Mossberg 930 Shotgun

19 Nov 07

Mossberg M930, Autoloading Shotgun:

During an Urban Rifle/Shotgun Course in OH last weekend, a student brought a brand-new copy of Mossberg's M930 Shotgun. It is the first one I've had a chance to actually use and observe on a range.

Bottom line: The 930 is unusable for our purposes.

Problems became apparent immediately as the student attempted to manipulate the gun. Once loaded, the entire magazine tube must be completely voided and then subsequently recharged all over again, in order to return the shotgun to Transport Mode (magazine tube charged, hammer down on an empty chamber, manual safety "off," Transport Mode is often referred to as "Cruiser-Ready" ). In addition, when attempting the load the gun, it continually double-stacked, causing two rounds to be released from the magazine tube into the receiver, simultaneously.

After ten, frustrating minutes of attempting to come up with a viable handling procedure, we gave up and issued the student a Remington 870, which, of course, ran fine for the duration.

Some years ago, Mossberg produced another autoloading shotgun, dubbed the " Jungle Gun." Now long-since out of production, we had nothing but trouble with it too.

Mossberg is surely capable of producing functional shotguns, but this new 930 is utterly unsuitable for our purposes. Again, when making ostensible " police" shotguns, they need to talk with someone other than trap shooters!

/John

Lightning Flash!

19 Nov 07

Comments on adverse conditions, from one of our instructors:

"During the Rifle Test last weekend, I was shivering because of the cold. I got chilled and just could not get warm. My discomfort made a big difference in my performance. It was difficult for me to concentrate on the task at hand. It was a combination of fatigue, cold, and exhaustion, both mental and physical, that made it nearly impossible to concentrate sufficiently to hold my sights on target.

Here is what I learned: I need to do more training in the cold, wind, rain, mud, etc! I need to train when I am anything but comfortable, in fact, when I am miserable to distraction, and exhausted mentally. Training at that ragged end of the spectrum will develop mental toughness, the kind of icy determination I will need when the challenge comes to me at an inconvenienttime and in an unhappy place!"

Comment: An important lesson here! We do entirely too much "training" in the abstract, where we can concentrate completely upon what we're doing, because there is not a host of distractions clamoring for our attention and dividing our focus. The ability to concentrate on demand, to exert complete control over our own minds and thoughts, despite being submerged in brawling chaos, is a critical fighting skill, yet one that is scarcely known, much less regularly exercised, by most practitioners of our Art!

"The occasional lightning flash that troubles the atheist is more important than the comfortable, smug faith of the 'believer.'"

/John