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Finally an easier solution for adding a Limbsaver to the Benelli M4 is available. This is significantly easier and requires fewer parts in the past assemblies of the 10111 model that required the Noveske adapter plate that is no longer sold. For this assembly we'll be using the Limbsaver 10403. This model has a raised lip on the inside of the buttpad that helps center the pad on the stock. First step is to remove the collapsible stock from your shotgun. You will then need to remove the factory buttpad by using a philips screw driver and inserting it in to the two small holes on the factory buttpad. Use a little oil or spit on the driver to help push it in. Push the driver in firmly as you unscrew the fasteners. Pull the buttpad away from the stock as you unscrew it. The screws will remain captive inside of the buttpad. Not the large hole roughly in the center of the stock. This is where the receiver extension passes thru the stock and in to the buttpad when the stock is in the fully collapsed position. The next step is to fit your buttpad to the stock. I had to purchase screws from the hardware store to make this buttpad work for this application. I used M4 machine screws, 0.7 thread pitch, 16mm in length. You will need two of them. The ones I bought use a 2.5mm allen head driver. Press the screws in to the Limbsaver buttpad through the two holes in the rubber. Use your driver to press since it will have to push past the rubber. They will snap in to place once seated. You'll see the threads sticking out of the bottom of the buttpad. Screw the buttpad on to the stock. Note the two holes top and bottom for accessing the screws. Now we need to make a hole in the plastic base of the buttpad for the receiver extension to pass in to. Now that you have the pad attached to the stock, you'll want to get a Sharpie marker with the cap off and drop it down the hole of the collapsible stock where the receiver extension goes. I use a silver one since it makes it easier to see the marks. I shake the stock around a little to get the marker to give me a witness mark as to where I am going to drill. Now remove the buttpad from the stock and check your witness marks. You should have something like this. You now know roughly where you need to drill your 7/8" hole. Rather than trying to bore that big of a hole in one pass, you'll have better luck starting small and moving up. I start with a 1/4" Forester bit and drill it out on a drill press. You do not want to drill all the way through the buttpad. You only want to drill through the plastic back which will open up to a void inside the buttpad. I suppose you could drill this out with a electric drill, but your quality of work is likely going to suffer. First hole is drilled. Take the pad and offer it back up to the stock. Look down the hole where the receiver extension goes down with a flash light and see how close to center your hole is to the hole you're looking down. I see that I'm a little off center to the right of the screen. No problem. Move to the next size up bit 3/8" and try to correct for the alignment. Continue through the 1/2, 5/8 and finally the 7/8 bit. Here is the end results. Clean out all the plastic debris from inside the buttpad and clean up the edges. I use a deburring tool but you don't have to get that fancy. Offer the buttpad up to the stock again and check to see if you can see the sides of the buttpad through the hole. You should be looking straight in to the hole drilled. If an edge is present, it will liely contact the receiver extension and prevent it from collapsing. You can hog out the hole slightly with no ill effects on performance. Finally offer up the stock with the buttpad screwed in place to the shotgun and see if the stock fully collapses. If it hangs up, you need to remove the offending area. If it fits, finalize the installation by applying some blue Loctite 243 to the screws then snug them up. No retard strength is needed. These threaded holes will strip easily if you muscle it. Use your fingers to hole the buttpad in alignment to the stock as you tighten it. There is a small amount of wiggle room in the pad that will allow you to even out the alignment. Make sure everything still fits after you've tightened the screws. The rubber of the Limbsaver will often times have a dried out look to it. You can rub some lubricant on the rubber with a rag and it will return it to a deep black finish. Limbsaver claims you'll see a 70% reduction in perceived recoil with these pads. That figure is a little optimistic. Realistically I'd say you'll see a 40% reduction.

My Background The M4 is my first shotgun, and I have never taken a formal training class with it. My M4 haD less than 200 rounds through it before this class. My Equipment The Shotgun M4 with a steel 7 round tube, C-stock in the middle position, and the following mods: Surefire Dual Fuel Light on an IWC QD Mount GG&G Bolt Release TTI Shell Lifter Aimpoint T2 on ADM Low Mount FFT Trigger Set and A&S Housing IWC QD Rear Mount VTAC 2 Point Sling Tactical Gear SOE 12 GA Micro Rig The Class This was a “Basic Tactical Shotgun” run by a well-regarded local outfit that I’ve trained with before. It’s the first of a three class progression. This class focused heavily on a handful of items: Understanding how the shotgun patterns and functions at different distances and with different loads. We ran a variety of 00 Buck, #4 Buck, and slug loads at 7, 15, 25, and 50 yards. We then ran the slugs all the way out to 100. This was done from standing, supported kneeling, and even prone position. Learning how to do combat and speed reloads. This was a major emphasis of the training and one that was eye-opening for me. Dynamically loading while engaging multiple reactive targets was fun. Doing “slug select” drills to dynamically change out the round that you have. Concluded with a “shoot house” engaging paper targets The temperature hovered in the low to mid 90s for most of the training, requiring us to build in plenty of water and cooling breaks. Lessons Learned Know what ammo your gun likes: I can say with confidence that I’m never using Fiocchi #4 Buck again. Had multiple, repeated failures to eject/extract that led to a lot of (unexpected, but valuable) experience in failure clearance drills. This was not an issue with either my Federal Tactical slugs or PMC 00 Buck. Malfunction drills require a lot more thinking than an AR or a handgun: It’s not as easy as “tap, rack, bang” with an M4. For example, FTEs because of an extended crimp are not as simple as cycling the bolt and smacking the receiver. Getting a live round back into the chamber once you clear also requires practiced discipline with the manual of arms. You feel every ounce of weight you drop off of this platform: The M4 is a heavy beast, especially when you’re using it for several hours during a 90 degree day. Dropping the Mesa side saddle helped, but I’m looking forward to replacing my steel tube with a titanium one. I may even SBS this thing and drop down to 14” barrel. This is an impressively accurate gun: With a 2 MOA red dot and Truball slugs, I was making consistent spine box hits at 75 yards, and was hitting “minute of man” at 100. I was not truthfully not expecting that out of this gun. For my fellow lefties, you have to work on modifying manual of arms: While the safety can be swapped and things like combat reloads might be easier because of visibility into the bolt, other drills are not. For example, grabbing a round off of a chest rig to do a slug select can be tricky. You have to rotate the gun, tuck it into your armpit, use your left hand to current round and hold it open long enough to drop in the new slug. Anyway, it was a very eye opening experience for me. I’m still sore (birdshot didnt come in in time, so ran the entire course with buck and slugs) and a touch dehydrated, but well worth the time and energy.

Absolutely. The finish is as near perfect as I think it can get, and the tube itself is amazing. Super light, perfect threads. It looks amazing on the gun.

And it's on my gun! Woot!!

Everything is inflated and scarce right now. I am surprised nobody has made one domestically.