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Mossberg Cruiser Range Report

CaddmannQ

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I finally got the Mossberg 500 Cruiser back out to the shotgun range yesterday.

I found that it does indeed kick much harder with the 12 pellet Magnum shells and 1oz rifled slugs.

Bobby and I blew lead into a steel plate until our hands were too sore to shoot anymore.

The 500 Cruiser never missed a beat and it ate everything I put in it, including Federal power-shok magnums 12 pel 00 Buck, Winchester, 9 pel double-ought buck, Olin Milbuck, and Remington one ounce rifled slugs.

I didn't try to pattern anything. Mostly we were breaking in the gun, and .trying to hit the 25-yard steel plate, shooting from the hip.

And we did hit it but both of us had problems hanging onto this gun because of the huge flashlight foregrip. It definitely needs a strap or some kind of modification to the foregrip.

We also went up to the 300-yard rifle range, and we shot the steel at 200 and 300 yards, and shot paper targets with pistol & rifle.

I took the North American Arms Sidewinder .22 Magnum 5 shot mini folding revolver, the evil Roy .357 Magnum cowboy revolver, my ATI .45 caliber 1911 clone, the Henry .357 Magnum lever action rifle, and the Mossberg 464 Mariner .30-30 lever action carbine.

I figured with the mini revolver I could hit somebody at 7 yards if he was coming at me, because the second shot would be Point Blank Range.

I had done some throat work on the .45 and it fed well this time, as it always does. The only problem I have with that gun is you have to slap the magazine in well to get the first round to pop up into the action. If you don't Smack it into the handle pretty hard that first round sticks and you have to play with the slide to get it chambered.

So that gun's going to get some more work. Basically I just blasted away at silhouettes from about 7 yards. I am definitely more accurate with that gun than the mini revolver.

The .357 cowboy revolver had been sticking empties in the cylinder, and sometimes extraction was difficult. I had smoothed out the inside of the sticky chambers a little and this time the gun was much nicer to use. Previously I had been restricting myself to .38 specials, because the .357s always seem to stick two or three shells, when trying to extract them.

The Henry .357 was to be my best shooter of the day. Although I was able to hit 12" steel at 200 and 300 yards, with a little practice, I mainly shot this gun at 50 yards.

This turned out to be my best shooting of the day this is a 2 inch pattern shot from 50 yards.
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I'm a good 6+ inches above the target, as I had previously sighted this gun in for 100 yards. I was shooting 158 grain jacketed hollow point Fiocchi bulk ammo. This bullet drops about 3 feet at the 300-yard mark, and maybe 12" at the 200-yard Mark.

I didn't shoot as well with the .30-30 Mossberg, but I never do, even though it has a much better scope (Leupold vs. Tasco).

It certainly doesn't drop as much as the .357 though it is about 20 grns heavier.

This was shot off bags from 50 yards, with Remington 175grn ammo. As you can see I was on target, as I had previously sighted this one in at 50 yards. But I'm having a problem jerking that gun when I fire, and I'm not getting a good pattern at all.

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