No, I didn’t vertically stretch the picture, it’s just a stubby garden tractor with oversized rear tires. The difference between a lawn and garden tractor is about $1,500….well not really. The difference between a real lawn tractor and a garden tractor that will diminish the significance of a neighbor’s lawn tractor is about $1,500. The price of a real garden tractor made by John Deere or one of the Japanese or Eastern European interlopers is about $25,000, even before the addition of serious terra forming attachments. With only a lawn to mow, some timber to move and a need for a winter snow thrower, I only needed a pretend garden tractor and 25 horse power to pull it around.
“Bob”, as we’ve come to know the tractor, does have a nice V twin overhead cam engine, it is made in a U.S. factory and it is black with a black interior. Therefore it meets most all of our tractor posing requirements. It does have about 20 switches and levers, none of which are required to blitz up and down the driveway, however, I am sure I will learn their function as the need arises….like when my wife gets tired of me buzzing the yard and insists I actually accomplish some work.
We arrived in Maine on Friday the 13th, which should have raised a flag, but we are not superstitious people. It has rained every day since our arrival, negating lawn mowing, brush clearing, pressure washing, touch up painting and basically any task that would define me as a non-shirker. I wanted to work, really, and there were times when my wife had to hold me back from running out into the face of s storm through the devious methods of cooking pork chops or putting a pizza on the dinning room table or advising me that American Idol was being broadcast. Eventually, the confined space grew too small, so we went down the hill to see what was required to buy a new gun.
Howell’s Gun & Archery Center
My wife and I looked in the phone books, drove by a few places and decided Howell’s looked like a place to check out. Strange gun store from the perspective of a Californian. There were no bars on the windows, no armed sales personnel, there was reloading equipment as well as lots of new and used firearms and friendly people. California gun stores either greet customers with petitions to defend against anti-gun laws, or appear embarrassed to be selling firearms. The only reason we wanted to purchase was to have a gun in our home. We live in a lightly developed area, our house is in the woods and we both decided we are afraid of the dark. The salesman was completely neutral to the notion of self defense firearms and was more than willing to make a recommendation for what was probably one of the least expensive firearms in the store, even though they are a master distributor for Browning. We couldn’t figure out what this guy’s angle was; old inventory, knew we would have to buy a second gun – what was the deal here?
I know, I thought the same thing, this is the longest handgun I’ve ever seen. I am told they are called “SHOT-guns”. Apparently there is a need for a firearm that delivers a lot of power close up, covering an area of impact rather than a single spot, then dissipates energy quickly at longer ranges. Interesting concept and particularly useful for hitting moving birds and uninvited guests that bump around in the night. OK, I don’t know squat about shotguns, yes, even less than single projectile firearms, but I thought there was something useful here.
I remembered my days in elementary school when my day dreaming pretty much decided I would need a good 10 gauge for goose hunting in Canada. That was back when Canada seemed to be populated by wildlife rather than prissy American hating Frenchmen and Marlin still offered bolt action shotguns. Anyway, I must have been thinking too hard because I blurted out, “How about a good 10 gauge?” and I could hear the sound of people not breathing. I quickly covered my verbal blunder by saying, “10 gauge? No, I said 10 days. Do you folks have a 10 day waiting period like California?”. To which the salesman replied, “You might do better with a 20 day waiting period”. No mercy. He suggested a 20 gauge with a shorter barrel to make for a more compact package and something my wife would not find objectionable to shoot. I didn’t have the heart to tell him my wife routinely shoots our 416 Weatherby, but still I could see his point.
The actual model is a Mossberg 500 Super Bantam. It is a 20 gauge chambered for 2 3/4″ or 3″ shells, with a 22″ barrel. The gun is shipped with a full choke and both barrel length and choke can be changed by the owner. Besides the traditional shotgun barrel ramp, the gun is also fitted with fiber optic bright green and red sights that would be hard to miss, even in low light. The gun is intended for youth training and is therefore lightweight and compact, some things that are valuable in a house gun where maximum distances are measures in a few yards and doorways and blind room entry make extended barrels and long stock pull lengths a disadvantage.
The Mossy Oak stock has two recoil pads and an insert spacer allowing adjustment of pull from 12″ to 13″ by changing combinations of these components. The spacing between the trigger and pistol grip is shorter than standard as is the forearm when fully forward. The stock is not funky, it does not suffer from visual funkification, the spacer fits well and is lost to all of the fancy camo paint covering the stock. In fact, I laid the gun down in the living room oak floor and it took several hours to find it. I am using our floor as a backdrop because I am here with none of my usual sophisticated photography equipment, like white paper, and there is not a stick of furniture to obstruct the surface of the wood floors. For those who do not want the stock adjusting system, or for youthful shooters who find themselves grown into big boy pants, the gun is shipped with a 50% discount coupon that can be applied to the purchase of a full length stock and forearm.
This particular model is rendered a single shot, consistent with the model’s intent, with the factory insertion of a long limiting plug in the magazine. The plug can be trimmed to 9″ for a three shot capacity or removed for a five or six shot capacity dependent upon the shell length. The plug, like the barrel, is removed by half stroking the gun and unscrewing the action slide tube nut.
How does it shoot?
Hard to say, I have little shotgun experience to use as a basis for comparison. Recoil was negligible even though the gun must weigh under six pounds; my scale remains in California. The Mossberg is really easy to put on target and it shoots like my old Stevens 12 gauge single shot piece of pipe, like a rifle. Equipped with the full choke and Winchester X one ounce number 5 shot 2 3/4″ high brass game loads, the gun dumped most of the 170, .120″ diameter lead pellets into a foot circle at about 20 yards. Certainly a lot easier for someone to handle than squeezing off a lot of 45 ACP ammo from a handgun. An ounce of shot is approximately 437 grains. That shot charge at 1250 fps of MV equates to over 1,500 ft/lbs of ME, and 170 projectiles…. In any event, I like the gun. It is fast handling, good shooting and very inexpensive. The gun fits a very specific niche and it will be fine for recreational shooting.
Maine Gun Laws
The first thing I did when my wife and I stopped in the gun store was to ask what the residency requirements are to purchase. Non-residents can purchase rifles, handguns require a Maine driver’s license. After selecting the shotgun, we filled out the paperwork and I asked the pickup date. The salesperson looked at me blankly, so I explained there was a ten day waiting period in California. His response was, “Oh, you’re in America now. Once you clear the database in the next few minutes you can leave with your shotgun”. I knew America was hiding somewhere.
Thanks,
Joe
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