I finally was able to escape and take my Remington 870 Gatekeeper II out for a dance. It is cylinder bore.They called Josh Randall's cut down Winchester a "Mare's Leg". They should call this one a "Mule's Kick". Seriously, it isn't for the faint of heart. I shot 25 low brass 12 ga.#8 target loads at some metal knock down plates at about 5 yds. to get the feel for the gun. With these loads, the gun is controllable. As someone suggested, I could see right away that installing the strap on the forend is going to happen. If that doesn't suit me, I may try a forend pistolgrip, like the Tac Star. The bicycle inner tube sleeve worked well. I fired the rest of my shells at 15 yds. The Winchester Military 00 buckshot load 2 3/4" (the OD and black rounds) was hard to handle (the strap would have helped), but I won't be using them. The pattern of the Winchester Military was around a 13" spread. I shot some Hornady Critical Defense 2 3/4 00 buckshot load with Versatite Wad was much more controllable. There are only 8 pellets and it is advertised as 1600 fps. The patterns at 15 yds. were 7" extreme spread. I shot a couple of old slugs at 15 yds. and they hit where the barrel was pointed. I fired all rounds holding the gun at arms length. I was using the front bead for reference, but the gun was aimed high (I didn't want my right hand to contact my nose). My groups were about 2 feet higher than where I pointed the bead. Nevertheless all my patterns were on my 2'x2' target. My conclusions are that the Gatekeeper II needs a strap on the forend or a pistol grip to aid in keeping one's hand on the forend. I also recommend gloves for range sessions. I used Nomex flight gloves with the leather palms. I recommend low recoil 2 3/4" defense loads in 00 buck. #4 buck might be good as well, but I didn't have any on hand. I'll be sticking with the Hornady Critical Defense 2 3/4" loads unless I find something less punishing (I doubt that I'll find any shells that pattern tighter). Holding the gun out at arms length, the gun never came close to my face. This may be a problem for people with limited upper body strength.
