The Fruits of Santa's Labor

This oughta do.............

As I mentioned before Christmas, I had a hunch Santa was going to be very good to me. Well, he was. Very good in fact. I've been able to step my 3-gun game up a little bit you could say. I'm going to do an in-depth video on my 3-gun setup soon for the Youtube channel, but I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of what Santa brought me. I've been in the market for an affordable, reliable semi-automatic shotgun for 3-gun. Having shot competitively with shotguns my whole life, I knew exactly what I wanted. Semi-auto was the ONLY way to go for speed. A pump is an option but a handicap. Capacity for at least 9 rounds in the extension tube was another feature I wanted. Something I did *NOT* want was fancy sights or ghost rings on the vent rib. I don't aim or really use the bead at all when shooting a shotgun, I more-or-less point shoot with both eyes open. Years of shooting flying clays will lead you to that way of shooting. 

I settled on the Mossberg 930. About a year ago Mossberg introduced the Jerry Miculek JM PRO signature model, which is a suped up 930 ready for 3-gun competition. The problem is that me and every other shooter in America seems to want one of these. And you can't find them anywhere. I literally had been on the lookout for one for the past 9 months with no joy. 

The Mossberg 930 in its native form

So I ended up going with the Mossberg 930 Turkey model, which is a standard semi-auto in black synthetic with a 24 inch barrel. Some may say that barrel length is too long for tactical shooting, but I think it's ideal. It allows me to get a 10 round magazine extension on there and be relatively the same length as the barrel. I really hate the look of some shotguns with a long extension sticking 6 inches past the end of the barrel. 24 inches was perfect for this. And it might weigh more, but I've shot an over/under Browning 425 at skeet for over 10 years. I'm used to the swing and the weight of a double barrel over/under shotgun. This feels natural to me. 

10 rounds of pain, coming right up!

Naturally, a Turkey model shotgun came without a magazine extension and had a 4 round magazine capacity. I remedied that by adding a Nordic components +6 extension tube which was easy and took about 10 minutes. I then added a Nordic barrel clamp to tighten things up on the muzzle end. Fortunately, this model Mossberg came with the same oversized charging handle that the JM PRO comes with, so I saved some money there. It also came with a hi-viz front sight, and a set of rear hi-viz turkey sights which I easily removed. I also will be using a set of Briley choke tubes which I can screw in and out in less than a minute if the stage calls for it.

Shiny!

So far I'm really excited about this shotgun and can't wait to throw it into a competition against the higher priced guns. Sure, I'd love to have a Benelli M2, or an FNH SLP, but I spent less than $600 and built a bomber shotgun! 

Be safe and see you next time.

~Mac