The current blaze-orange factory plastic followers are perfectly good parts that I don't feel need to be replaced for the gun to do its job. They're light, durable, reliable, high-visibility, and space-efficient with factory or factory-style springs. They're also very inexpensive; even though you'll probably never really need them, you can get several spare factory followers for less than the price of one high-dollar aftermarket follower.Bourget117 wrote:Would you not recommend swapping out a brand new factory follower for a S&J?
That said, I do really like the S&J Hardware followers. They're well-made, high-visibility, and function reliably in most magazine configurations (extensions vary, and no one follower is the best choice for all extensions, but in my experience, the S&J followers are very good in most of them). While they're not quite as light or space-efficient as the factory part, they're still not bad. The tailed Type 1 & 2 followers are also better suited to aftermarket beehive-style springs with wide center coils, such as those that come in the Wilson Combat extension kits. Another significant added feature over the factory followers is a dish, post, or hole in the end to let you feel when the magazine is empty without looking. I find that very convenient; I can pick up my gun and simply slip my thumb into the loading port to ensure that it's got an empty mag without even having to look down.
To answer your question, I don't recommend against replacing the follower, but I also don't consider it a required modification. The factory follower works perfectly fine; I take serious issue with folks who go around preaching that the factory part is bad, and that it should be replaced right out of the box with some expensive aftermarket part - especially when they're the folks who are selling those expensive aftermarket parts. However, aftermarket followers can offer some extra features, and/or work better with certain springs or extensions - especially if you start mixing & matching aftermarket parts. They're also an easy and relatively inexpensive way to satisfy an itch to tinker with and personalize a shotgun - which I completely understand. Just make sure you're not actually giving up function or reliability in the process - especially if your gun is something that you need to depend on.
