Installing the Crimson Trace Lasersaddle

Early last month, we posted about the new and extremely useful and innovative shotgun laser sight from Crimson Trace, the Lasersaddle, made just for the Mossberg 500 and 590 lines of shotguns in 12 gauge, including the popular non-NFA shorty "firearm" the 590 Shockwave. The Range365 offices got a familiar red and black box from the UPS guy yesterday afternoon, and we wasted no time installing the sight on our 12 gauge Shockwave and making it a little more space-gun. The installation was easy as can be, despite the imposingly tiny plastic bag full of even tinier parts and screws.

If you have a rail on top of your shotgun's receiver, you'll have to remove it. Don't worry about the screws, the Lasersaddle comes with new ones.

Simply push out the trigger housing pin from either side, which is the indented retention pin just above and slightly behind the trigger (see photo below). It holds the trigger group in the receiver, but is fairly easy to remove with a punch or even the end of a hex wrench.

Then, put the Lasersaddle on the receiver so it's hole lines up with the hole for the pin. In your parts bag, there will be a slightly longer tube with threaded holes on both ends—this replaces the trigger housing pin.

Put a screw in one end, push the pin through the Lasersaddle and the receiver, and then insert the screw on the other side to hold it all together. You'll need two hex wrenches to tighten these down later, but they are included if you don't have any.

Then, four more screws go through the top of the Lasersaddle and into the receiver via the factory drilled and tapped holes. The screws provided are long enough to accommodate a rail section for optics as well.

Then, find the last tiny screw in the bag. This is used to affix the batter cover to the side of the unit once you toss in the four button batteries.

Tighten everything down and that's it.

You can use a boresighter to adjust the windage and elevation of the laser sight with the included hex wrench, and it should be spot on for in-the-home distances. Of course, you can tweak it more precisely at the range for distance or for slugs.

The Lasersaddle comes with either a red (LS-250) or green (LS-250G) laser. Both models have a run time of four hours of constant activation and include a master switch that prevents accidental activation while in storage or being transported.

The only con I saw from the installation process is that tiny screw that holds on the battery cover. It's super small and would be very easy to lose if the batteries ever had to be changed at the range. Including a couple extras in the parts bag would be awesome.

Stay tuned for a full range report once we get a chance to beat it up a little! Check out our full run-down of the Lasersaddle here.