Mossberg 930 Tactical Shotgun Review
 Part 1 - Introduction, Specifications and Summary
March 10, 2013

Mossberg 930 Tactical Review

At the end of last year before nearly every Wal-Mart in the Atlanta metro area was out of tactical style firearms, I picked up one of the Mossberg 930 Tactical Shotguns for review and to include in my inventory of home defense shotguns.  I love the idea of a shotgun as a home defense weapon and thought the 930 Tactical had some great features at a great price.  This shotgun is a semi-automatic and comes with an integral breacher and oversized charging handle at a bargain price of $499 at Wal-Mart.  Getting one from there is a little harder today, but once the dust settles in the wake of this firearms purchasing frenzy, I hope to see these shotguns back in the stores again.

 

Mossberg actually makes two models of the 930 Tactical 5-Shot Shotgun; one with and one without a heat shield.  There is a slight price difference between the two; MSRP of $657 with and $635 without.  The only model that I've seen in Wal-Mart is the model without the heat shield, therefore the "no heat shield" model is the one I purchased for this review.  In all honesty, even though they do serve a purpose, I'm not a big fan of heat shields and if I had a choice, I would have selected the model without the heat shield to save a few dollars to use for other accessories like an extended magazine tube or some type of rail system to mount a light.

With Heat Shield

Without Heat Shield (Review Shotgun)

During my reviews I like to compare my results to the manufacturer's claims where possible so the following text in colored italics was taken directly from the Mossberg website on 1/18/13 and gives an Overview, Key Features, and Specifications for the Mossberg 930 Tactical Shotgun.  The , and are my way to keep up with details that I have covered in this review with either photos, commentary or both.

Overview

  • When it comes to home-security firearms… a simple-to-operate, dependable autoloader can make a world of difference in a crisis.

Key Features

  • 3" Chambered Models in 12 Gauge
  • 4+1 Capacity
  • Smooth Cycling, Dual Gas-Vent System Railed
  • Stand-Off Breacher & Heat Shield Models
  • Comes Fully Factory-Assembled
  • Free Gun Lock
  • 2-Year Limited Warranty Included

Specifications

  • Gauge: 12
  • Chamber Size: 3"
  • Capacity: 5 this is with four 2.75" shells in the tube and one in the chamber.  With some 3" shells, the capacity in the tube is limited to three shells.
  • Barrel: 18.5"
  • Sights: White Dot
  • Chokes: Cylinder Bore
  • Overall Length: 39"
  • Length Of Pull: 14"
  • Barrel Finish: Matte
  • Stock: Synthetic (Black)
  • Weight: 7.5 lbs review shotgun weighed in at 7.37 lbs empty and 7.80 lbs loaded with 5 rounds of 2.75" 00 Buckshot
  • Item #: 85330
  • MSRP: $635 $499 at Wal-Mart at the time of this review

This review is broken down into multiple parts with this page providing links to each part along with an overall summary of the specifications, pros and cons, and my final "bottom line" comments.  Make sure you take time to checkout the other parts of the review because they contain many photos and lots of commentary.  Also, there is an extreme amount of detail in those parts which is not covered on this page.

As you read these Pros and Cons below, keep in mind that it is hard to keep my particular preferences from creeping in the equation.  Therefore, it is important that you take the time to look at the other parts of this review so you can decide yourself on items which may be more of a personal preference.

Pros:

  • Disassembly was very simple like most traditional styled shotguns.
  • The integral breacher makes the shotgun short and point-able.
  • An attractive price of $499 from Wal-Mart makes this a great value shotgun.  Let's hope that in today's environment they will be back on the shelves soon.
  • I was happy with point-of-aim and point-of-impact and plan to keep a supply of Hornady #4 and Critical Defense 00 Buckshot on hand for the real defense situations. 

Pro/Con/Comment (you decide)?:

  • The safety button is a polymer part that is held in place by a screw with a head designed to allow you to tighten the screw and not loosen it.  Mossberg seems to have done a good job at minimizing polymer components on this shotgun and I'm surprised they chose to include the synthetic safety button as part of this "tactical" package, especially when you consider there are many aftermarket aluminum safety buttons available.
  • The magazine tube holds four 2.75" shells.  I was able to barely get four 3" shells in the tube, but the first shell would not feed out properly.
  • After it seemed to break-in slightly, it shot all the shell I put through it.

Cons:

  • The one area I feel could be improved on this review shotgun was the looseness of the trigger housing inside the receiver.  I did a little research on the web and this seems to be a problem that has been seen on other 930 shotguns.
  • The trigger housing being loose and having an effect on switching the shotgun off safety seemed like it was a clear case of needing repair.  After sending it in for potential repair, Mossberg seemed to believe it was within spec, so they made no change to the looseness.  I'm already planning a shimming fix in the future for the rear of the housing and I'm sure this will solve the issue.  I decided to take on coming up with a fix for my shotgun which involved shimming the trigger housing.  I cover this shimming in Part 7 of this review.  After shimming, there was no looseness and the safety worked great.

 

Bottom Line:

If you have read many of my reviews, I tend to have a common reoccurring comment.  Always look over any firearm closely at the store before you take it home.  Look for alignment and looseness on every part.  If you find something that seems out of the norm, ask the person helping you to let you see another firearm.  In the case of the Mossberg 930 Tactical, I like the shotgun and it seems well made (except for the looseness).  I would easily recommend this shotgun as long as you take a close look at the shotgun and verify you can live with any trigger looseness and the impact this may (or may not) have on switching the safety from "safe" to "fire".  I believe you can correct the looseness with a little effort (shimming) on your part.  After I correcting looseness on this shotgun (see Part 7 of the review), I'm completely happy with the Mossberg 930 Tactical Shotgun and looking forward to adding some after market accessories in the future.

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