Wilson Combat, AR brakes, shotgun mag followers

The girlfriend ordered up some shotgun parts from Wilson last week or so and they arrived today. I was messing around with her shotgun the other week and noticed there was no spring pressure against the rounds in the magazine. Very bad. The follower was binding up against the inside of the mag tube. It seems that many recent made Rem 870’s have two ‘dimples’ pressed into the end of the mag tube. These dimples prevent the follower from coming out of the mag tube when you unscrew the end cap. This also means that if you screw on an extended magazine the follow will not be able to use the additional length. THe obvious solution is to simply drill out the two indentations. No problem. Usually. Depending on how good a job you do there can still be problems. To make sure that this isnt going to be a problem at all, we orderd up a handfull of Wilson high visibility followers. Theyre about $6 each and are a more rigid plastic and slicker than the factory OEM followers. Should make a big difference.

While going through the catalog I noticed that they do AR work, including adding flash supressors and muzzle brakes. Ah!!!

The girlfriend’as AR’s are both post ban models (but not post-post ban which would = pre-ban). One has a bare muzzle and the other has the most obnoxious muzzle brake ive ever been exposed to. (Y-comp by Bushmaster). Every time I shoot it, its like someone sneezed in my face…theres a concussive wave that blows my hairline back. Its incredibly obnoxious. I figured we’d have to get new uppers. Nope. I called Wilson and told ’em what we had and could they remove the ‘permanently attached muzzle brake’, thread the barrel for the normal 1/2×28 TPI and put on an A2 birdcage. The answer? “Sure.” Cost would be about $59.95 + $15 labor. So $75…cheaper than a new upper. Then we can, at our leisure, put on an A@ birdcage or a Vortex. My backup Ar (“Plan B”) has a ‘AK type’ brake on it but Ive never had problems with it and rather like it, so I’ll leave it as is. I’ve fired it at night and see no discernable difference in its suppression ability versus the A2 birdcage.

While flipping through the very, very nice Wilson catalog I cant help but notice the spare parts and whatnot. Im not paying $1400 for a 1911 but I could use some spare magazine tube springs, sling attachments and a few other nice little gimmicks.

So, lesson for today – if youre stuck with a post-ban AR barrel you can get it ‘normalized’ by Wilson for about $75. No FFL needed since youre only sending the upper, not the serial numbered lower.

2 thoughts on “Wilson Combat, AR brakes, shotgun mag followers

  1. side note – if someone you know has an FFL they can get dealer discount on a selection of those Wilson products through Brownells… Then again, Wilson ‘may’ extend the same priv to them directly?

    ps.. Brownells accepts a C&R FFL for the discount plan too. 🙂

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