Alter Mossberg Bolt For Kid

[ACP230]

I am thinking of picking up a cheap 20 gauge Mossberg bolt shotgun and cutting it down (from both ends) to fit my 11 year-old son.
He takes Hunter Safety class this weekend and wants to hunt small game next year.
There's a single 20 he could use but it is too long now, and probably will be next fall. (I can't cut that one down.)
I would make the stock fit the kid and cut the barrel to 20 or 21 (I know you can't go below 18) if it needs it to balance. May have the choke reinstalled or may not. We hunt grouse and a cylinder bore is sometimes just the ticket for them.

Dave, can you think of any reason not to do this?

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

consider buying a H&R topper from the pawn shop for 80 bucks and chopping the stock and installing a recoil pad yourself.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Yes you can and it'd probably do OK, but.....

While I'm fond of the Mossy bolt actions( TUSIHC was one), I'm inclined to think a better choice would be a H&R or NEF single in 28 gauge. Save the BA for his first slug gun when he's a year or three older. Weight would be more what a child can tote easily.

Why 28 gauge? Because it's much more effective than a 410, and still a light kicker even in notoriously hard kicking singles.

A 20 gauge in Cylinder bore can do some major small game harvesting. Keep shots within 20 yards, and have fun.

Maybe a 20 with the Little Skeeter adapters for familiarization with 28 gauge and 410 loads would be a good approach.

Too bad you're not closer, Son's not using his NEF and it's already down to a 12" LOP.

 

[ACP230]

The Mossberg I'm looking at is cheaper than the NEF guns.

I think a little weight might help with recoil management, and the Mossberg doesn't have a hammer to cock. I had a hammer slip and a single 12 (Grandad's ACME) come back on my middle finger. I haven't felt too friendly toward hammer single barrels since then.

I talked to my wife about this last night and it looks like the Mossberg is the way we are going to go.

I've looked at the gauge reducers before, this might be a good excuse to buy a couple.

 

[Dave McCracken]

I'm not sure the gauge reducers will work in anything but a break action, though.

Second choice would be to get some reloading friend to run off a few boxes of 1K FPS, 3/4 oz creampuff loads for familiarization. Once he's swinging on feathers, the kick from a hunting load will go un-noted.

Cut the barrel as long as possible. More length means less blast, interpreted by the brain as kick. And, this may be a good slug gun down the road a ways.

Let us know how it works out please. Thanks...

 

[ACP230]

I was going to make the deal while the kid was at Hunter Safety Class yesterday. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed that the Net gunstore only had weekday hours. Now I'll have to work around him tomorrow. As Robert Burns said:

"The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley."

 

[Dave McCracken]

Burns must have waterfowled with Professor Murphy....

Let us know how it goes, thanks..

 

[ACP230]

The kid came home from Hunter Safety Sunday afternoon. He got a perfect score on the written test and on the practical (gun handling) test. He also got four out of five of the .22 rifle targets twice and two out of the five clay targets they threw for him. He's been a good rifle shot, and seems to have potential with the shotgun too. Neither of my other two kids got any of the five clays.

So, I'm a proud Dad....but he came home all enthused about the 20 gauge Youth Model 870 he used. We looked at one at a local sporting goods store a month or two ago too and the price wasn't too bad.

The Mossberg idea may be off the table.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Congrats and Mazeltov to the both of you. Re 870 YEs, it's a good setup but use light loads for starting. 1 oz loads in ours are unpleasant.

 

[ACP230]

My son is now talking about saving his money for a Youth Model 870. He figures he can scrape up the dough by December.
He sounds like the old man around the same age!

 

[Dave McCracken]

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree,heh,heh....

 

[ACP230]

My 11 year-old wanted to look at my Italian over and under today.
I showed him how to work the action so he could check it, and then he put it up to his shoulder. It almost fit him.

Later we tried the "family" Ithaca 66 Super Single 20 gauge and that fit him even better than the over and under. Sometime when I wasn't looking he must have had another growth spurt.

So the question of what he should use to start hunting next year seems to be settled. My younger brother started hunting with the Ithaca 20 gauge years ago. So did my youngest brother quite a few years later.
I think its great that Ethan will be able to use the same gun.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Huzzah! Another family gun goes another generation. And that Ithaca is a good shotgun to boot.An old friend has harvested truckloads of deer with his.

 

[PawDaddy]

My first repeating shotgun was a Mossberg bolt-action 20 guage. I was probably that age or a little younger. I had no problem handling this gun.

I still have this gun and am thinking about setting it up with a scope to shoot slugs out of it.