Long magazine tube extensions.

[Super-Dave]

For the people who have a magazine tube extension on their shotgun that is longer than the barrel, does the heat and flames from the barrel ever do any damage to the magazine tube extentsion?

How much longer can the magazine tube extension be before the blast from the barrel causes damage?

The reason I ask is that my +5 magazine tube extension on my remington 870 sticks out past the barrel and I am wondering if over time it will sustain damage from the barrel blasts.

 

[hogdogs]

I am betting 2 inches is plenty fine. Beyond that I am not sure. Is it poly or metal?
Brent

 

[RoscoeC]

Heat and flames aren't going to hurt it if it is steel, such as Choate, or Remington factory, or numerous others. My thinking is that it is going to have to be long enough for the pattern to open up enough for the shot to start hitting it before any real damage is done.

I just thought of a fun experiment. Wrap the extension with some heavy paper to form a "tube extension", if you will. You can then test it with different shot and chokes and answer your own question. I'm betting it would have to extend more than a foot beyond the end of the barrel before any significant damage would be detected. I'm going to try this on my next range trip. Should be fun.

 

[drail]

Considerably more than a foot. The real problem is going to be weight and balance. You have to be realistic about extending anything on a firearm.

 

[inSight-NEO]

From what I understand, a few inches past the muzzle wont hurt anything to any large degree. But, having said that, when using an extension I prefer to keep it just at or slightly behind the muzzle. This has less to do with damage concerns and more to do with balance and aesthetics.