L.P. Brezny

Mossberg Argentina - Torture Testing

Argentina, the land of great scenery and food, and it is a fact that it is about the world’s greatest location in terms of offering up warm targets for sport shooting. This fact did not fall unnoticed regarding O.F. Mossberg when it was time to test their new line of 2006 field guns. When Mossberg decided to test their new gun by way of a group of writers, engineers, and buyer agents in Argentina it was the logical choice, being the country can send countless numbers of birds over a gunners head. In effect, it holds an endless supply of feathered targets (dove).

At a time when some manufacturers are playing it close to the belt, Mossberg has decided to go on the attack. That is to say this company that has always been able to hang in the market place is building new guns, and redesigning older models to fit into the basic need profile of the 21st century shooter and hunter. Today there are a whole group of shotgunners that play the turkey calling game, waterfowl hunting, slug gun deer, or clay targets that want guns that fit those lower priced but dependable needs. In other camps stack barrel fanciers that hunt upland and gun clay birds want guns that are more refined, as well as point and swing very well. Here again Mossberg has stepped up the task with their new line of “Reserve Series” over and under shotguns.

One area that has tended to elude Mossberg for some time is gaining a solid foot hold on the autoloading shotgun market. With the development of the 935, being a big heavy weight 3.5” duck gun a few years ago those folks seemed to have hit on a mechanical winner. It is no secret that early self stuffers by Mossberg had been plagued with problems, but the 935 has been so good regarding its track record in the field that this company has seen fit to now offer a brand new Model 930 2 3/4” and 3” gas gun to the hunting public based in part on the previous successful 935 12 bore auto. This was a primary focus firearm during what I have come to call the Argentine torture test.

About a month prior to heading for Argentina a double gun case arrived from Mossberg that contained a pair of 930 autos. These guns were straight out of the factory, being no different from what the buyer will find on the dealers shelves this fall. These Model 930’s retained wood stocks, and were classed as basic field grade guns. Mossberg was not at all interested in putting on a glamour show here, but building a pure test of function against some of the fastest shooting in the world. My guns retained 28” ported pipes, a modified Accu-Choke, and a red front bead glow type sight. Upon reaching our lodge in Argentina however my primary gun, being the second gun was for backup, had the stock changed out by Mossberg staff and replaced with a waterfowl synthetic black shock. As it was to turn out this stock fit me better with a slightly slimmer grip, and narrow forend. Gunning dove all day long with a full size 12 bore can become a bit tedious in that this style of gunning is best suited to a 20, or 28 gauge double or autoloader. The plastic stock was welcome more and more as the shooting hours piled up.

I can’t say I shot the Mossberg gas gun well on that first afternoon afield. I had been in the area about 24 hours on my ride from Piedmont South Dakota, and I was dead beat to say the least. Even so I got the hang of the big auto and did manage to dust off enough dove to make it an interesting afternoon. To my knowledge our group of eight shooters did not experience any problems with the guns on that first afternoon afield. This is no small matter in that fired rounds had been totaled in the case lots right off, and no gun had received any special cleaning or other care up to this point in time.

On the first full day in the field things got ugly in terms of kills, and number of rounds sent into the sky. Our shooting was still summer style versus hunting the hill country in higher timber. We were now blocking the ends of corn fields, and our birds were riding the wind high and fast most of the time. This was my third bird hunt on South American dove, and as such I was observing some of the toughest shooting I had seen down there to date.

At noon that first full day the track record still stood at zero problems for the new 930 autos. I was impressed in that some of the guns had now digested better than 800 to 1000 rounds. Before the end of that day two hunters would cross over to the 1000 dove club, and to be sure it took a pile of rounds well beyond 1000 bullets to build that kind of gunning ratio.

Finishing day one, the guns were all turned over to our local staff for cleaning and a general quick check. What we didn’t know at the time was that none of the autos had been completely taken down by way of gas pistons being removed for cleaning. In effect, the guns got a quick once over in terms of a bore brush (snake) and some solvent dumped over the intact gas systems. These guns went to the field on day two skunky, and carbon filled due to poor cleaning and the dirty South American ammo.

By that second morning I was a spent cap. My old cop shop shoulder injury was acting up big time, and the 12 bore was taking on the look of a French 75 to my tired eyes. My bird boy, however, saved the day as he came bouncing through the corn with a smile from ear to ear, and carrying a brand new Mossberg Reserve Series 20 gauge stack barrel. I was impressed with the light weight gun right from the get go, and now with a fresh case of yellow bullets to select from the new Mossberg International TM over and under was about to get some exercise.

I had known that we had several of these new stack barreled guns in camp, but I had been unaware that there were enough of them to go to almost every shooter at the same time. Shooting the Mossberg Reserve in the well designed small frame 20 gauge, being its own scaled down receiver design from the larger 12 bore Reserve was just the ticket in terms of getting the excess weight off my right shoulder. Shooting a PAST system and Limbsaver pad had all but eliminated any damaging recoil stress with the big 12 bore. It was just that moving the heavy waterfowl type gun had reached a point of stall out with me.

Shooting the 20 gauge by way of some low base 7/ 8 oz #9’s in 2 ¾” hulls was just what the doctor ordered. My hit ratio went up at once, and I was more than pleased with the performance of the great shooting double gun. Remembering this hand ejector model that retains Turkish walnut and some nice scroll work to boot will sell for about $500.00. Mossberg has just busted the back of the stack barrel market in terms of those average guys that have always wanted a twin pipe shooter, but didn’t have the high end jack to put down on the gun counter.

After lunch on that second full day we had a gun down with a broken firing pin, and a second auto with a slow elevator response. Save for the pin problem the second problem element was a direct result of a very dirty receiver. No fault of the gun design at all. Be advised, that for the most part even a very high end auto of a very major brand at three times the price of the 930 Mossberg auto is only good for about six weeks of steady shooting down in Argentina. With a fulltime gunsmith and a bag of spare parts these expensive guns can be kept shooting for a year or two at best before retiring them to the junk pile. That’s right the junk pile, because parts just won’t fit receivers any longer.

By the end of that second day even a few stack barrels had started to “double” indicating again a pile of carbon buildup in the lock work. These guns were flushed with solvent and put back directly into the field, once again in working order. However, that evening all the guns were taken down by our team, and in some cases gas pistons on the 930 autos were replaced in that they had to be pounded off the barrel housings. Steel wool was used to remove frozen crud on magazine tubes and gas housings. These guns had still been shooting, but I can say for a fact there was no reason why they worked at all! Many of the autos had well exceeded 2000 round lacking any real maintenance at all.

In terms of total rounds fired through a group of about nine guns my total based on the shooting log offered up by Paco Riestra Shooting & Hunting indicated that a total of 2,299 boxes of shotshells had been fired, which comes out to a total of 57,475 rounds. Was this a tough test on a new gun system? You bet it is, and I commend O.F. Mossberg for putting their new shotgun designed up against such a deadly gunning event in terms of possible firearms breakdown.

At no point in time did my gun fail in any way even though I was on the lower end of the rounds fired scale. My total rounds for two days and one evening’s shoot was 875 rounds. These rounds were split between the new 930 auto, and that fine little 20 bore stack barrel. Even with the lower rounds fired, the ammo was grease dirty, and the environment muddy with constant rain for the few days we were in camp, the gun still performed. Could there be a tougher test? Yes, in the lab at a machine rest gun system. But be assured this test says a whole lot about the new Mossberg gun designs.

Mossberg will market the Reserve Series over and under shotguns in everything from 410 gauge to 3” 12 gauge magnum. There will be a nice sporting clays model in the mix as well. As for the 930 auto loader, this gun is being built as a turkey gun, duck gun, deer killer, deer / field Combo package, and a general use field gun. It fits all needs with the exception of a clays gun. You can bet that’s around the corner to be sure.

With the addition of the new 835 Thumbhole, and new AR15 style Tactical Turkey Mossberg is hitting all the bases in terms of planning ahead for hunters’ needs in the next decade. I’m testing several additional guns, Mossberg shotguns at this time, and down the line I will produce additional reviews of those gun systems when that information comes together. If you are searching for a dependable lower cost fire stick, don’t pass up a hard look at the new Mossberg shotgun line. From dove to geese these new field tools can get the job done.