Some of the benefits of being a firearm enthusiast are exposure to new technology, the never ending stream of new products and the number of disciplines that track to various types of firearms. A shooter who grows weary of rifles can switch to handguns, or muzzle loaders, or long range artillery, or shotguns. Those of you who read the thriller of an article “Lawn Vs Garden Tractors and Mossberg Pump Guns” know that I am a shotgun novice. After a lot of years of handloading handgun and rifle cartridges, a preoccupation with experimenting with magnum rifles and hot rodding old time cartridges, projects began running together with too many similarities. Realizing there were many areas related to firearms where I lacked experience and knowledge, I began branching out. I tried muzzle loaders; fun and unique, but they lacked activities that would hold my interest over the long haul and they required serious dedication to develop any level of expertise. Eventually, I began investing some time into working with shotguns .
I purchased a 20 gauge Mossberg 500 Bantam of diminutive stature to use as a pint size home defense firearm, and a someday slug gun-pig gun project piece. I had so much fun putting holes in things with the Mossberg, it seemed only reasonable to purchase a 12 gauge gun to see what it would look like when it grew up. More precisely, I felt a 12 gauge based effort would offer the broadest selection of guns, accessories and ammunition, and reflect the newest in shotgun technology. I thought I would find a combination of these elements that would allow me to publicly embarrass myself while exploring shotgun: applications, ballistics, handloading, and amateur gunsmithing. If you are an accomplished shotgunner, I doubt you would find anything useful in this piece, but if you are not, my trials and tribulations might save you from living through the same. Of course, if you are experienced with shotguns, you can always read the material and write to me to pin point my many areas of shotgun incompetence.
A Metallic Cartridge Prejudice
It’s not like I have had a distorted view of shotguns, it’s just they have always struck me as the firearm of choice for golfers or tennis players; aesthetically correct, technically much to do about nothing and often found in pretentious surroundings. Various models are the namesake of goddesses, snooty ancient British gun clubs and shooting events, and rife with aristocratic reference. There are many more off the rack expensive shotguns than there are rifles. I offer into evidence the Weatherby Accumark at $1,726 MSRP in comparison to their Orion Super Sporting Clays at $2.059, or their basic side by side double Athena D’Italia at $2,976. Even Ruger, a company that has done so much for shooting sports by producing excellent but relatively inexpensive firearms, was able to come up with a $2,000 Gold Label side by side double. A Holland & Holland Royal side by side shotgun sells for about $81,000, while their bolt action rifle based on the Model 98 Mauser can be had for a paltry $32,000. Yes, there are exceptions to the rule as illustrated by own early exposure to shotguns.
Growing up in New Jersey, if I wanted to hunt, I had to use a shotgun; 00 buck for deer and something smaller for game bird, varmints and small game. I didn’t get much beyond the age of twelve before realizing that deer rarely came within forty yards of a human, particularly one wearing international orange clothing (the human not the deer), during hunting season. At that range and beyond, the deer could take multiple hits and escape with no more than a need for a couple of Band-Aids. On the other hand, I could make birds explode on a routine bases and small game intended for Brunswick stew looked more like Swiss cheese than a meat source. Eventually, out of ammo and with not much to show for the expenditure, I took my single barrel Savage 220B and moved out of state. There may have been some other reasons also, like military service, but I like to think the shotgun issue was central.
The gun was purchased in a downtown Passaic, NJ sporting goods store, with a $30 combination of crinkled dollar bills and loose change. It was transported home, not in a case, but rather on the #2 Passaic-Clifton Public Service Bus and not a single passenger raised an eyebrow. Why would they? Those were the days before preteens were commonly considered serial killers and the only way a kid could get to a place to shoot was to take a bus. The Savage was a careful selection; it could handle 2 ¾” high base loads necessary for a Pine Barrens big buck hunt and #6 or 7 ½ shot was pretty good for birds of one type or another. In retrospect, the Savage is pretty much a piece of pipe with a full choke, that has handled a ton of ammo without complaint, with the exception of a snapped firing pin that resulted from dry firing the gun within a week of purchase. One year, it did manage to make its way underwater during a wet spring basement flood. Some time later, working at night from a SAC alert pad bunker, I refinished the stock and metal parts with an inexpensive Birchwood Casey refinishing kit.
Pictured right, this is how the gun remains today; not the slickest gun in the rack, but it shoots straight and it has a certain utility gun appearance. My wife and sons used it for the Hunter’s Safety course a couple of decades ago and it will play a roll in this story. I don’t know how people part with their old firearms, I think they all deserve tenure.
The Project Gun
I did not want a fancy gun, I wanted a work gun, a reliable gun that would be flexible enough to test and analyze a full selection of ammunition and accessories. I took a first hand look at products from Browning, Mossberg, Charles Daily, Remington, Winchester, etc and based on some areas detailed below, I selected an established model from Mossberg, The Mossberg Ulti-Mag 835®.
Actions- The selection of an action was relatively straight forward. I needed more than two shot capacity, so singles and doubles were eliminated at the onset. Semiautomatics were set aside because of relatively higher cost and because they are a little limited in the range of ammo they can reliably digest without adjustment, most shotgun manufacturers’ catalogs have notations regarding reliable feed limitations of their autoloader shotguns. I chose a pump action that allowed easy barrel and other component interchangeability for further flexibility. Modern pump shotguns are systems; the action is the base module and just about everything else from stock to barrels can be tailored to specific preferences.
Chamber and Barrels – This is a place I could not find a one size fits all solution. I wanted to cover the full range of commonly available shotshells in making ammo assessments, so I needed a gun that offered up to a 3 ½” chamber and would work with slug loads. Generally speaking, rifled slugs or full bore diameter slugs are shot from a smoothbore barrel, sabot slugs are optimized for use with a rifled barrel. Selection of a gun and two barrels could have taken care of a broad range of ammo, but my selection was complicated because I wanted to assess the original intent of the 3 ½” shotshell.
Federal Cartridge and Mossberg got together in 1988 to produce the first 3 ½” shotshell – shotgun combination. The result was the Mossberg Ulti-Mag 835® – 10 gauge performance, shot weight and velocity, from a 12 gauge shotgun that was priced comparably to any 12 gauge, and could handle shell length from 2 ¾” through 3 ½”. The gun has two significantly unique features; the action is specifically sized to accommodate the 3 ½” shell while reliably still handling 2 ¾” ammo, and the barrel is back bored, or over bored to 10 gauge diameter so the shot charge will pattern like a 10 gauge.
Both barrels pictured left are 12 gauge. The barrel bore on the left measures .725″ just forward of the chamber. The Mossberg Model 835 barrel on the right measures .775″. These diameters are consistent with a 12 gauge and 10 gauge respectively. The overbore concept is great, although performance with 2 ¾” remains to be qualified, and these barrels will not work with slugs, either 12 gauge bore diameter or sabot type. The oversize bore diameter would not offer proper support to a slug and there is the potential of a slug tipping and jamming in the bore. Shooting slugs out of a Model 835 requires either a non-over bored smoothbore or rifled slug accessory barrel. Models from other manufacturers such as the Remington Model 870 Express Super Magnum, Beretta A391 Xtrema2 or Browning BPS have a 3 ½” chamber but not an over bore barrel. These would work with slug loads, but they wouldn’t demonstrate the original overbore 12 gauge intent. I know, a little convoluted, but it’s all in there if you look closely.
Barrel length is not a significant issue in my circumstance. Unlike rifle and pistol barrels, where percent of powder burned and barrel length work together to moderate velocity, a shotgun barrel is pretty much all done at 20″. However, because shotguns are designed mostly to be pointed, longer barrels are pressed into service to provide balance and more intuitive feel when leading flying game and clay birds. I have no idea what that means, but the rest of the world seems to have arrived at that consensus.
A shotgun intended for turkey or deer hunting with buckshot will more than likely have adjustable rifle type sights on top of a 20-22″ inch barrel. Both animals have about the same level of airworthiness, so that long barrel for tracking the Red Baron across the horizon would be a waste of time. A dedicated slug gun will typically have a 24″ rifled barrel which may seem a little excessive. A 24″ shotgun barrel weighs approximately 2.4 lbs, a 24″ medium taper rifle barrel weighs approximately 3.5 lbs, but the shotgun puts more of its mass and heavy ammo further out from the shooters body and support. The result is, in the field, one feels just about like the other. Home security guns routinely get barrels as short as 18″, but they are meant to be used in confined spaces and not provide a handle for a perpetrator to grab. 24″ – 30″ and longer barrels are generally used for waterfowl hunting; the longer in more open areas, the shorter in brush and timberland.
The Mossberg 835 ships with a 28″ barrel, but I did purchase a 24″ rifled slug barrel separately. This worked out well, the 28″ barrel will fit in with my plan of going to the range to see how many clays I can miss, and I’d like to do some critical accuracy testing with slugs, both factory and home brew. The long barrel has muzzle and mid ramp bead sights, the rifled barrel has fiber optic rifle sights. I have the latter on the little 20 gauge Model 500 as well as a muzzle loader and they are excellent. I could have ordered an integral scope mount for this barrel, which should be a more accurate set up. Whenever barrel and receiver are not threaded into one another, a scope mounted to the receiver will remain at one point of aim, while the barrel tends to float around a little bit, changing point of impact. The idea is to mount the scope on the barrel so they will move to the same point of aim. Of course, I did not follow this logic, because I thought the barrel mount looked “Star Wars” like and I wanted that traditional Weaver base set up bolted to the pre tapped receiver. I am not above making decision based solely on aesthetics.
The standard overbored 28″ barrel is ported, a feature intended to keep the muzzle down and dampen recoil. While the gun has enough heft to feel like a lead filled salami, it scale weighs at slightly over 6 ½ lbs. It was not difficult to find some 3 ½ ” loads that approached 100 ft/lbs of recoil, which is near heavyweight Weatherby numbers. I need to check out the Mossberg’s recoil pad, I learned a lot from my Marlin Guide Gun experience.
Disassembly to switch barrels or clean assemblies
locked up in a CTK Precision P3 Gun Vise, you can see this isn’t a tiny gun. The general specs for the Model 835 as measured and weighed are: Weight 6 ½ lbs., trigger pull averages 6 lbs., overall length is 48″, pull length is 14″. CG of an empty gun is halfway, 24″, just at the rear of the slide when in the forward position. The gun has a Parkerized finish, matte carried to an extreme, which is generally very nice. It looks good, it protects well and is durable in use when wiped down from time to time with very light gun oil. By comparison, the old single shot Savage weighs only ¾ lb less, is 4″ shorter as a break action gun, and has a pull length identical to the Mossberg.
Where the old Savage has an integral choke; the constriction is machined into the barrel, the Mossberg has an interchangeable chokes. The Model 835 utilizes Mossberg’s Accu- Mag system. The choke fills an area from the muzzle to just forward to the barrel ports and is installed and removed with a key. Mossberg points out that the gun should first be checked for empty and the safety be slid to the “on” position. It’s tough to find fault with that logic and I would add that the key should be removed before firing. This particular choke is labeled “Mod 750″, dimensionally it is a .748″ ID at the muzzle end and .775″ at the other, about .002” over the barrel bore preceding the choke. There are at least five other choke constriction levels from Mossberg and many more configurations from companies like Briley where they are blue and green and black in color and some are made from titanium. These chokes are made to withstand lead shot, steel and other environmentally clean material that might, because of hardness, be harmful to some choke systems. The interesting observation for me is the aftermarket sale of very specialized chokes, while ammo manufacturers seem to want to say their ammo makes chokes irrelevant. Something for me to dissect as the project progresses.
Shotgun Simplicity
The Model 835 is easy to service and clean, at least from the perspective of someone familiar with rifles and handguns. Pushing out a ⅛” pin (I had to use a punch and a small brass hammer for removal) the trigger guard can be lifted up and out. It appears to be made of fiber filled plastic and not intended to be detail stripped. It is probably more durable than a cast metal part and more dimensionally stable at temperature extremes. Clearly it is less expensive to produce.
I believe low cost associated with shotguns is due partially to their low operating pressure and less of a need for robust parts, and partially because of perception and expectation. A 24″ rifled slug barrel of substantial mass costs $100 less than a 4″ barrel for my P239 357 SIG.
Overall, the gun’s synthetic parts are well done and do not feel or look cheesy like guns from some other major manufacturers. In fact, the Parkerized finish really compliments the synthetic parts, which isn’t bad for a gun with $329 price tag. For the finicky, a few bucks more will get you a wood stock, or a nice Mossy Oak camouflage finish that will make you look woods wise and fashionable. I would caution you that I placed my Mossy Oak Model 500 against a tree, then was unable to locate it for three hours.
The barrel is easily changed by moving the slide back until the bolt face is at mid travel in the ejection port, then the magazine cap is unscrewed and the barrel will slide out. This set up is actually a little easier to line up on installation than the Model 500, which has a magazine tube retaining screw and a slightly different barrel shank. The gun is shipped with a wood dowel that limits magazine capacity to 2 rounds. When the magazine cap is removed and the gun tipped muzzle down, the dowel falls forward and can easily be removed. Removal results in six round capacity for 2 ¾” shotshells, one less for longer. My 378 based Weatherbys hold only 2 rounds in the magazine, so the Mossberg isn’t exactly leaving me without firepower.
The world is not a perfect place
The only problem I had with the gun in any respect was a magazine cap with a finish defect that was pretty glaring and drove me a little crazy. This is how the part looked out of the box, not something anyone with pride in a firearm, manufacturer or owner, would find acceptable. Unfortunately, this took me to an experience with Mossberg that was less than exciting. Mossberg service is run by Maverick Arms in Texas and quality of service is mixed. When I wanted to order a rifled slug barrel, the service rep was able to look up my gun by serial number, make sure I had a finish match and special order the barrel with Fiber Optic rifle sights at a non-special order $140 price. There was a two week wait, I have not seen the finished product as yet, but the order process was clean and the service rep went out of his way to be helpful. When I picked up a Mossberg shotgun from a local retailer, got it home and gave it a close look, I found a badly blemished magazine cap. I guess someone forgot to wipe the jelly donut off their hands before Parkerizing the part, and the defect looked tacky and inconsistent with the balance of the gun’s. I sent a polite email to Mossberg service and asked for a replacement, explaining the piece was defective as received and that I would be glad to fax or email a picture of the part. The unsigned response was – “Sent it to us, wait 15 days, and we will tell you if you are responsible or if the part was defective as shipped. At that time we will advise if you need to send payment for a replacement”. Apparently, lots of us buy firearms as a prelude to a scam that involves getting lot of free magazine caps.
I think it is important for company customer service reps to look past rigid policy that may relate to costly parts and not apply the same rules universally. A customer has a right to expect a quality product is exchange for payment, and the factory has an obligation to make good within reason and the framework of a warranty. From a common sense standpoint, customer service can be at odds with an expensive marketing effort; millions of advertising and promotional dollars are spent convincing people to use a product, while the company’s customer service department is busy neutralizing that effort by creating a negative image of the company and its products. I didn’t want to be obnoxious, but it bothered me that I was working hard to fix a problem, and to be fair, with the hope I could report “Minor problem and quickly addressed” instead of “Defective gun and lousy service”, while the service rep was clearly demonstrating the many ways she did not have to assist.
Finally, after explaining why I purchased the gun and that I needed to photograph it for an article, the rep asked advice from a supervisor and was told to send me the part. But she still had to “win”, she closed the conversation with, “I don’t see how this will help, it will still take more than 5 days to get to you and you said you only had two days to finish the story”. She was right, and at that moment I decided I had no further obligation to work for a better outcome. I did eventually get a replacement part, ten days after the problem was reported to Mossberg, and I did return the defective part in the event they are actually interested in what they are shipping to their customers. I am not suggesting the Mossberg gun is something to avoid, it is an excellent value, I am just suggesting that their customer service department can take the fun out of owning one of their products. If other Mossberg owners find this service issue to be not typical of the product or Mossberg service, please let me know. I like the gun overall and I’d like to think my experience is an exception.
Forward Project Plan
I’ve rounded up a good variety of 12 gauge ammo; 2 ¾”, 3″ and 3½”. I picked up birdshot, buckshot and slug ammo. Some steel shot, mostly lead shot and some Hevi-Shot, from most major manufacturers. I want to record velocity with different barrels, check out chokes and patterns and penetration at useful distances. I want to see if products like the Federal FLIGHTCONTROL shotshell, really do minimize the effect of chokes and holds to a tighter pattern and how well slugs fly and expand and if sabots are useful and if the bullets they surround are made to operate and expand properly at low shotgun velocity.
Mossberg has a stock drop spacer system that alters the angle from centerline of bore to shooters shoulder. I’d like to see if that makes a significant difference in recoil management or sight alignment or time require to acquire or track a target. I will go on the assumption a natural point is of great importance to a shotgunner and this is why there are so many tweaks made to shotgun stock geometry.
The gun’s receiver is tapped for Weaver type bases. I will affix a scope when shooting slugs to reduce pilot error when checking group size. I may also fit a Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad as the one that is supplied with the shotgun bares an eerie resemblance to the factory Marlin Guide gun pad that beat me stupid until I finally gave up and made a change to accommodate heavy, heavy loads.
I’d like to cast some slugs, maybe come up with a customized mould, maybe one that will work with a sabot and one without. I am really interested in this development for a carry over to the 20 gauge. It really does seem the lightweight pump would make a great pig gun. It would be nice to hot rod a version of the Mossberg gun and take it out pig hunting. For those who like cast, slow moving loads in bog bores for this application, a slug gun with good sights could make an optimal gun.
My wife and I are going to take a run at skeet shooting, or trap shooting, or whatever it is that toss those Frisbees in the air for people to shoot at. Just what I need, one more activity where my wife will out perform me. Thank God I can cook.
Finally, I am going to handload shotgun ammo and see what there is to gain in performance and cost savings and what the unique aspects are of loading these gems. If you can think of an area I am overlooking, drop me a line and let me know, I am still in my formative years.
Real Guns Message Boards
I’m never quite sure where to go with message boards, they tend to be problematic. They are more the property of the participants than the service as the exchange between people asking question and people answering questions are the people who frequent a site, not those who operated the site. There are some exceptions, but generally this is the dynamic. Real Guns, based on email communication, has a lot of experienced people and we draw people who are trying to figure out some segment of firearms activity. In short, we have the membership base to support message board and it would be great if those with experience can assist those who do not, in an honest and positive manner. They use to call that “Taking someone under your wing”.
So where are we? I decided we need to honor the request for message boards and give it a try. For the benefit of these sites members, we created a small contest as an incentive for people to participate and help stimulate discussion; details can be found in the Service Announcements forum. Other than that, we will monitor progress to see the direction the board is taking, promote it if the response is positive, kill it if it lacks participation or is being use primarily to redirect traffic to other sites, used as a source of free advertising.
Everything I know About Shotguns… Part 1
Everything I know About Shotguns… Part 2
Everything I know About Shotguns… Part 3
Everything I know About Shotguns… Part 4
Thanks,
Joe
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