Mossberg 351CB Range Report

[Rapier]

So I got bored this morning, packed up the SKS, the P89, the Romy M-69, and the Mossy and took them out to the range.

Skipping over all the boring bits and getting to the meat 'n potatoes of the matter, here's the second-best grouping of the day, from the Mossberg 351CB.

First three went into the upper left cluster, the fourth was the wide flyer (not sure what happened there), and the rest made that nice little clump that you see there. It's a 15-shot group, by the way. Federal .22lr 36-grain copper-plated HP's, the bulk-pack stuff. (Not the Champion bulk pack, didn't shoot any of that today.) Shot at 25 yards with the Weaver up on 6x.

Overall, the Mossberg was real nice, except it had a real bad problem about jamming on the last round in the tube. Not sure what the deal is there; it seems like the bolt either didn't cycle far enough back or the plunger on the tube pinched the base of the round or something, but the round would get about halfway up into position to go into the chamber and then the bolt would catch it just behind the bullet, maybe 1/8th of an inch, and jam the rifle up good. It always did this on the last round, but only about 40% of the time. Could be because it was some dirt on the end of the feed ramp or because it wasn't lubed enough, not sure. Have to test it out when I go again Wednesday.

Other than that, it ran like a champ. The groups I shot with the CCI Mini-Mags seemed to open up a little more than the Federal stuff, which I thought was a little odd. Didn't save those targets though.

Real nice .22, and definitely a bargain at $119.

 

[Col. Plink]

To quote Gene Wilder, "Nice grouping!" (minus the spit).
I had a Mossberg 100 ATR 30'06 that was just fine; very accurate at 100 yds to the point of touching the y-axis less than a half inch from dead center on the cold shot (with one hell of a recoil).

I thought Mossberg didn't have a reputation in rifles because they are so well known currently for shotguns. What did I know? I think someday I'll get one, something like what you describe.

I remember being amazed as a kid at summer camp that (though only 50 ft away) if you held those target rifles still enough they would put the bullets on the same bullet-sized hole. In fact, if I remember correctly, the bullseye on those 50' targets are only the diameter of the bullet. Many times I had targets with two through the same punch, and I'm sure many of them were Mossbergs.

 

[Rapier]

I'm certainly happy with the way it shot, (minus the flyer of course).

It's an older rifle, to be sure; what I've seen quoted is they only made the 351CB from '69 to '71. They cost $49.95 new.

Given that the Mossberg ad for the 351C/KA models states to "Clean an automatic action after 500 rounds with gasoline if heavily coated with burnt powder-oil mixture." I'm beginning to think my last-round jams were a combination of improper/poor cleaning, dirty ammo, and under-lubrication.

We'll just have to see Wednesday; I picked up another 200 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags and I still have something like 700 or so Federal bulk-pack to burn through.

Plus I managed to find a screwdriver small enough so that I could fix the scope being cocked off to the right in the rings. :banghead:

Might even take it out on the 50/100 yard ranges and see how it does when you let her stretch her legs a little.