Spartan Shotgun Mount: a Review
There’s a plethora of ways to mount a carbine – there’s horizontal mounts, vertical mounts, flipping-backwards-throwing-a-shovel mounts, you name it. They’re a smart way to store your carbine, and some of them even offer a locking capability if you need it. That’s great.
Shotguns, on the other hand, are a different matter. Google ‘shotgun wall mounts’. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Didn’t find much, did you? Particularly if you want to mount a shotgun vertically. There’s the Hornaday offering, if you’re willing to pay the price. Mossberg offers a solution, but again, pricey. Then there’s the typical hooks and brackets, all of which looks like repurposed bike hooks. I wanted something a bit more elegant.
Whilst moving into a new office, I started looking for a solution to mount my Mossberg 5901 A1 to the back of the closet door. This was kind of a tall order, since I had both a side saddle on one side, and a match saver (a doohickey that holds a single round right in front of the ejection port for a quick reload) on the other side. I tend to need a lot of clearance for this gun. The Mossberg in question can also double as a boat anchor, so I needed something with some brawn.
What I ended up selecting was something from a company I’d never heard of – Spartan Mounts (www.spartanmounts.com). They’re based in Western PA and offer a pretty surprising number of mounting solutions for all sorts of weapons. One of their productions is a vertical/horizontal mount for the Mossberg 88/500/590 series, and surprisingly, they thought ahead and offer both right-handed versions and left-handed versions (they have a whole range of mounts for all sorts of popular shotguns). This is important, because the way the mount is oriented, you need clearance on one side if you have a side saddle. Since I run a saddle (and you should too), I ordered the “left” version from their website. It arrived quickly and was well packaged – below is a picture of what I received (I grabbed this picture from their website because I got excited and mounted it before I could take a picture).
The mount itself is 3D printed in PETG. PETG is a filament know for strength, and relative ease of printing, and tends to hold up to use and UV rays pretty well. Being a 3D printer myself, I was quick to start critiquing the quality of the print. It’s actually pretty good, no visible print issues, and while there are visible layer lines – let’s be honest, who really cares? – nobody’s buying this for looks. All and all, I was pleased – particularly for the price, a very reasonable $23.99.
Installation was a snap, and soon it was mounted to my closet door. Now, keep in mind, I live in a 130 year old house that was architected by H.P Lovecraft, without a single Euclidian angle – so any sort of DIY or home improvement job is a Pandora’s box. However, after eyeballing level and making a quick pencil line on the door, I was easily able to attach it using the two provided wood screws.
Spartan was thoughtful enough to include two different mounting options – wood screws (what I ended up using), and drywall anchors. If you live in a house that was built after electricity and indoor plumbing became the craze, odds are good you’re going to use the drywall anchors. I have solid wooden doors, so I just used the wood screws. I can’t vouch for how well this works with modern hollow core doors, so keep that in mind when deciding where to mount. Here’s what it looks like mounted (excuse the crayon heart, it was here when I bought the place, and I’ve seen enough horror movies to know you don’t remove drawings from the walls in an old house):
Pretty straightforward, right? Here’s what it looks like with a shotgun actually mounted:
It worked out pretty well, in my opinion. To remove it from the mount, I simply use my right hand, grab the shotgun by the magazine tube between the receiver and slide and push, and then pull up to clear the locking lug. The mount holds the shotgun onto the door by the lug, which slides up into the magazine. It’s slick, honestly, and holds everything onto the door very nicely. There’s a little wobble, which is to be expected, but nothing concerning. My only complaint (seriously, I only have one, and I like to complain) is that I lose a round in the magazine to make room for the locking lug – but I think this is a fair trade off in my application, and it’s certainly not a deal breaker.
All in all, I couldn’t be happier with the Spartan Mount – the fact that they’re a PA-based company is icing on the cake. It fits my application perfectly, is well designed, easy to install, and holds everything securely. I plan on looking at their other mount applications, as well as a nifty, wall-mounted shotgun shell holder that they offer. I’ll let you know how that works out.
— Kirk