My new 930 Breacher ... Review and Questions

[azcederburg]

Well, I got one for Christmas. It's not the SPX; however, I don't really like pistol grips on shottys, the mag extension is an easy upgrade, and based on front-site issues (with the plethora of others), I really didn't want to risk $600+ on the SPX.

I got this one ... are you ready for this? ... NIB, out-the-door for $395.00!!! I can't even find one like it anywhere for less than $479 (plus shipping, plus FFL fees, possibly plus tax). So, to make this baby more like the SPX, I've got $200+ to work with.

First off, I have only put 25 rounds of standard game load, 5 rounds of 000bk (reduced recoil) and 5 rounds of rifled slugs (hollow-point) thru it so far (questions on that later). I had my son with me at the range and I just didn't have the time to put more through it (yet).

When I received the firearm, I thoroughly cleaned it and ran it ... we'll say ... "damp". I didn't go crazy with the oil, but I made sure all the moving parts received a coat, and then wiped-off parts in the receiver.

I had one failure to eject, but I really don't think it was the gun's fault (cheap ammo) ... I bought a 100-round pack of Winchester game loads, and I experienced that issue where the extractor rips into the rim of the hull. I notice the game load hulls are made from a much cheaper material and aren't as thick as those on my buckshot and slug rounds. So again, I blame that one on ammo quality.

So ... onto my questions...

When I shot the slugs (rifled, hollow-points), I was shooting at 50 yards. I took my time with each shot and made sure I put the white-dot of my front site right on the center of my paper target. Each slug round was anywhere from 6" to 12" left, and 8" to 12" high ... does anyone know why? My barrel is smooth bore ... I SHOULD use rifled slugs, right?

I also shot the 000bk at 50 yards, but at that distance, I could observe an identifiable pattern. When I shot the game-loads, it was only about 15 yards, and the patters were pretty much center-mass. By the time I had gone thru 25 rounds, the center of my target was pretty much gone with a consistent speckling all around center mass.

My other question has to do with the sites. This "breacher" 930 just has a front "bead" ... although it is not a bead at all...it is a white-dot that must be lined-up properly with the barrel (I have verified that is inline with the scope-base screws on the receiver). I guess what I am thinking is that I want to do something different. Since the front-site has standard bead threads, does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement? How about a clamp-on site? Does anyone make those? Then I could consider installing the rear scope base and a ghost-ring, right?

Thoughts & comments are appreciated.

 

[Madmikes]

Would the 930 Breacher comp and heat shield fit on a 930 Roadblocker if that comp was removed?

 

[azcederburg]

Would the 930 Breacher comp and heat shield fit on a 930 Roadblocker if that comp was removed?

I don't think so. Near as I can tell, the breacher muzzle brake on my barrel is fixed and cannot be removed. I know that the road blocker muzzle brake is removable, so maybe somebody makes a threaded breacher brake that you could install.

Also, on the heatshield...mine is a permanent (welded on) piece as well. I think there are clamp-on heat shields available out there ... some other forum topics mention them (search the Mossberg 930 Autoloader forum for "heat shield").

Hope that helps.

Anyone with any thoughts on my slugs being so off target at 50 yards?

 

[SeaScout]

Hello,
You will find improved accuracy from using Foster style slugs in you smooth bore barrel. While you can use rifled slugs, sabots I presume you were using, there was nothing to impart spin on them to help them stabilize. The Foster type will expand upon firing and they have rifling on the slug itself to aid in accuracy.
Cheers...

 

[oli700]

Hello,
You will find improved accuracy from using Foster style slugs in you smooth bore barrel. While you can use rifled slugs, sabots I presume you were using, there was nothing to impart spin on them to help them stabilize. The Foster type will expand upon firing and they have rifling on the slug itself to aid in accuracy.
Cheers...

A "rifled" slug does not spin. The rifling is there to provide a squish zone so the slug can pass through whatever choke you have. The foster slug rifled or not finds accuracy because it is nose heavy like a dart or shuttlecock. Besides he said he was shooting rifled slugs in his OP

When I shot the slugs (rifled, hollow-points), I was shooting at 50 yards. I took my time with each shot and made sure I put the white-dot of my front site right on the center of my paper target. Each slug round was anywhere from 6" to 12" left, and 8" to 12" high ... does anyone know why? My barrel is smooth bore ... I SHOULD use rifled slugs, right?

Right on the slugs
I can’t help with windage and you said you took your time ……bead might be off a little but you said you checked it so idk, might be off some.I call it a bead because it is just a fancy bead and should be shot as so.

Your elevation problem is common for people learning to shoot bead sight. The problem most people have at first is not bringing the back of the gun up high enough. Try again and concentrate on the bead just sitting on top of the flat of the receiver. Don’t put the bead right on what you want the point of impact to be but rather put it at 6 o’clock or right under where you want the point of impact to be.Remember if the rear of the gun is too low on the plane it will shoot high and only be exaggerated the farther out you try to shoot it.

I also shot the 000bk at 50 yards, but at that distance, I could observe an identifiable pattern. When I shot the game-loads, it was only about 15 yards, and the patters were pretty much center-mass. By the time I had gone thru 25 rounds, the center of my target was pretty much gone with a consistent speckling all around center mass.

not sure where you are going here

My other question has to do with the sites. This "breacher" 930 just has a front "bead" ... although it is not a bead at all...it is a white-dot that must be lined-up properly with the barrel (I have verified that is inline with the scope-base screws on the receiver). I guess what I am thinking is that I want to do something different. Since the front-site has standard bead threads, does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement? How about a clamp-on site? Does anyone make those? Then I could consider installing the rear scope base and a ghost-ring, right?

Thoughts & comments are appreciated.

if you have enough money you can make anything happen on that gun.....I suggest you lean to shoot what you have and then move on.....you say you want to do 3 gun so the bead is a good choice IMO....shoot shoot and shoot some more...you can get all the best of everything and you can put a cat in the oven but that don’t make it a biscuit, you know what I mean? Good luck, let us know if you get it figured uot

 

[azcederburg]

SeaScout and Oli700,

Thank you for the feedback, it is much appreciated. I am very new to shottys and have never owned one. I have shot friends' shottys, but this 930 breacher (and an old Remmy 1100, 16ga I recently acquired) is my first dive into the scatter gun arena.

I guess I figured that a rifled deer barrel would shoot a regular slug and that my un-rifled, security barrel would need to shoot rifled slugs so that spin would be imparted on the projectile. I guess I am still a little confused about which type of slugs to use...I think I will just go out and buy a few different types and see what works best in my gun at 50 yards (I'd like to be decent with a slug at 50 yards for 3-gun purposes.)

My apologies for my misspellings and verb agreement on the 000bk and game loads. What I meant to say is that I also shot 000bk at 50 yards and COULD NOT identify any observable pattern. I think out of 5 rounds, I only found 4 or 5 holes in my target stand that could have been made by the buckshot. I brought-up the game loads, because I seemed to be absolutely perfect with the bead-site at 15 yards. For my aiming style to equate to an 6 - 12" windage issue seems huge to me.

On my solicitation for front-site suggestions, I agree and want to stick with the front-bead only for now, because I am going to be doing some upland bird hunting too (getting a 24" barrel for that). The only thing I was really thinking about was maybe swapping the white-dot front bead for a fiber-optic.

I will be heading out for my first 3-gun event this weekend, I'll let you know how it goes. Again, thank you for the feedback, it is much appreciated.

 

[oli700]

I guess I figured that a rifled deer barrel would shoot a regular slug and that my un-rifled, security barrel would need to shoot rifled slugs so that spin would be imparted on the projectile. I guess I am still a little confused about which type of slugs to use...I think I will just go out and buy a few different types and see what works best in my gun at 50 yards (I'd like to be decent with a slug at 50 yards for 3-gun purposes.)

A rifled barrel will shoot sabots better. A smooth bore will shoot foster slugs better. A foster slug is the design of a hollow base and a heavy nose . Hollow foster slug with grooves on the side are called rifled slugs. The rifling’s do not impart spin on a slug…..how do I put this….ok, when you fire a foster slug the force of the blast expands the base and body to full bore size for a nice stable trip down the bore . Since this is exclusive to shotgun use there needs to be a way that one can safely shoot through varying chokes, enter the rifling’s. As the slug passes through a cylinder choke, what you have, there is essentially no choke so the rifling’s don’t squish, but take that same slug and shoot it through a full choke and it will squish those rifling’s down letting the body of the slug to pass through with no harm to the gun…..make since?
Don’t bother buying sabots unless you can fire them through a rifled barrel…..they cost more and you will get worse results because they are designed to spin in flight and your smooth bore won’t do that.

What I meant to say is that I also shot 000bk at 50 yards and COULD NOT identify any observable pattern. I think out of 5 rounds, I only found 4 or 5 holes in my target stand that could have been made by the buckshot.

perfectly normal from a cylinder or open choke

For my aiming style to equate to an 6 - 12" windage issue seems huge to me.

It does seem excessive , but little things at the gun are big things at 50 yards with a bead driven shotgun, you could be missing some type of problem with your bead. How did you check it ?

I will be heading out for my first 3-gun event this weekend, I'll let you know how it goes.

please do and good luck

 

[MikeD]

I always come back to this Box Of Truth chapter whenever I see discussions of slug/barrel types


http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot46.htm

 

[azcederburg]

It does seem excessive , but little things at the gun are big things at 50 yards with a bead driven shotgun, you could be missing some type of problem with your bead. How did you check it ?

If you look at my photos from the first post on this thread, the one with the sight picture ... you can see the receiver, scope base screws. Let me take a step back. When I first took possession of this new 930 and was cleaning it, I noticed that the white-dot bead was not parallel with bore. It also looked like it was hanging out of the threads a little. I gave some slight pressure to try to tighten it (thinking there might be one full turn left), but it was tight (cross-threaded). So, I removed it and cleaned the threads (male and female).

I carefully reinserted the bead and it screwed all the way down this time and pretty much naturally stopped at a position parallel to the bore. To check, I held a plumb string tight against the top of the receiver and barrel, lining-up the scope base screws, what I estimated to be the center-line of the barrel and the "bead-blade" site. Everything seems to line-up. That being said...when I look down the top of the barrel (as if to take a shot), the scope-base screws do visually seem to be a little left of the bead ... but presumably, if I tried to pay attention to this alignment while shooting, I would shoot high and right ... not high and left.

Unfortunately, I only have 35 rounds thru this thing (25 game loads, 5 rifled slugs & 5 000bk rounds) and I probably just need a little more time to get it figured out. I am trying to use a sight picture where all I can see is the white dot across the top of the barrel ... with a solid cheek-weld and firm into my shoulder. I had forgotten that at that distance, I should probably be holding the dot at 6 o'clock ... I shall try that to fix my elevation issues and if my windage issues persist, I will try unscrewing the bead ever so slightly to try to get things to pull back to the right.

 

[oli700]

I am trying to use a sight picture where all I can see is the white dot across the top of the barrel ..

I think you mean receiver, but if not that could be part of the problem

Sounds like you thought it through well..... The only thing I could think of mechanically are two things, hole for the bead drilled in the wrong spot or bent barrel, seems like you would know either way with your string test. Maybe just more time with the gun is all that’s needed, keep us updated

 

[azcederburg]

Well ... I made it out to my first 3-gun match and boy was it an education. I actually had a lot of fun, but equipment malfunctions kind of marred my first time out (part of my education).

On my Mossy 930 Breacher, I only got to shoot about 30 rounds. On the first stage that required a shotgun, I had the EXACT same thing happen to me again (cheap Winchester target load jammed in the chamber) ... except this time, when I smacked on the charging handle, the extractor ripped clean thru the rim on the hull, leaving the spent round stuck in the chamber. I had to place my shotgun in the safe zone and finish the stage with my pistol.

It seems to me like most of the small game/bird loads (7 1/2 & 8 shot) have that really short rim and hull support (silver in color) ... but when you get into at least 6-shot and above, there is a nice, long (gold) hull base that has NO issues feeding or ejecting. So, part of my education was finding out that my 930 seems to dislike the bulk bird loads (at least in Winchester white-box). I can only guess that my chamber has a loose tolerance, bolt-side...and the short hull bases don't provide enough contact...allowing them to jam in the chamber.

On the second stage that I shot requiring shotgun use, someone I was shooting with gave me a box of Federal (red-box) in the #6 shot. The stage required 25 rounds so I knew that if I had a miss I'd be into my Winchester cheapo's again. Sure enough, I had one miss and the final round I fired was the Win whitebox and it BARELY ejected...with tear marks in the rim of the hull again.

It's a little disappointing to know that I will have to spend $7-9 on every box of shells vs. $4-5 for the bulk stuff. But that's OK....I am collecting once-fired (good) 2 3/4" hulls and I am going to start reloading them (I reload for my pistols and rifles now).

I also learned that I definitely need at least a +2 mag extension, but I think I might even go to +4 (the max allowed is 8 in the mag tube in the division I shoot in). Also a side saddle for some additional ammo and maybe even a forearm shell carrier for those occasional buckshot and slug needs (there was no such need at this event...but I am told that is not the norm).

All in all, I am pretty happy with my Mossy ... it's a little more finicky about ammo than I'd like, but I think I am just spoiled because most of my guns will eat just about anything I feed 'em.