On one hand, the Mossberg is an unknown: I found one review of the mossberg (rimfire central). It came across as poor next to the cz scout. It appears to be quite cheaply made and was hard to use (rough bolt, mag seating issues). The half pint was introduced in 2008 and it hasn't exactly been a hit for Mossberg. I was surprised to hear they made a kids rifle.
On the other hand, the rascal gets rave reviews, coming after the successful Savage Cub.
IMO, the peep sight is better than the open sights of the HP, the accutrigger which works very well. It cocks on opening, so it's easy to work the action. Mine is more accurate than the red dot sight I have on it.
The only advantage of the HP is for mounting optics and reloading with the magazine, as loading a single shot under a scope is a pain.
To get around this, I mounted a Bushnell TRS-25 on the front scope base, but it was still in the way when loading. Now the TRS-25 is mounted on a 35mm long quad rail barrel mount (ebay) just in front of the stock. This works even better. As it is now, it would be good for gophers up to 50 yards with the red dot. That's mainly due to the size of the dot w.r.t. the target. The next step is a extended eye relief scope and 2 of the quad rail barrel mounts. With the red dot, I was getting 2" 5 shot groups at 65 yards using winchester 555. At 20 yards it was more of a ragged hole.
Bottom line, get the rascal.
