Mossberg’s 990 Aftershock has been one of the most popular firearms of 2025 and is swinging into 2026. The 990 Aftershock is a semi-auto 12-gauge, pistol grip only, firearm. Mossberg is also producing a shotgun variant and a short-barreled shotgun variant. It is fair to say the 990 Aftershock is a family of firearms. Mesa Tactical has taken the challenge of producing the first aftermarket M-LOK handguard with the Truckee.
Add More with the Mesa Truckee 990 Handguard
The Truckee has been around for a bit. I have Truckees on both my Benelli M4 and Mossberg 940 Pro Tactical. This is my third Truckee experience, so I guess you can say I like them. Adding accessories to shotguns is not always easy, and the Truckee provides you plenty of space to add lights, grips, lasers, or whatever else to your shotgun.
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The Truckee is an all-aluminum handguard with a ton of M-LOK slots. The model designed for the 990 Aftershock is 10.5 inches long. You get M-LOK slots on the sides and bottom, with a total of 18 M-LOK slots. There is plenty of room for lights and slings anywhere you want to put them.
Installing the Truckee
The Truckee handguard is easy to install. There are no screws needed to install the kit, and there are no tools required for installation either. It more or less drops right on and is secured with high-temperature glass-filled nylon end caps. Nothing crazy is needed to add a little M-LOK to your shotgun or firearm.
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The Truckee is made from a single piece of aluminum and uses proper M-LOK slots. The M-LOK magazine clamp included with the 990 Aftershock is mostly fine, but it is thin, polymer, and does not hold lights very well. That slot is best used for a sling point. The Truckee gives you a real series of M-LOK slots for attaching a variety of accessories.
Running and Gunning with the Truckee
The downside to the Truckee is its overly smooth nature. Getting a good push-pull with sweaty hands can become difficult. One of the first things you should add to the Truckee handguard is some rail scales or polymer grip inserts. This adds a little extra grip to your gun and makes it easier to exercise some recoil control.
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Of course, you can add some form of grip and cure this problem too, or even a strap to prevent your hand from moving. I wish IWI sold their hand strap separately because it is the best I have ever used. The Truckee can take anything M-LOK compatible, so why not? A forward grip breaks up the slim profile, but it does make for a good push point for a push-pull technique.
The Truckee is fairly tight, but it does move a hair when you apply torque. For 99% of users, it does not make a difference, but if you are running an IR laser, it might not be the best rail to zero a laser to. Albeit within buckshot range, it is hardly going to make a difference.
The Truckee Going Strong
Those are the downsides. The upsides are the size and shape. It is quite long and allows mounting a light close to the end of the barrel, which prevents barrel shadow, or at least drastically reduces it. The Truckee uses a somewhat square-shaped design that fills your hand and allows for a good, strong grip on the handguard.
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Its size helps keep your hands on the handguard and prevents them from touching the barrel. The aluminum handguard eats heat well in general and will not get too hot to the touch for quite some time. The handguard is heavy, and gas-operated guns like the 990 are already front-heavy.
While it is not balanced, it does not necessarily matter. What does matter is that the extra weight helps reduce muzzle rise. You can feel the difference after just a few rounds.
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The M-LOK slots hold accessories without issue. I attached my Modlite to the gun, and it did not move after a hundred rounds of buckshot. The aluminum M-LOK slots keep the light held tight, and it does not rattle or move as it did on the polymer forward M-LOK slot.
For those of us who were early adopters of the 990 Aftershock, we might feel a little left out when Mossberg released the SPX model with an M-LOK handguard. Worry not, because Mesa Tactical and the Truckee have you covered!
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