoil straight back to your shoulder (no muzzle rise means it's all heading to your shoulder), we now have a shock absorber that takes some of the beating.
Removal of the retaining ring was simple with the proper spanner, and a little beating on the end of the spanner with my plastic mallet. I used blue Loctite, rather than stake the threads, since I knew I might want to take things apart some day. And I needed a little assistance from a strap wrench to get the action tube started, again because of the Loctite. At least I knew it was a solid assembly.
Here it is with the shock absorber in place, and everything kept immobile with Loctite.
You lose the detent hole that lets you collapse the stock all the way against the receiver so that there is always room for the compression stroke, but this should be outweighed by all the promised benefits. My next shooting session should tell.
And now that I have that nice Leupold scope, and nice Leupold binoculars, I figured I should have a nice Leupold spotting scope. So here, minus any gold trim, is the Leupold Mark 4 tactical spotter 12-40x60mm.
From the front, you can see the hugh piece of glass, and the subdued logo. One thing I couldn't find was "country of origin", which I take as a good sign.
The spotting scope comes with the choice of mil-dot and TMR reticles, but I chose the new (for Leupold) P4 reticle instead. I had a several links to an image of the reticle, but I can't find a single one now, even on the Leupold site. Basically, the upper half of the reticle looks much like the TMR, but the bottom half has just a few horizontal lines, and no vertical stadia. More reticle studies ahead for me.
The spotter also has a vey nice "raincoat" that said "made in you-know-where" until I ripped the tag out. All flaps are kept in place by Velcro, and this is how the scope looks bundled up:
Closed up, everything seems nice and comfy.
Other than taking 20 minutes to squeeze the scope into the cover (think about John Murtha in a wetsuit), I'm vey happy with the great image, and very handy zoom. That 40x setting will be coming in handy some day.