Re: The troubled history of the 930 SPX
megawatt said:
I will agree there are some bad issues some of you unfortunate guys have run across. I know I would feel upset, mad, disappointed, and sick if these happen to me. Keep in mind that most of these headaches could of been taken care of with a simple 30second exam of the gun "BEFORE" handing over your hard earned money.
It only takes a second to look down the barrel to see if sights are jacked up. And it only takes a second to wiggle the trigger group or to look at the elevator action. Why not even disassemble the gun at the shop to a level the manual has printed out, to look things over? I would not think that is a crazy request to make at the gun shop. This would allow you to get a look at the piston area, trigger group, receiver area, and make sure there are no surprises when you get home.
We hear about the problems, as well we should. And hopefully quality improves by bringing up the things that should be dealt with. I seem to be fortunate to have a SPX that has been 100% so far and a real joy to shoot. I got another case of ammo in and have my 600 shells for the next range day coming up. Believe me if I start having problems I will certainly share my experiences just as I have shared my positive experiences on this forum.
I'm probably like most and expect a reputable name such as Mossberg would have a better manufacturing process and quality control. And like most, purchased their firearm before ever running across these reviews and knowing what to look for. I never found detailed issues/problems until I knew what to google for. No gun store I know around here would let you field strip it before purchasing it and most had to special order. But anycase, the 930 SPX has been out since 2009 and still has the same issues as before. This says a lot about this company. I purchased it based on magazine write ups, it being 2009 Shotgun of the year, Mossberg's reputation with the 500 series and what I saw on Youtube.
I will give Mossberg credit for handling my issues promptly and replacing my SPX with another one. But their lack of quality control is unacceptable, my new/replacement shotgun has parts falling off, the receiver has uncoated filing marks inside, the trigger group is still lose, and I'm getting scoring marks again on the magazine tube from the piston spring. So I have to conclude that the SPX is not an out of the box firearm, but a firearm that must be tweaked to run smoothly and reliably.
Almost all of my other firearms, never had to be sighted in (Unless I put Optics on it) and some even came with test targets. I've have/had multiple Rugers (Handguns and Rifles), Sigs, Heckler and Koch, Walther, Taurus, Browning and a Benelli. Some have couple thousand rounds thru them and some have over 10,000 rounds...my Mossberg SPX has just under 250 rounds and shows more wear and tear then any of my other firearms. Maybe there is a reason why Mossberg gives only a 2 year warranty on their SPX, while majority of my others have a lifetime warranty. Also kinda weird that Mossberg doesn't require owner registration, should there be a recall or a service bulletin.
After all this, I still probably buy a basic 500 12 gauge combo; it is what it is and it's cheap. But I probably won't ever get anything else from Mossberg or recommend the 930 SPX.