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Not another dime.
You do what JM did, you marry into a family gunsmith business, in this case Clark’s custom guns.
In all seriousness I’m sure Mossberg has people that can keep his guns running just like Taurus has people that can keep their teams 1911s running.
Sorry to give you the standard PF answer but get a Beretta 1301 and don’t look back.
Last edited by HCM; 12-02-2019 at 04:30 PM.
There are simple rules for buying a semi auto shotgun
It should be made in Italy
The name should stat with a B
and it should end in a vowel.
If you do that you are unlikely to go wrong.
Welcome to Africa, bring a hardhat.
In my experience, luck and a trip back to the factory.
I bought one years ago when they first came out. If I remember correctly, the bolt would bind on the lifter or something along those lines. It went back to the factory. I then sold it to a guy I shoot matches with and it has run just fine since then. I would imagine it's just luck—you either get one that runs, or you get one that doesn't. Going by the Internet scuttlebutt about the experiences of others, if there's ghosts in the machine, you might as well move on.
Breda might belong on that list.If you want a reliable semi auto it’s beretta, benelli, FN and Remington if you get lucky.
I've seen two in class that ran.
Two.
I've seen considerably more that did not.
One gentleman brought his 930 to class new in the box. It made it through about 15 shells with me having to mortar it multiple times to get it back into action. When it failed to eject for the last time I mortared the gun and it ripped the rim off the shell without the shell budging in the slightest.
He owns a 1301 now.
So as to how you get one working, apart from sending it back to Mossberg to try and get it working (which should be your first approach as Mossberg seems to be letting a lot of guns go with shell stops and other internal bits that are out of spec these days) you can try replacing parts. First thing I'd look at is replacing the gas piston. There are a few companies making replacement pistons for the 930 (SBE Precision is one that comes to mind) which seem to do a fair job of enhancing reliability. Since the 930 doesn't have a chrome lined bore or chamber I'd also look at having the chamber polished to aid in reliable extraction. After that, look at the springs.
Even then, they seem to be picky about what they will reliably work with. The typical bulk ammo stuff that people use in classes doesn't seem to make the 930's happy. Of course, some of that bulk ammo will give any number of semi-auto shotguns fits. he 930 also seems to like being clean for reliable function. One of the reasons I'm a fan of the 1301 is that it doesn't really care what you feed it. The only shells I've not been able to get it to reliably digest are less-lethal rounds like beanbags or polyshocks. It will also keep running even when it hasn't been cleaned in thousands of shells. I clean my 1301's maybe twice a year, cleaning the bore once a year. This year they went through about 2,000 shells in classes (including 200 rounds of lead slugs...which deposited a lot of lead in the bore and elsewhere) plus about that much in my practice.
Having shotguns I can treat like Glocks is nice.
Jerry Miculek is a pretty good gunsmith in his own right and has been doing custom work on both his own guns and other people's guns for years as a part of Clark's shop. He's certainly capable of making repairs and reliability enhancements to his equipment which he does all the time. He also has the ability to spec out exactly what he wants from the company and get it built to his standard. (Whether that is from Mossberg or S&W's Performance Center) Unfortunately average Joe doesn't.
3/15/2016
I have one that just runs. I've never seen another one that did. I've never figured out what the difference is.
Last edited by TheRoland; 12-03-2019 at 07:12 PM.
I’ve got an SPX that runs, took it through Tom’s class many years ago with no problems.
As stated above it does not like the basic 100rd bulk loads. It runs fine with 1300 FPS bird shot, no problem with a Federal reduced recoil Flitecontrol.
I have a 930 that runs well. I have the 1301 now so the 930 is a backup. I’ll probably sell it at some point.
Just a dog chauffeur that used to hold the dumb end of the leash.