Well regarding the fore-mentioned "hunk of plastic", I examined it fairly closely today and now I see that it is nothing more than a mere spacer that the rear sight happens to dovetail into. It fits tightly to the barrel and is locked in by the rear that fits into a lip and of course the machine screw. I imagine one does not want to move the sight too many times in the dovetail as it will become very loose (steel vs plastic), but it does appear to be more substantial than what I thought it would be. Hey sometimes in this day and age it pays to be skeptical of plastic. Manufacturers of ALL goods are finding ways to cheapen their products. I'd say at this point that is likely what they in typical H-R/NEF fashion did BUT it appears as though it should be durable and was well thought out before production occured. The .410 full choke barrel seems to pattern fairly well. It's my understanding that .410's do not pattern the 3" shells as well as the 2.5" ones. I was shooting 3" #6 as that was what I could find locally. I will make a trip east to purchase a better selection. Truth be known the darn thing really was no worse than either my 20g Mossberg or 12g Remington in regards to the overall pattern. A couple small 'holes' in the pattern but nothing terrible. The POI is higher than it should be BUT I'm using the youth buttstock until Midway delivers my Choate fullsize buttstock next week..........sooooooo I'll reserve judgement until I see how the fullsize buttstock fits me. Fit is the most important thing regarding shotguns and if the stock is too long or short it's tough for both the shooter and the gun to work together. If it still centers the pattern higher than it should, a simple bead change will solve that (though it does have a vey tall bead now!). The .22lr barrel however was disappointing. Accuracy with the factory irons was very poor at 25 yards. That said, I think the rear sight needs to be altered. The sight justs needs to be trued up with a file to get a good sight pic. Horizontal stringing was the trouble. Yes I was resting the rifle right behind the pivot up against the trigger guard. I will mount a scope when my base arrives and we shall see if the accuracy improves. If it does than the rear sight will get some work done to it. All in all I think it is going to be a good shooter with some work.
