The BIG news from Mossberg without a doubt at SHOT SHOW was their new "JM 940 Pro" semi auto shotgun.
"JM", for "Jerry Miculek". I think the big news actually isn't the introduction of the new model but rather that they scored big with getting Mr. Miculek to stand behind the shotgun! (Meeting him and his family was quite a highlight of my week at the show...)
Fremen and I had the chance to try the shotgun at Range Day. Fremen has humongous cheek bones. The gun beat the sh... out of his face. My face, being differently proportioned, didn't suffer.
I am not a competition shooter, but I can appreciate the pertinence of features such as enlarge controls, beveled loading port, and so forth.
What I was mostly wondering about though was Mossberg's claim that this gun is "Cleaner-Running. The redesigned 940 gas system allows faster, more reliable cycling at much greater cleaning intervals— up to 1500 rounds."
About this, I can say that, should Range Day serve as proof, the two guns available at Mossberg's table went through a MOUNTAIN of shells. The ground was litterally filled, with empties. Fremen and I stopped there at the very end of the day, they were almost out of ammo and they had brought tons. Guns ran perfectly.
The other new gun I noticed at Mossberg's booth is a new model to their Patriot lineup. Yup, we're talking "budget" or "entry level" category here, but still, given how popular entry-level bolt action rifles are, I took a close look. The Long Range Hunter. Fluted, threaded barrel, extra-high comb, scope rail. Available in in 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Winchester, 6.5 PRC, and .300 Winchester Magnum (if my quickly-jotted-down notes are to be trusted).
"JM", for "Jerry Miculek". I think the big news actually isn't the introduction of the new model but rather that they scored big with getting Mr. Miculek to stand behind the shotgun! (Meeting him and his family was quite a highlight of my week at the show...)
Fremen and I had the chance to try the shotgun at Range Day. Fremen has humongous cheek bones. The gun beat the sh... out of his face. My face, being differently proportioned, didn't suffer.
I am not a competition shooter, but I can appreciate the pertinence of features such as enlarge controls, beveled loading port, and so forth.
What I was mostly wondering about though was Mossberg's claim that this gun is "Cleaner-Running. The redesigned 940 gas system allows faster, more reliable cycling at much greater cleaning intervals— up to 1500 rounds."
About this, I can say that, should Range Day serve as proof, the two guns available at Mossberg's table went through a MOUNTAIN of shells. The ground was litterally filled, with empties. Fremen and I stopped there at the very end of the day, they were almost out of ammo and they had brought tons. Guns ran perfectly.
The other new gun I noticed at Mossberg's booth is a new model to their Patriot lineup. Yup, we're talking "budget" or "entry level" category here, but still, given how popular entry-level bolt action rifles are, I took a close look. The Long Range Hunter. Fluted, threaded barrel, extra-high comb, scope rail. Available in in 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Winchester, 6.5 PRC, and .300 Winchester Magnum (if my quickly-jotted-down notes are to be trusted).
