Mossberg 930 SPX Tactical: First Impressions

Minuteman · Oct 23, 2017

Zzzzz_man said:
I live less than five minutes away from Heritage so it's very convenient. I also like that they allow shotguns. Unfortunately, I travel too frequently for my job to get the most out of an annual membership at HTC but, wouldn't hesitate if I were home more often. It's a very nice facility.

I'm just getting back into shotguns after very long and unhealthy obsessions with bolt-action rifles and handguns. I looked at several semi-automatics over a 2-3 month period before deciding to go with the 930 SPX, mainly due to budget considerations and friend who swears-by his 930 as the most reliable shotgun he's ever owned.

I can tell you this much: it's fun to shoot and recoil is noticeably milder than a friend's 500 pump.

I agree. Compared to a pump shotgun, the 930 recoils considerably less and that means faster, more accurate follow-up shots. I'm considering 2 3/4" 00 buckshot for HD unless someone convinces me that I should be running 3" loads instead. Target #2 was 4 shots of 9-pellet Winchester 00 Buckshot at 20 yards and it looks like most of it stayed on-target at that distance. I gotta believe it would be pretty effective for close(r) encounters.

According to Mossberg, the gas system is 'self adjusting' to the type of load being used. Early runs of 930's had some issues with cycling light field loads but you don't see a whole lot of gripes about it since around 2013. How long have you had yours?

Thanks. At least Mossberg owned up to it publicly.

Czechnologist · Oct 23, 2017

Minuteman said:
Thanks. At least Mossberg owned up to it publicly.

I read-up quite a bit on the 930 prior to purchase. I don't think Mossberg ever denied it and like many firearm manufacturers do after the release of a new product, they steadily tweaked and improved their design over the years to make it more dependable with a wider variety of loads. The FN SLP had similar issues. I'm not sure if FN ever addressed them, though.

Again, how long have you had yours?

jimbobborg · Oct 23, 2017

Zzzzz_man said:
I read-up quite a bit on the 930 prior to purchase. I don't think Mossberg ever denied it and like many firearm manufacturers do after the release of a new product, they steadily tweaked and improved their design over the years to make it more dependable with a wider variety of loads. The FN SLP had similar issues. I'm not sure if FN ever addressed them, though.

FN originally sent two buffers with their SLPs, a light buffer and a magnum buffer. I have no problem cycling most light loads with the light buffer. My SLP is my 3-gun shotgun, so I use only light loads, including low-recoil slugs. I prefer carbines for HD, as even with the fancy loading equipment, it takes too long to reload a tube fed shotgun.

Minuteman · Oct 23, 2017

Zzzzz_man said:
I read-up quite a bit on the 930 prior to purchase. I don't think Mossberg ever denied it and like many firearm manufacturers do after the release of a new product, they steadily tweaked and improved their design over the years to make it more dependable with a wider variety of loads. The FN SLP had similar issues. I'm not sure if FN ever addressed them, though.

Again, how long have you had yours?

Had to look it up, thanks for the reminder. 2009, same year they won shotgun of the year.

Now that I'm thinking about it, here are some mods I'd like:

10" stock with pistol grip
Oversized safety (Brownells has one that simply says 'advanced' looks right $20)
Nordic Component barrel clamp, maybe one that will hold a flashlight
Add flashlight with pressure switch
New rear sight replacement. Considering a red dot or not (opinions?)

jimbobborg said:
FN originally sent two buffers with their SLPs, a light buffer and a magnum buffer. I have no problem cycling most light loads with the light buffer. My SLP is my 3-gun shotgun, so I use only light loads, including low-recoil slugs. I prefer carbines for HD, as even with the fancy loading equipment, it takes too long to reload a tube fed shotgun.

I'm thinking maybe I just need a lighter buffer?
I like the ability to go from light birdshot, even mini-shells, to buck then slugs or alternate as needed.

Any specific recommendations on the buffer? Ok to shoot a few slugs with the light buffer? I guess I will start beating the gun up?

The gun will carry 9 with ghost load, I think that's enough for me for any home defense scenario I can think is realistic. If I need more than that, I'm hoping I'm close to a rifle.

Czechnologist · Oct 23, 2017

Minuteman said:
Had to look it up, thanks for the reminder. 2009, same year they won shotgun of the year.

Now that I'm thinking about it, here are some mods I'd like:

10" stock with pistol grip
Oversized safety (Brownells has one that simply says 'advanced' looks right $20)
Nordic Component barrel clamp, maybe one that will hold a flashlight
Add flashlight with pressure switch
New rear sight replacement. Considering a red dot or not (opinions?)

2009 is most likely the reason. I ordered the enhanced safety and barrel clamp this morning.

Czechnologist · Nov 3, 2017

Slug Testing

Enjoyed the heck out of testing slugs this afternoon at Frederick IWLA with Fidelity and Blaster229. It was, by no means a formal sight-in, though; mainly a functioning and basic POI orientation at 50 yards.

Hornady 2 3/4" 1oz slugs, five shots, 50 yards

While shooting slugs off a rest is not what I would call 'pleasurable' it did yield some pretty satisfying results. As other 930 owners have reported online, the Hornady load showed the best accuracy performance considering I hadn't touched the windage and elevation adjustments on the rear sights at all since purchasing it a few weeks ago..

Federal Tactical 2 3/4" 1oz. slugs, five shots, 50 Yards

I accept full responsibility for not shooting tighter groups but after 20 or so shots, my right shoulder was begging for mercy.

Switched over to some Winchester mil-spec 00 buckshot loads which felt tame by comparison. The 930 cycled everything we fed it perfectly.

Blaster229 · Nov 3, 2017

I should have stayed to shoot it. I just wanted to beat 70 traffic on a Friday.

Czechnologist · Nov 3, 2017

Blaster229 said:
I should have stayed to shoot it. I just wanted to beat 70 traffic on a Friday.

Thanks for coming out, man. The handgun session with you made it totally worthwhile and I got an invaluable shooting-tip in the process. Win-win. Your hype is well-deserved.

The 930 SPX is brutal off a bench rest but from standing position, recoil is quite manageable and not any more fierce than the Mossy 500 we shot this afternoon to compare. When we switched from slugs to buckshot, it really softened-up.

I'm becoming quite a fan of Mossberg shotguns. They shoot great and have a great feel to them.

fidelity · Nov 3, 2017

Zzzzz_man, thanks for suggesting this Friday many days back. Something to look to forward these past few weeks. The 930 is a hoot to shoot.

Blaster, I'll reiterate Zzzzz_man's comment about today's shooting tips. Really practical stuff that I can practice next time. Also enjoyed your Colt Cobra vs Kimber K6S evaluations. I didn't expect that outcome. Your new 4Runner looks sharp too. Get the seat back mounted shotgun scabbard, and you'll be good to go.

Glad you guys briefly met Ben Kelkye. He was setting up for the second evening of their hunter safety training (two evenings and then a field day tomorrow). Said 45 students and 15 parent watchers were showing up this evening. It's going to be packed.

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Czechnologist · Nov 3, 2017

fidelity said:
Zzzzz_man, thanks for suggesting this Friday many days back. Something to look to forward these past few weeks. The 930 is a hoot to shoot.

Blaster, I'll reiterate Zzzzz_man's comment about today's shooting tips. Really practical stuff that I can practice next time. Also enjoyed your Colt Cobra vs Kimber K6S evaluations. I didn't expect that outcome. Your new 4Runner looks sharp too. Get the seat back mounted shotgun scabbard, and you'll be good to go.

Glad you guys briefly met Ben Kelkye. He was setting up for the second evening of their hunter safety training (two evenings and then a field day tomorrow). Said 45 students and 15 parent watchers were showing up this evening. It's going to be packed.

Thanks! This time of year my work schedule runs from Sundays to Fridays so when I see a Friday off coming-up on my planner, I try to plan accordingly and pray it doesn't change at the last minute. Today was therapy. Between shooting the new Kimber revolver, Blaster's VP9, testing defense loads in the Walther PPQ 45 and in the shotguns, I was able to finally scratch that itch that had been building-up during the last month.

I can almost guarantee that Blaster picked-up a scabbard on the way home. His scabbard-envy was pretty noticeable by the end of our range session.

dohc97 · Nov 4, 2017

I am getting interested in this 930 SPX and the Beretta 1301 Tactical. I am a smaller person, 5'7" 170 lbs. Do you think this 930 will suit me just fine? I have never shot a shotgun before.

Czechnologist · Nov 4, 2017

dohc97 said:
I am getting interested in this 930 SPX and the Beretta 1301 Tactical. I am a smaller person, 5'7" 170 lbs. Do you think this 930 will suit me just fine? I have never shot a shotgun before.

CB posted this video upthread:

I would guesstimate that this lady is about 5' 6" to 5' 7" tall or so, probably somewhere between 110-125 lbs. She seems to handle the 930 SPX without any problems.

As long as you're not planning to shoot a bunch of slugs off a benchrest, I think you'll be OK? I shot about 20 yesterday and it was punishing but I'm not as sore today as I thought I'd be.

Start with light buckshot loads to practice and familiarize before trying the hotter defense loads. The 930 SPX is a hoot.

grayson71 · Nov 5, 2017

i have the 930 JM PRO and I love it. It's a great shooter.

Czechnologist · Nov 6, 2017

Blaster229 said:
I should have stayed to shoot it. I just wanted to beat 70 traffic on a Friday.

Can't blame ya for that, although, most I-70 traffic on a Friday afternoon is headed Westbound, not Eastbound. I just appreciated you making the trip out to Frederick on the spur of the moment to shoot with Fidelity and I. It was a hoot. It was great to get some worthwhile practice in between bouts of laughter about...the scabbard. :lol2:

Czechnologist · Nov 11, 2017

20 Yard, 00 Buckshot Pattern Testing

Headed over to Heritage with Fidelity last night to test a few different 2 3/4" 00 Buck loads at 20 Yards. Shot five rounds into each target and checked-out the results.

Federal 'Flight Control' grouped the tightest of the three loads tested.

No surprise that the Winchester/Olin Military 00 Buck loads were the 'warmest' of the three tested. While not as tight of a pattern at 20 yards as the Federal, the fact that they stay on paper this well has me considering it as primary HD load.

This was the lowest-recoiling load of the three tested.

I think any of those three loads would more than suffice for HD. The goal of last night's testing was to see if Federal 'Flight Control' Buckshot lives up to its billing in a 18.5" barrel shotgun. My conclusion is that it certainly performs as advertised. While it recoils slightly more than the Winchester Super-X, recoil is considerably less than the mil-spec loads.

Mtwoodson · Nov 11, 2017

Looks like it works well for you. FWIW, I've eventually settled on #3/000Buck as a HD load. It's a couple more pellets and a little less over penetration than the typical 00Buck

jimbobborg · Nov 11, 2017

Minuteman said:
I'm thinking maybe I just need a lighter buffer?
I like the ability to go from light birdshot, even mini-shells, to buck then slugs or alternate as needed.

Any specific recommendations on the buffer? Ok to shoot a few slugs with the light buffer? I guess I will start beating the gun up?

The gun will carry 9 with ghost load, I think that's enough for me for any home defense scenario I can think is realistic. If I need more than that, I'm hoping I'm close to a rifle.

Browning makes a Skeet buffer for this shotgun, I don't remember the part number. With that said, I use low recoil slugs and they're pretty accurate for a non-rifled barrel. I also used low recoil buck shot, which worked very well with my current setup. I posted a few pictures of the patterns I got with different buckshot loads a while back. I don't think someone who's on the receiving end could tell the difference between magnum and low recoil buckshot

fidelity · Nov 11, 2017

Zzzzz_man said:
...

No surprise that the Winchester/Olin Military 00 Buck loads were the 'warmest' of the three tested. While not as tight of a pattern at 20 yards as the Federal, the fact that they stay on paper this well has me considering it as primary HD load.
...

That military buck load was wicked. I might need to buy some tomorrow.

Folks, you should have seen Zzzzz_man go at. He's showing the targets before he really shot them to pieces ... literally. His 930 was a confetti maker ... boom ... boom ... boom ... and there was a mist of cardboard and paper fragments in the air around the target slowly wafting to the ground. When he brought the highly perforated targets in to the bench and removed them, the remaining skeleton of cardboard told the story.

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Czechnologist · Nov 12, 2017

fidelity said:
That military buck load was wicked. I might need to buy some tomorrow.

$4.99 for a box of five at Dick's. I picked-up six boxes last week and they seemed to have plenty of it.

fidelity said:
Folks, you should have seen Zzzzz_man go at. He's showing the targets before he really shot them to pieces ... literally. His 930 was a confetti maker ... boom ... boom ... boom ... and there was a mist of cardboard and paper fragments in the air around the target slowly wafting to the ground. When he brought the highly perforated targets in to the bench and removed them, the remaining skeleton of cardboard told the story.

LOL The Mossberg 930 is the first semi-automatic shotgun I've ever owned and it has not been a disappointment. Besides having a trigger-pull that's on-par with most of my pistols, I'm genuinely surprised by how well it patterns with 00 Buck at distances of 20 yards + with the military and Federal Flight Control shells. I wouldn't have thought that was possible for a shotgun with only an 18.5" barrel.

Alea Jacta Est · Nov 12, 2017

Zzzzz_man said:
$4.99 for a box of five at Dick's. I picked-up six boxes last week and they seemed to have plenty of it.

LOL The Mossberg 930 is the first semi-automatic shotgun I've ever owned and it has not been a disappointment. Besides having a trigger-pull that's on-par with most of my pistols, I'm genuinely surprised by how well it patterns with 00 Buck at distances of 20 yards + with the military and Federal Flight Control shells. I wouldn't have thought that was possible for a shotgun with only an 18.5" barrel.

Meh. Not for me.

Damn gun like that spoils the meat!

Mossberg 930 SPX Tactical: First Impressions

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