20 guage bolt action.

[hcker2000]

I ran into an interesting shot gun today.

I believe it was a mosberg & sons 20 gauge bolt action shot gun. It has barrel rifling.

I wondered if any one has used on or knows any thing about the reliability of it. I'm guessing its reliable as most bolt actions are.

Can you shoot bird and/or buck shot out of a shot gun with rifling?

They are asking $125 for it and it looks like internals are all good but the steal could use some clean up. If it turns out it would make a good shotgun then I can try and get them to go to $90 or $100.

EDIT:
This is about as close as I can find to it. It is identical but in 20 gauge and the barrel have almost no blue on it (silver in color now)
http://www.auctionarms.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=7873236

 

[Maxamillion]

I have a 20 ga. bolt action Mossburg my father bought in the late 60's.

I had the barrel cut down to 18 inches for home defense. Maybe put 100 rounds though it over the years and don't think that many.

I am a boy scout master and I took it along as 1 of 3 shotguns when I took the scouts out to shoot clay targets at a friend's farm. I lasted about 100 round when the receiver ring that hold the barrel/receiver to the stock broke in half redendering the gun unsafe.

I honestly thought that this bolt action shotgun would last my grandson's life time. The ring that broke was fairly strong and I never thought it would give out (like .25" thick and wall of .25") but it did. Only replacement part I could fine was for a 12 ga., not a 20.

So my recommendation is buy a remington pump 870 or a mossburg pump from Big-5. I have both. The 870 since 1976 and thousands of round through that one (5,000 plus) whithout a problem. Mossburg is now my home defense and about only 500 rounds but it's reputation is high.

So bottom line, no.

But the nice thing is now I need another 20 ga. shotgun--maybe an over/under this time.

 

[CajunBass]

Back when I was a kid, (a long time ago) most everyone had at least one bolt action shotgun. They were good "pot hunting guns." They were cheap, and worked, which was all most people asked of a gun. People hunted everything from deer to squirrels, to doves with them. Even used them to pot the slow groundhog in the garden. They could usually be found behind the kitchen door, or on the gun rack in the pickup. Most of them had a detachable magazine (that everyone called a "clip") that was kept loaded, with the chamber on the gun left empty.

Since you said the one you're looking at has a rifled barrel, it must be recent manufacture. Everyone I ever saw was a smoothbore. I'm not sure about buck or birdshot through them. I don't think it would hurt anything, but probably wouldn't pattern well.

Good, solid, no frills, inexpensive guns back then, but I haven't seen one in years.

 

[Aaryq]

I own a bolt action mossberg 20 ga. It was the first gun that I bought (used of course) and I've shot the heck out of it. The only problem I have is when the last shell is fired from the magazine, it doesn't eject properly and sits there (it could be the weight of a full shell since I haven't fired it in forever.

If I was a rightey, I'd say go ahead and get one. As a lefty, I have to sell mine, especially if I want a shotgun for bird season (have you tried rapid fire with a bolt when you're a lefty?).

 

[hcker2000]

I will have to give it a better look over next time I go over. Only shotgun I've seen for under $100 for a new one was as single shot breach loader. Which would not be to bad but some thing with more than one shot would be great.

 

[rem1187a]

You can shoot "shot" loads through rifled barrels. Personally I would not due to the fact that it goes everywhere but where you want it to. basically rifled shotgun barrels are for slugs only.

 

[redneck2]

They just started making these a few years ago for deer hunting with sabots. Typically quite accurate. IIRC, they sell for +/- $300. Look them up on the Mossberg website.

Not much good for shot. If you're not a deer hunter, let me know where it is and I'll buy it for myself. Great for deer. Won't last long at that price. My friend just bought one. With 1,900 fps sabots it make a formidable round.

HTH

 

[rem1187a]

Thats not the one he has redneck. At least I would hope not as he mentioned the blueing was gone. Mossberg made alot of bolts from 1932 to 1986. over 50 different models.

 

[CajunBass]

I think it's probably releativly new. He mentioned that it has a rifled barrel, and I think that's a fairly new development in shotguns.

 

[rem1187a]

The model redneck is reffering to would be the 695. This would not be it as it is 12 ga. only with synthetic stock not wood. As per hcker2000 saying gun in attachment is identical except in 20 ga one is lead to believe it is either a 185 (1947-59) or a 385 (1960-86). As for rifled shotgun barrels being fairly new all I can attest to is one being in deer camp my first season 19 years ago. The earliest year I have found to have fully rifled barrel from the factory is 1983 (winchester). There could be earlier models but I figure 24 years back was far enough. It would be nice to know what it is,so even if you dont buy it at least grab the model number.

 

[hcker2000]

Yea I will find out more about it for sure. It may not be fully riffled. I didn't take out the bolt to look threw the barrel but there was riffling at the crown at least.

It is by no means new. It has no bluing and some spot rust here and there.

 

[CajunBass]

As for rifled shotgun barrels being fairly new all I can attest to is one being in deer camp my first season 19 years ago. The earliest year I have found to have fully rifled barrel from the factory is 1983 (winchester). There could be earlier models but I figure 24 years back was far enough.

Well, you see. That's "fairly new" to me.

 

[rem1187a]

hcker 2000 please do let us know. Cajun ya know I was thinking that but I couldn't figure out a way to say that as not to offend.

 

[CajunBass]

No problem Rem. You won't offend me with that. I'm proud of beeing old.

When I said "fairly new" I was thinking in terms of the heyday of bolt action shotguns which I guess was more in the 50's and 60's. It seems to me they pretty well faded out, but started to make a comeback when the rifled barrels started to come out. I know I hadn't seen a bolt action shotgun in years until I saw either a Mossburg, or Marlin with a rifled barrel. I had never heard of such an animal until then. Where I hunted no one used slugs for deer hunting, it was all buckshot.

 

[hcker2000]

It is a very tempting buy if I can get them down to 100 or under.

Are there any decent smooth bores out there that will take a choke for 100 or less? Preferable more than single shot?

 

[CajunBass]

What do you mean that will take a choke? Most smoothbore barrels are choked or threaded for screw-in chokes, unless they're smoothbore slug barrels, or S/D barrels.

A lot of those old bolt guns I was talking about "back in the day" had adjustable chokes. I always wondered how well those worked.

You can sometimes find Mossburg/Maverick pump guns for a little more than $100.00 I've heard, but they're probably closer to $150-170 or so. You might find a used pump gun for that, especially if you're not picky about the brand. I've seen "Sears" branded guns for around $100.00 at gun shows. They were mostly made by Winchester or Mossburg.