Mossberg Silver Reserve

[NHOLDMAN]

My son owns a 12ga. Mossberg Silver Reserve. His firing pin broke last weekend.I owned a 28ga. and a 20ga. S/R. The 28ga. had no problems, except always rusting and full of burrs.It shot well. The 20ga could not hit the side of a barn door. Same rust problem and poor quality. Also, several times when I closed the receiver of the 20ga.the top barrel would fire. Very unsafe. They look nice but are poorly made. Being a machinist, I should have known better. I can pick out many machining flaws. Cheap metal, bad heat treating process, to many burrs and poor bluing process.The only place you can get repairs is Maverick Arms in Texas. You cannot order your own replacement parts. I got rid of both S/R. So,I recently bought a shotgun made here in New Hampshire. Ruger 20ga. Red Label Engraved. Four times the cost of a S/R but well worth the investment. Good Quality, spare parts, and most of the owners say Ruger has a factory turnaround in two weeks time. Ruger will replace parts and repairs at no cost. You only pay shipping.
Mosseberg, Maverick arms 3 months waiting for repairs.
With the Ruger I have shot about 1000 rounds.
Now I can bust 22 out of 25 clays.
My opion, stay away from Mossberg Silver Reserve. Reason; quality and safety. They should be removed from the market in this country, until they can get their act together.
Do not buy one for your children!!!!

1.

 

[Der Verge]

Ruger customer service has a turn around time of 6-8 weeks. I know this because I have had to repeatedly return my old model SBH back to them because they just cannot seem to install that transfer bar safety system correctly. Correctly enough for the gun to fire, anyway.........

The Red Label is a very nice shotgun, and you should never have a problem with it. I hope you don't, because Ruger's repair department sucks.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Thank you for the warning! I have read and heard other bad stuff about the Mossberg SR - sounds not good, espec. the firing on closing part. Sad too because Mossberg makes good shotguns themselves, so it's tarnishing their name bigtime. If you want to go cheap cheap on O/U or SxS, I hear Yildiz or Stoeger is the way to go, as far as new manuf.

 

[Der Verge]

I had a Stoeger Uplander SXS. After one box of ammo, the left barrel would no longer fire. Weak strikes on the primer. I could have done a whole list of crap in order to fix it.....but a new gun should just work. I did my self a favor, and traded it for an 870. No more problems.

The fact of the matter is, there are NO go CHEAP double shotguns. NONE. Not one. If I have to fix a new gun, it is not good, and I am not interested. The cheapest double shotgun that is worth owning, IMO, is the CZ line. I have a few friends that own various models, and have not had any problems. Not yet anyway. All the double guns under about $700 (new)that I have owned, have been junk. If you want a cheap double gun, buy and old, used Savage/Stevens. Otherwise, to the smart thing like NHOLDMAN did, and buy a quality weapon.

 

[86thecat]

Quote-
"The cheapest double shotgun that is worth owning, IMO, is the CZ line."

I agree, CZ replaced a problem Redhead O/U with a new gun to my satisfaction. Very good customer service. For about the same price the Lanber are tough to beat though.

 

[Trentonator]

I won the Mossberg Silver Reserve 12 ga. O/U at a Pheasants Forever banquet in February. It seemed like a reasonably priced and fairly nice gun. The only shooting I had done with it until recently was light target loads at the trap range, and it performed perfectly (although I did not like the trigger feel). Sadly, I took it out for some pheasants this past weekend, and it was a complete disaster. The first rooster that I fired at---BOOM! it felt like I had fired a 3 1/2" high brass shell full of BB's. The recoil was extremely harsh, and I missed completely. I hit the trigger again for a follow up shot, but nothing. The gun had fired both barrels at once! I thought that maybe I had accidentally just pulled the trigger twice, but it happened 2 more times after that. I switched to my good O/U after that, and in doing some research on the internet, found that the double firing is a common problem with this gun, especially with high brass loads. I traded it in today on a used Beretta auto, and they gave me $ 250 credit, so it wasn't a total bust. Anyone else with this gun have this problem? If you have one and have not shot it much, you better pack a backup gun.

 

[earlthegoat2]

The Stevens 311s out there on the used market are still great shotguns at great prices.

 

[Capstick1]

The Browning over unders cost a little more but you really get what you pay for. If you are an avid trap, skeet, or sporting clays shooter these guns can go for thousands of rounds before any parts need replaced. The Beretta 686's are also well made and reliable. If you're planning on shooting 1200 rds or more a month in shotgun clay games it is well worth spending the extra money on a basic $2000.00 Beretta or Browning over/under. If you try to use one of those $600.00 Mossberg SR's you might save some money but it will become an expensive paperweight after 3 or 4 months.