VANGCOMP 930SPX

The boys and I recently competed in the 2012 MGM Ironman Scoped Tactical Class at the Parma Rod and Gun Club in Parma, Idaho.

Our team of shooters all in the California National Guard were set up nicely a few years back with a great deal of help from Mr. Tom Taylor at Mossberg (we cannot thank him enough) and Hans and Cody at Vangcomp - YOU GUYS MADE THIS GUN ROCK- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Mr. Taylor helped us get the 930 SPX's shotguns; Vangcomp made one of the 930's the beast that it is.

BLUF: A single Vangcomp 930 SPX was fired by two of us at the MGM Ironman Match. That means it fired twice the ammunition that is required to shoot the match. In three days it devoured over 500 rounds of bird shot and 200 rounds of 3" magnum slugs. We didn't clean it once. It functioned flawlessly. More importantly it was extremely accurate. The guns withouth the Vangcomp mods - suffered mightily.

A couple of items of interest.

1. The gun was backbored by Vangcomp. The forcing cone alteration makes for a much more accurate 930. We hit (and spun) reactive steel targets at nearly 100 yards with slugs. I hit a suspended tennis ball at 25 yards while standing on a wobbling shooting platform with 12ga. slug in one course of fire.

2. The ejector busted off early in the life of the gun (long time before the match). Rather than sending it back to Mossberg for service we worked with a local gun smith to drill out a spot where the ejector goes, thread the hole, and machine a hardened steel ejector, that way if it broke again, we could simply screw in a new one. It hasn't broke. This modification should be advertised as a service to available to Mossberg owners - otherwise the owner will have to send his barrel to Eagle Pass Texas; will he get the same one back?

3. The factory Mossberg Picatinny rail on the receiver rapidly came loose when we first got the 930's. It uses 2 different sized screws, there was no loctite holding them in place. The rear sight was too high relative to the bore. We had Hans replace it with his own rail and rear sight combo. The end result is that the rear sight is lower relative to the bore.

4. The front sight on the 930 SPX is way too high. Vangcomp replaced this too, with a much lower front sight relative to the bore.

5. We changed out the recoil pad with "Limbsaver" item number 10201. Considering the amount of magnum slugs and shot shells we launched from the 930, neither of us experienced the typical soreness resulting from several days of shotgun speed shooting. That pad worked great. We thought it might be a gimmick - the product claims seemed to be over the top, but it really does work.

6. The first year we had the Mossberg 930 SPX, the charging handles on both of the 930's fell out of the guns - - a lot. We solved this by using a smaller stiffer spring; we placed that spring inside of the factory spring and put both springs back in the gun, thereby dramatically increasing the spring tension on the charging handle. The charging handles have never fallen out since.

7. The choate magazine tube is not well made. Replace it with Nordic Components part. We have three Mossberg 930 SPX's on the team. On two of the guns the magazines with the Choate tubes would not reliably accept the full seven rounds. Choate SUCKS! One of the guns still reliably accepts 7 rounds with the choate tube.

TIPS:

1. Use loctite on the magazine tube where it threads into the receiver. The tight magazine tube contributes to accuracy as the barrel is held in place by fastening it to the magazine tube. Loose magazine = a 930 shotgun not able to hold a zero. With any semi auto gun, parts come loose without the loctite. Torque down as snug as is prudent - but always use loctite.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. Use a single piece of steel tube for the magazine tube. Eliminate the magazine extension. This eliminates the seam in the tube that can cause a malfunction with the magazine follower. It also reduces the number of parts on the gun. It would require a bit more detail to fabricate a means to tighten the foregrip. But it also makes for a much more reliable (and therefore desirable) shotgun. Using a tube that'll accept a full 8 rounds of 3" magnums is ideal. A magazine capacity of 7 rounds of 2 3/4" shells is odd; and puts the 3 gun competitor at a disadvantage. Bump that up to a capacity of at least 8 rounds of 3" magnums; at least for 3 Gun Shotguns! The Mossberg 930 is a great gun; that could go for more money with a few minor improvements and a little better quality control during the assembly process.

Lastly, the Mossberg 930 SPX is affordable off the shelf for the average household to afford. There are quite a few of them out there. More and more of them are being used in premier 3 gun matches all the time. But off of the shelf, they must be completely torn down and given a good detailed cleaning with a good solvent. Then lubricate with a quality product like Slip 2000. With a few modifications this gun matched the Benelli, at half the price. I believe there is a market out there for custom work.


Custom work could be done to the carrier - it does grab ahold of the thumb from time to time unless you get that thing modified - like from C-Rums. The parts in the trigger and receiver require a thorough cleaning - maybe even polishing. The receiver could be honed out nicely around the loading port.

Mr. Vang and Cody have really, really supported us. Thanks.

Best Regards,

SFC J. A. GARCIA
Asst. State Marksmanship Coordinator, CAJS-SMC
CA NG

WOW. I give Mr. Garcia one rep point for that. First post too! Welcome to the forum Sir. It is refreshing to see details and results laid out so concisely. When you have time, we would all love to see the details with some Photo's, etc that can help our members upgrade their 930's if they so desire. I'm especially interested in the second spring for the charging handle you mentioned. But you definately nailed several of the problems many have experienced. And hey, I know OFM keeps tabs on what goes on in here too. Thanks again.
Heres a link about the 3 Gun Match.
http://www.gunsandammo.com/2012/06/07/a ... man-match/
Here is the link to Slip 2000's web site in case anyone is intersted.
http://www.slip2000.com/
And the Loctite website for the Blue Loctite. It's available at many of your auto parts stores etc.
http://www.loctiteproducts.com/threadlo ... ical.shtml
And many are familiar with Vang Comps Systems reputation.
https://vangcomp.com/
Nordic Components.
http://shop.nordiccomp.com/NC-Shotgun-A ... ies_c4.htm
And lastly, here is the website for C-Rums.
http://www.c-rums.com/

For those who may be interested in training with the MGM Ironman Champoin, Mr. Daniel Horner,(whose accomplishments in the 3 Gun Shooting World are nothing less than phenominal) here is his website. Have a great day everyone.
http://www.danielhorner.com/

Sincerely
Paul

Thank you guys for having this place to share this stuff!

O.F. Mossberg is run by Mr. Tom Taylor; he's already received this information before I shared it here. Mossberg knows. Mossberg is a business that must make a profit, so some of the things I said here are probably not going to change the 930 SPX at all, at least in terms of how Mossberg makes them. Still, I am very grateful to Mr. Tom Taylor for all that he's done. He is a great guy and does a lot for shooting sports and wounded veterans. I would do business with Mossberg for that fact alone.

Really though, I have to thank Hans for the education we received regarding shotguns themselves. (Shotguns are not a weapon that is something 99.9% of service members have any real fighting skill with. Most know how to point it and pull the trigger, some can work the safety, others can even take them apart. But actually having the skill to fight with a shotgun is a rare commodity.)



One of our guys brought a very nice Benelli SP1 to the MGM Ironman; the guys shooting it were feeling the recoil of that gun. Neither our Mossberg or our partners SP1 malfunctioned during the match; I don't have scientific proof, but the general agreement on the team was that we were slightly more accurate and a bit faster with the Mossberg. I attribute this to less felt recoil by those of us firing the 930 SPX; seemed like firing slugs from the Benelli gave one a moment of pause. Some of the slugs were misses - I think felt recoil contributed to that.

My .02 cents.

Thanks again Big G. The 930 has a bit of a reputation around here. As well as OFM Customer Service. And unfortunately rightly so. Like you said yourself, Choate Sucks! But I defend it as a super capable shotgun that would rise straight to the top if given the chance. And for it to make it through the MGM Ironman is a testiment to that.

So, how about that second spring? And some more details about the trigger assembly if you have them. How did the mods to the Carrier help? And while your at it a photo of that ejector would be cool too! Heck, maybe Hans and Cody could do that for their customers if requested. That would be nice.

Which barrel did Vang Comp Systems modify for you that you were using in the Ironman competition? I'm assuming when you were talking about sight height that it is the 18.5" because that's obviously not an issue with the other barrels. Did you add a choke? Because I am a little fuzzy on the mods Vang Comp does on a Cylinder Bore barrel. Just trying to drag all of the details out. :geek:

I have three different barrels now (actually four) for mine because my gun gets used for hunting all kinds of game. And I did send Hans an email last night about a problem I am having with my slug barrel to see if he might be able to help with. We'll see what he says about it. Thanks again for all the great info you have given. And Good luck in your next competion.

Paul

The second spring we used to hold the charging handle in place better is *I THINK* off of an AR used for the capture pins that hold the take down pins in the lower receiver. I can't recall exactly where the springs came from, but those are the only springs in our spare parts box that are that small. Essentially it put more force on the ball that hold the bolt handle/charging handle in place.

I haven't replaced the carrier yet. But I saw guys with modified carriers at the Ironman and my thumb *DID* get stuck/pinched by the stock carrier twice during the match. Nice blood blister under my thumbnail. These things happen.

The barrel that Vangcomp modified was the 18.5 barrel. It's not threaded for chokes and I wouldn't want it to be in the scoped tactical class that I shoot in. I shoot slugs, shot and buck shot sometimes in the same course of fire. The shot patterns just fine. I hit what I am aiming at. But I am a novice when it comes to 3 gun shotguns; Miculek uses a choke (Open Class Champ), Horner (Tac Optics/Scoped Tactical Champ) uses a choke. They are the champs.

But they probably don't have a back bored barrel either. Mine just flat out runs and I aint changing it.

If you have questions about the back bored barrel, talk to Cody. Just phone them and ask to speak with him. Hans owns Vangcomp; he's been there and done that. But Cody runs the place. Neither one of them spend much time at all sitting in front of a computer reading emails. I stayed with them for a week.

You can see photos of the carrier mods on C-Rums website.

Photos of the Ejector Mod and the bolt handle retaining spring mod are below.

I forgot to mention that the stock came loose during the match. This is another instance where Loctite is not used by the factory, and it should be. I took the recoil pad off to get at the nut inside the butt stock, I took the nut completely off, cleaned the threads with solvent and covered them with blue Loctite. Semi Auto shotguns require Loctite on nearly all the threaded parts. Torque down as tight as is prudent, it's got to be tight, but don't over do it. I don't know what the specs are.

Using the attached picture, (Courtesy of Cheaper than Dirt) could you maybe identify which spring it was? Like bottom row, third from the right...

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/LargeIma ... ku=ARR-324

This fix for the charging Bolt you detailed is first time I have heard of a real solution and I'm just trying to capture as much detail for the other members as I can. I remember reading a post from one guy who had already lost two in the field. To say he was a little upset was an understatement. Heck, I'm sure someone will make a video out of it if we can nail down the parts required situation. Thanks.

Paul

Well, now I am gonna have to go and take it apart for you! I *think* it was one of the first two springs on the bottom row of the photo you've got there. But I will find out for sure.

This little tiny guy keeps your charging handle (bolt handle) from falling out. Note that the factory spring is on the right. The itty bitty spring (about 1cm long), fits inside the factory spring,
then put both of them back inside the shotgun. Since we made this change the charging handle hasn't fallen out. YMMV. Good luck.

Mossberg 930 SPX 18.5" barrel ejector modification

Scroll down to see the entire photo. Better to download and zoom in.

Ejector Mod, view from inside

Ejector Mod

Well, I think I can truely say that all of the effort you have put here into helping the forum identify parts that can be improved as well as the rock solid advice IS appreciated. Thanks. I think in the near future, I have some modding to do. :idea: I am pretty sure that at least the barrel mods like extending the forcing cone is in order for the 28" barrel to improved accuracy. The 18.5" I haven't decided yet. Maybe the works. Maybe leave it alone. I don't know. With the front site being so high, I don't know if co-witness is an issue for me or not yet. I know if it was a truely combat SG, it would be a no brainer. Just do it. And that may end up being the answer right there since accuracy and reliablity are the two most important things anyone would really care about.

I very recently picked up a brand new Insite MRDS for $150.00 which is of course several hundred dollars below retail. Mounts for the 930 are limited which is only part of the challenge with the Pistol Grip Stock and the return spring tube inside the stock. But it was something I had been wanting to try out and couldn't pass up the deal. I'm sure that whatever I do will be a very real improvement thanks to your advice. Thanks again Sir.

Paul

Big_G, would you mind sharing who did the ejector mod for you? I would like to have that done myself. I do not want to have to send my entire barrel off if it were to break.

Thanks

Curtis made the part for me. Here is his website. He's a younger guy with lots of energy. He did good clean, solid, smart, reliable work for me. He's solid.

http://www.crgunworks.com/pages/contactus.html

Thanks!

Not yet, but it is still on the to do list. I contacted the guy about it but it was too close to the start of the season. I may revisit it this winter though.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

Big_G, how did you install the additional spring for the charging handle? I've got a 930 that has a similar problem and am having a devil of a time trying to get the pin out that holds the spring/detent in. Any suggestions?