Mossberg 3000 Police

Last week, I was at a local pawn/gun shop and spotted amongst the rack of Turkish and Chinese shotguns a well-worn example that bore a striking resemblance to an 870. I picked it up and noticed "Mossberg 3000" and "Howa" on the receiver.

I vaguely knew of the S&W Model 3000 from years ago and knew they were made by Howa, but had never heard of a Mossberg version. The hang tag showed $189, so I quickly began to do some quick Googling to find some info. Turns out that after S&W dropped the importation @ 1986, Mossberg picked it up for a year or two...and apparently these had a pretty good reputation. They're also apparently a close copy of the 870, but dimensionally different just enough that parts don't interchange (except maybe stocks). But luckily, I've also read that they're built like tanks and I probably won't ever need parts.

So...not needing another shotgun, I immediately snatched it up of course.

The receiver has some wear to the parkerizing on the top...having driven an L.E. car of some fashion for the last 28 years, I recognized those marks as being from a cruiser mount. It also has some wear in the normal spots...but inside the receiver and the action bars show that this thing was probably carried alot and shot little.










I wanted to add a magazine extension, and Choate seemed to be the only source...their website actually showed them in stock. I thought, "What are the odds they still have tubes for a low-popularity shotgun that hasn't been in production for @ 35 years?". I took a chance and ordered an extension. About 30 minutes later, I got an email with the subject "A note has been added to your order."...I fully expected that note to be "Sorry, we forgot to take those off the website. Those have been out of stock and out of production for years".

In an uncommon stroke of good fortune, the email was a tracking number.

The extension came in today...I got it mounted along with an old CQB Solutions sling/stock mount and GG&G front sling mount from a Benelli Nova from my parts bin. Now she's ready to roll.

I'd been looking for a "beater" 12g., and the last one I bought for that purpose turned out to be in too nice of shape...but this one looks like it'll be perfect for that role.

Took it out to check pattern/POI.

No issues...a few shells were weak ejecting, but most flew out with gusto (don't know if it was me soft stroking it or a weak ejector).

Shot Federal LE13200 9 pellet (when I deplete most of this stash, I'll switch over to 8 pellet), and brought along some Winchester Defender (obtained in a trade) and Nobel Sport (bought as cheap training fodder) for comparison.

Frulk said:

Always wanted a Speed Feed stock. Have you had problems with shells ejecting under heavy recoil or have you not loaded it to see?

Click to expand...

I worked with it today...even being as old as it is, the springs still have a lot of tension. I don't think there'd be an issue of recoil being able to knock rounds looose.

I've had SpeedFeed stocks before, but wound up changing them out. I prefer either a receiver or stock mounted Velcro shell card...the SF stock is a little fiddly to extract rounds from. I may leave the SF stock on this one just because it's an easy/low profile way to carry rounds, and add a 4-shell card to the receiver to feed the gun from.

I found another M3000 cheap on GB and picked it up from my FFL this afternoon. This one has a deep polished blue finish and other than slide wear on the magazine tube, it looks to be in near-unfired condition. I may set it up like the park'ed version (mag extension, fiber optic front sight), or may SBS this one.