One of the most common accessories many people add to a defensive shotgun is a side saddle. They allow you to keep some spare ammo on the gun in case of an emergency. I can’t find an example of a civilian ever needing to reload a shotgun in a defensive scenario, but it provides a little peace of mind to carry spare ammo on a weapon famous for its perceived low capacity. The Flash-5 from Tactaload is a side saddle alternative.
Raise your hand if you remember the Speed Feed stock. Those were neat ideas…an internal magazine on each side of the shotgun that held four rounds. I have one around here somewhere. While they’re neat, they had problems, namely the length of pull they added and the difficulty of pulling rounds from the support side to reload.
The Flash-5
The Flash-5 aims to address the issues with Speed Feed stocks while retaining their strengths.
Simply put, Flash-5 uses an internal magazine to hold five extra rounds of ammo. The ammo feeds from the bottom of the stock in a completely ambidextrous position. Four of the five rounds are completely hidden and protected from the environment while the fifth has the primer and brass exposed. And that’s it.
The Flash-5 can hold 2.75 and 3-inch shells, and with a spacer removed, it’ll even take 3.5-inch shells. This opens the Flash-5 up for non-tactical applications like hunting where your capacity inside the gun is often limited.
What are the benefits of the Flash-5 over a standard side saddle? The biggest is it’s completely ambidextrous. It’s also sleeker and slimmer, easier to fit in a weapon rack, or something like the Hornady Rapid Safe and the five rounds inside the gun are protected from the elements.
A problem with shotgun magazines is the effect of the follower and spring pressure on plastic hulls over time. That’s not a problem here. The internal spring isn’t overly strong and doesn’t exert much pressure on the shells. I have two Flash-5 stocks, and the one on my 590 has been loaded for years. The shells haven’t deformed at all.
It feeds upside down, so the spring is for retention more than feeding. Speaking of retention, the rounds that feed from the stock are protected by a spring-loaded door. The shells can’t work themselves out, but the door retracts when a user grips a shell and pulls it forward.
More Than Spare Ammo
Besides holding five extra rounds, the Flash-5 offers us an adjustable length of pull via a series of spacers, much like the Magpul SGA stock. You can adjust the length of pull from 12.5 to 13.5 inches. I prefer the 13.5-inch length of pull, but being able to scale down to 12.5 inches makes it useable for smaller shooters.
Adding a sling loop is easy with the port below the gun. Ultimately, the Flash-5 isn’t just a one-tricky pony. It’s a competent stock on its own that any shotgunner can appreciate. The Flash-5 stock gives us a lot of modern features on top of holding five extra rounds.
A Tactical Forend
Tacticaload also recently released a tactical forend. There are dozens of forend options out there, with Magpul and Mesa Tactical producing some of the overall best. The Tactaload Tactical Forend does a few things I appreciate.
First, it’s quite long. Most of the length is oriented up front. When you mix that longer forend with the rail attachments, we can position a light a little further forward on the gun, which helps reduce a little barrel shadow. Other forends position the lights further back, which creates more barrel shadow.
The rail attachments are optional and use a simple screw interface. I would have preferred M-LOK slots to expand my attachment options and push a light even further forward. It’s odd to ignore M-LOK in 2026.
The forend itself is heavily textured and allows for a good grip on the gun. You can get a good push/pull on the gun, without your hand slipping as you work the action. The rear end of the forend has a slight shield to further prevent your hand from slipping off the pump when running fast and hard.
Running and Gunning With the Flash-5
Reloading from the Flash 5 is super simple. You pinch the shell, pull it out, and shove it into the gun. The movement from the stock to the loading port is simple, smooth, and quick. You can shove loads into the tube with ease.
Compared to a side saddle, it’s quicker to throw rounds into the loading port. As you load the rounds into the loading port, it’s easy to establish a firing grip on the pump.
When it comes to emergency ejection port reloads, you are a bit slower than a side saddle. Additionally, loading multiple rounds is a little slower. Doing a violin load from the Flash-5 with one round is quick, but slower than using a belt-specific mount. It feels on par trying to do a violin load from a side saddle.
The Flash-5 works best when topping the gun off with a single round at a time. Trying to do two rounds is a bit clumsy. However, I’m impressed by how quickly and intuitively it loads a round at a time. I’m working and practicing with multiple rounds, and it seems like with a lot of dry fire practice, it won’t be all that difficult to get a little faster with multiple rounds.
The slow point is drawing the rounds since it’s a one-at-a-time deal. With other methods, you can draw multiple rounds at a time, which speeds up your reload. At the end of the day, reloads aren’t all that common with shotguns, and being able to load one round quickly is plenty. We have to weigh what’s probable with what’s possible.
The Flash-5 Stock and Forend
The Flash-5 stock scores major points for not only being an innovative and sleek way to carry spare rounds, but also as a fairly robust and useful stock design. The forend does things a little differently than most, and the extra length is a nice touch, as is the aggressive texture.
Both the stock and forend show smart design, seemingly driven by real world experience. The Flash-5 and Tactical Forend are available for both the Remington 870 series and the Mossberg 500/590 series, which also means it works with the 990 Aftershock. I’d love to see this expand to other designs, specifically Benelli.
This is a sleek, ambidextrous way to carry a little spare ammo on a defensive or sporting shotgun.
Still using the SpeedFeed stock on the Mossberg I got in 1974. Added a side saddle too. This one is interesting though.