American Finn
Member
Good evening THR, I thank you ahead of time for your suggestions and assistance.
Last year I purchased a Mossberg MVP in the spring; life got in the way and I wasn't able to get out to the range with it until mid-summer. The first time I went to fire it my pattern (yes, I say pattern) was almost 10" at 100 yards. I was using GGG (Lithuanian) surplus M80 Ball that I had heard good reviews online. This was perplexing; I had the rifle mounted in a bench rest, the scope was mounted by a gunsmith, and everything seemed right and tight. I chalked it up to a bad day of shooting and returned to the range about a month later; the same results with the GGG ammo. I had also purchased some Winchester M80 with the same results; I decided to bring the rifle to my local gunsmith for his opinion and to have the rifle returned to Mossberg for warranty work (the shells weren't ejecting). My gunsmith offered to test fire it as well before returning it.
He pretty much had the same results with my supplied ammo; he tried some Norma 150gr 308 Soft Points and the groups shrunk to just over 3" at 100 yards. After receiving the rifle back from Mossberg (they fixed the ejector??? Work order didn't say and I didn't call them; it works now) I took it out to the range again. I tried some Winchester Super X 150gr 308 and experienced 4" groups at 100 yards, then some Hornady American Whitetail 150gr PSP 308 and the groups shrunk to right around 3" and finally Federal Power Shok 150gr 308 brought it down to 2 3/4" (the picture of the 10 shot group is attached). Now, I have fired all of this ammo from a bench rest to take me out of the equation and the scope is a brand new Leupold, everything is right and tight with the mount, etc.
My question to all of you is if you have owned this rifle have you had better experiences with another brand of ammunition? Considering that 308 can still be a bit finicky for me to find locally and runs about $35 per box of 20 I would rather ask around then purchase more ammunition to chase better groups; I also need to stick with ammo that is available locally so anything exotic is out of the question. Should I expect better accuracy from this rifle or is this as good as it gets?
Last year I purchased a Mossberg MVP in the spring; life got in the way and I wasn't able to get out to the range with it until mid-summer. The first time I went to fire it my pattern (yes, I say pattern) was almost 10" at 100 yards. I was using GGG (Lithuanian) surplus M80 Ball that I had heard good reviews online. This was perplexing; I had the rifle mounted in a bench rest, the scope was mounted by a gunsmith, and everything seemed right and tight. I chalked it up to a bad day of shooting and returned to the range about a month later; the same results with the GGG ammo. I had also purchased some Winchester M80 with the same results; I decided to bring the rifle to my local gunsmith for his opinion and to have the rifle returned to Mossberg for warranty work (the shells weren't ejecting). My gunsmith offered to test fire it as well before returning it.
He pretty much had the same results with my supplied ammo; he tried some Norma 150gr 308 Soft Points and the groups shrunk to just over 3" at 100 yards. After receiving the rifle back from Mossberg (they fixed the ejector??? Work order didn't say and I didn't call them; it works now) I took it out to the range again. I tried some Winchester Super X 150gr 308 and experienced 4" groups at 100 yards, then some Hornady American Whitetail 150gr PSP 308 and the groups shrunk to right around 3" and finally Federal Power Shok 150gr 308 brought it down to 2 3/4" (the picture of the 10 shot group is attached). Now, I have fired all of this ammo from a bench rest to take me out of the equation and the scope is a brand new Leupold, everything is right and tight with the mount, etc.
My question to all of you is if you have owned this rifle have you had better experiences with another brand of ammunition? Considering that 308 can still be a bit finicky for me to find locally and runs about $35 per box of 20 I would rather ask around then purchase more ammunition to chase better groups; I also need to stick with ammo that is available locally so anything exotic is out of the question. Should I expect better accuracy from this rifle or is this as good as it gets?