Mossberg 702 Plinkster with 25 round magazine

Fellow 702 Plinkster owners,

Since all things ammo and reloading are “unobtanium” these days I’m really looking for good excuses to get to the range and take some shots. I have a decent stockpile of .22 LR so I decided to take on a new project.

I have 2 x 25 round Mossberg magazines for my 702 plinkster that I picked up when they hit the market several years ago. They just looked so cool. When they were new I don’t remember them being problematic but that was a long time ago. I had them out a year or so ago and they were problematic. I actually gave up on them and just used the factory 10 rounders.

With the COVID lock down I’ve been doing several firearm related projects. I finally worked my way around to this one. Can I make the 25 round magazines reliable?

I watched all the relative YouTube videos and read thru the material on this forum. I did all the work I thought was initially worth doing on the mags. This amounted to sanding and smoothing out the potential internal hang up spots in the magazine and smoothing out the followers. No glueing or drilling.

Today at the range was my first go with one of the 2 magazines to see if there is a difference.

The magazine was loaded a week or so ago with 25 rounds of decent .22 LR. I wanted to let the magazine sit fully loaded and under compression for awhile to get “comfortable”. I also disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the rifle to make sure it was scrubbed and functional. First cleaning in a long time.

I inserted the magazine with the bolt closed and then ran the bolt to put a round in battery. First shot was fine. Very gritty trigger pull on the 702 by the way. Second trigger pull went click. A fail to feed. Cleared this by taking the magazine out and shaking the bent round out of the action. Third shot was fine. I had 3 more fail to feed in the first 5 shots down range. So a total of 9 rounds - 5 good and 4 FTF.
Rifle then ran fine until the final round which failed to feed. All in all 20 out of 25 rounds ended up down range. Five ended up in the trash. Believe it or not this was better performance than before I did the work on the mags and the cleaning of the rifle. Albeit all previous outings I used cheap Remington golden bullets (36 gr hollow points). Not the best round for a .22 LR rifle. Looks like I have some more work to do!

I must say that I am impressed with the accuracy of the 702. For a $129 rifle and scope combo it is fun to shoot and hits what you are aiming at.

Any comments or suggestions on the magazines are welcome.

I also have a couple of the 25 round magazines. I had a little issue with them, after owning them for a fairly long time. Same as your situation. Have you tried taking them apart and cleaning them? I did, and it seemed to have had a very positive impact on them. I too am sold on the 702. I have a couple of them. No optics on mine though. Take care. Tom Worthington

Next step. I saw a YouTube video from a guy that changed the steel magazine body between the standard 10 round factory magazine and the standard 25 round magazine. For whatever reason there is a significant difference in the feed zone of the mag. The 25 rounders have the extra large half moon feed opening. Anyway I thought I would give it a try. I’ll let you know once I get back to the range.

Still too cold to go to the range to test the magazines. To keep my 702 the project moving I ordered and installed an MCARBO trigger spring kit for the rifle.

I’m sure that all fellow 702 owners know the less than ideal trigger pull that the rifle has. A long and gritty take up followed by a heavy and mushy break. What can you expect really from a $100 rifle anyway. It’s really the only negative of an otherwise decent plinkster.

After installing the aftermarket trigger spring the pull characteristics improved greatly. A very short take up without the grittiness and a fairly crisp break. I’m sure the trigger pull force is lighter but I don’t have a gauge to quantify this. Weight was never the issue for me. If you watch the MCARBO installation video there is a roughly 2 lb reduction in trigger pull force (6 something lbs to 4 something lbs). Not bad for a $9.71 upgrade.

Finally the weathers improved and I was able to get to the range today. It’s a bright and sunny day and a balmy 28 F with little wind.

I brought 2 full 10 round magazines and 1 full 25 rounder. As you can see I have one of each style of magazine body on each of the magazines to see if there are any differences due to the geometry of the feed zone. What I call the half moon and the straight feed zone.


I loaded the 25 rounder first on a closed bolt. Once magazine was seated I charged the weapon and put a round in battery. I fired 5 shots down range with no issue. The 6th round failed to feed.



I cleared this round and continued shooting. I had 1 more fail to feed on the very last round.


Best results yet. Not perfect but 23 out of 25. On the surface it looks like the feed zone change did make a difference.

On to the 10 rounders.


I the loaded the half moon feed zone 10 round magazine in the rifle. I loaded this mag on an open bolt then charged the weapon. All 10 rounds fired with no problems. In went the normal or what I call the straight feed zone magazine. All 10 rounds fired with no issue. Not sure what to conclude here.

On one hand the straight feed zone magazine body seemed to make things better on the 25 round magazines but they did not have a negative effect on the 10 round magazines.
I’m going to leave the magazines like they are and do some more shooting to see if any issues crop up. If things stay as they are I’ll install the straight magazine body on my second 25 rounder to make it perform better. I’m also going to put a little dry lube on the 25 round magazine follower and the other internal loading follower to see if it helps any.

The MCARBO trigger spring did make a world of difference. The rifle has a good trigger response and much improved over the out of the box factory trigger. Pic of 5 shots at 50 yards. Highly recommend!