Mossberg 930 SPX review, 100 shell first outing range report

[LoneStarWings]

I picked up a 930 SPX yesterday at Dicks's. It was $590 + tax. First I took it home, stripped it, wiped the shipping oil off, applied some CLP to everything, then wiped it off. I then put some very light grease on the appropriate lube points.

Next I took it to a local range with a "shotgun pit". The ghost ring sights are very nice and intuitive. The recoil seemed about half of what I got from a comparable sized pump gun, which was very very nice, especially on slugs. I can't emphasize enough how low the recoil is by comprison to an 870. I also loved how easy it was to load shells into the magazine. They seemed to slide in much easier than the remingtons and berettas I've handled.

I fired:

20 Remington Slugger 1oz rifled slugs
25 Remington Express #1 16 pellet buckshot
5 Remington Express 00 9 pellet buckshot
50 Remington #7 1/2 game load birdshot

I always made sure the magazine was full before a string of shots, and also "ghost loaded" a round onto the lifter each time for a total of 9 shots per string. I never had a ghost-load related malfunction. There were no stove pipes or cyling-related malfunctions either, which I thought was great for a brand new gun. Even the light birdshot loads cycled well.

I had 2 malfunctions. The first occured on the 46th shot, during some 00 buckshot, about 4 rounds into the magazine. The magazine spring bound up and the shells were not getting forced onto the lifter, but rather sliding around inside the magazine. I simply unscrewed the mag extension a little bit, heard the spring pop back into place, tighted the mag extenstion backed up, and was back into action. Perhaps I need some dry lube on this spring. Either way, this was the hardest hitting load of the day and perhaps the recoil had some effect.

The 2nd occured on about the 70th round while shooting the light birdshot. I pulled the trigger and heard a "CLICK". This was on the 2nd round from the magazine. I ejected the round from the chamber and noticed an indention on the primer. Curious, I re-loaded the shell, and on the second try it fired. I don't know if I should chalk this one up to a light primer strike or a bad primer on the shell.

Pictures:



Range Work

I started out at the range patterning my home defense load, Remington #1 buckshot at 10 yards.


I could tell it was shooting a little high and right, so i switched to slugs and backed off to 15 yards.



Adjusted the sights and got this:



Bottomed out the rear sight and came a little more left and got this:



Shot a few more buckshot patterns at 7 yards:



Overall I'm very happy with this shotgun and feel like it is reliable enough to be a home defense gun. The recoil reduction of the semi-auto is huge and the ghost ring sights are very nice.

 

[orphanedcowboy]

feel like it is reliable enough to be a home defense gun

I guess if it isn't, it won't much matter then will it?





I am jacking with you, just thought that was funny.

I bought a 930 Combo for the Nephew and I was really surprised out how well it functioned out of the box. I replaced the mag spring with a Wollf, and carried it to the Sporting Clays course and promptly shot 2 rounds without a single hitch. I think for the $450 it is a great shotgun.

Thanks for the review!

 

[kimberfan]

i have had the spring bind on me 2 or 3 times all of them were fixed with a sharp smack to the forend

i had a few failures to eject with low base birdshot was pretty easy to clear and has never happend with high base stuff.

 

[Rshooter]

Very nice review, thanks.

 

[oneounceload]

good for you - question -

How are you going to keep it inside your home? Chamber loaded, bolt open; chamber loaded, bolt closed, safety on? or???????

 

[overcast_days]

Thank you, I've been looking at this shotgun.

 

[juk]

Beefy looking shotgun!

 

[1557]

The follower in the 930SPX,in case you havn't looked at it,is a very short and "cupped" metal follower. I've had mine to do the same thing when loading the full 7 rounds into the mag. With only 6 in the mag the problem doesn't occur. I believe the short follower when fully loaded gets "sideways" in the tube under the spring tension.
There is a longer follwer available that stops this.Read the 930SPX review by M24shooter on M4Carbine.net. It will limit the capacity to 6 in the mag but if it's only going to be reliable with 6 anyway,it's not a problem.
It's the only complaint I've had about my 930SPX but others have had well known issues with this gun,including the canted front sight.
I still consider mine a keeper since this problem has been resolved with the follower.Has been totally reliable otherwise with everything I've tried in it,even the low recoil loads.
The follower is made by S&J Hardware.

 

[LoneStarWings]

good for you - question -

How are you going to keep it inside your home? Chamber loaded, bolt open; chamber loaded, bolt closed, safety on? or???????

For now I plan on keeping it with a full magazine and chamber loaded with bolt closed, safety on. There is only one other adult in the house and she knows about guns. I keep my pistol in that same condition and haven't had any problems. That will give me 8 shots of #1 buck. I am debating rather or not to keep one more round ghost loaded on the follower, as it seems to work reliably like that, but I guess there's no need to push things.

The follower in the 930SPX,in case you havn't looked at it,is a very short and "cupped" metal follower. I've had mine to do the same thing when loading the full 7 rounds into the mag. With only 6 in the mag the problem doesn't occur. I believe the short follower when fully loaded gets "sideways" in the tube under the spring tension.
There is a longer follwer available that stops this.Read the 930SPX review by M24shooter on M4Carbine.net. It will limit the capacity to 6 in the mag but if it's only going to be reliable with 6 anyway,it's not a problem.
It's the only complaint I've had about my 930SPX but others have had well known issues with this gun,including the canted front sight.
I still consider mine a keeper since this problem has been resolved with the follower.Has been totally reliable otherwise with everything I've tried in it,even the low recoil loads.
The follower is made by S&J Hardware.

Thanks for that info. I wonder if some combination of different springs and followers would allow you to keep 7 in the tube reliably.

I still need to shoot this gun at 50 yards with slugs to make sure the front sight is OK. As you can see I was still shooting a little high at 15 yards even with the rear sight bottomed out. I *might* have to send this barrel back to mossberg depending on how the longer range slug shooting goes. At least the sight isn't canted though, it seems to be on taget laterally.

 

[kimberfan]

i keep mine ghost loaded with 3'' 00buck (remington 15pellet) so i have 8 3'' mag rounds total.

 

[1557]

Good that your sight isn't canted. I'm fortunate that mine is ok too.
I believe some people have used a Mossberg 590 spring in theirs to correct some of the issues.There are also better extensions available.I have used Choate extensions in the past and they were closed ended,didn't have the moveable front piece that the 930 extensions have. I was a little disappointed in this one as I bumped it once and got it out of alignment and had to remove it to straighten it out.
The review I mentioned has a lot of great information on this gun and the aftermarket products available for it. With just a little tweaking from Mossberg the SPX could run with any auto shottie out there,IMO.

As I said,I like it and will continue to test out things that may improve it overall as a fighting gun. Best of luck with yours,sir.

 

[buckeye8]

I bought a 500SPX (pistol-gripped pump-action version of the 930SPX) on impulse a few months back, fully expecting to regret it. I'm not typically the sort to drop $500 on a gun I haven't researched, but I made the mistake of handling this one in the gunshop and falling for it. I am happy to report that I have yet to regret the purchase. The sights are great, and the gun is an absolute blast to shoot. Very light/easy to handle. No malfunctions/issues of any kind so far. I have an 870 as my primary HD, but wouldn't hesitate to pick up the SPX either.

 

[Dimis]

ive been thinking about the 930SPX too

one question what exactly is ghost loading?

im familiar with topping off and select a round and even top loading but i cant find info without muddling through "ghost ring shotgun sights" on every search i do on here or google/dogpile

 

[kimberfan]

ive been thinking about the 930SPX too

one question what exactly is ghost loading?

im familiar with topping off and select a round and even top loading but i cant find info without muddling through "ghost ring shotgun sights" on every search i do on here or google/dogpile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpyNoCnO4B4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNwtzuXkShY

 

[LoneStarWings]

Just thought I'd give an update: I figured out that it takes a 1.5mm Allen Wrench to adjust the height of the front sight. Once I did that, I could get 8" groups at 50 yards with slugs pretty easily, on target. So it's nice to have that figured out.

 

[longgar]

I just picked an SPX 930 up from Dick's in Arlington, TX for $619+tax. I bought a couple "value packs" 100ea for $28. They were 2 3/4",1 1/8oz shot. I took it out and it wouldn't cycle the rounds after about 16 shots.. (Gas port dirty already????) I ended up just shooting buck shot (flawlessly) but that is a little tooooo expensive for a day of fun.

Does anybody have this same problem? What "cheaper"/ bird shot ammo can I use? I just bought a clay pigeon launcher so I really need to find a decent load that isn't too expensive..

I have taken it apart now and cleaned it well. I will try the ammo again but would like to hear from you all on what ammo to run through it? Or, does the gun just need to be cleaned after just a few rounds in order to cycle the lighter loads?

Thanks,

Gary

 

[mjsmith1223]

The cleaning should solve your cycling issues. The 930 (similar to most new guns) comes coated in some sort of shipping grease. It needs to be cleaned before shooting, or the gun will most likely malfunction.

 

[longgar]

Thanks for the reply. I will try the same ammo and report back..

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Al LaVodka]

Just thought I'd give an update: I figured out that it takes a 1.5mm Allen Wrench to adjust the height of the front sight. Once I did that, I could get 8" groups at 50 yards with slugs pretty easily, on target. So it's nice to have that figured out.

Yeah, adjusting sights can be a really difficult process -- up or down (others left and right too), ahhh! And you discovered the right specialized tool for the job. Thankfully you figured it all out to get those nice groups.

Is someone else familiar with the sight adjustments and accuracy?

Al

 

[longgar]

Ok, I cleaned the gun very well, got two other types of 2 3/4 bird shot (more expensive and higher velocity) but the gun still falled to eject and failed to load. (Every 3-5 shots)

The worst thing though is that it broke after about 40 shots.... It just quit. I would chamber a round and try to pull the trigger... and nothing.. no click, nothing.

I sent it back to Mossberg yesterday with a "nasty gram".

First and second impression is VERY BAD!!

If it doesn't come back and work flawlessly, I am going to be pissed off! I will probably sell it regardless.

 

[AcceptableUserName]

your loss. The gun is easily better than anything in its price range. The company itself is the best firearms company I've ever dealt with. I think you're making the mistake of being too hasty with your judgement. Let them fix it, and then shoot it and see.

 

[longgar]

Problem

count to 10

 

[longgar]

Problem

1234

 

[longgar]

Your absolutely right! MY LOSS...So far. I hope Mossberg can remedy that loss.

I agree that I'm being a little hasty, but it just chaps my hide that it just broke like that. To make it worse, it never worked properly in the first place.

Another concern of mine is that I had to pay for the shipping and they've not contacted me yet to let me know they have it and are looking at it etc...

I am only saying this b/c this is what I would do if I was to run the repair dept. To me, it just makes for great customer service. I treat others the way I would like to be treated.

I have high hopes for the 930SPX.. I sold my custom converted Saiga 12 for this and now I'm starting to have second thoughts..

My buddy is still going to buy one at the Dick's in Garland tomorrow. I told him to hold off until we see what Mossberg will do here.. He said he is going regardless. I said I'm sure its just a fluke b/c I haven't seen too many negative things regarding this product and after all, it did win the "Gun of the Year" award.



To be continue...

 

[Al LaVodka]

Long...;
I feel for ya man. High hopes and justified expectations given its reputation, albeit brief. Its one of those things where you are just not sure if you could ever trust it even if they do repair it. I think you'll know soon enough and share with us all.
Good luck!
Al