930 SPX Update

[m24shooter]

WRT railed forends:
Yes. I know of two outfits that are working on them. They were expected to be out late summer. I will see if I can find out a little more and get a better idea of a release date.
I'd personally like to see them come out, I know a lot of people would be happy to have them.

[jaxman7]

Thanks bud. Hopefully the delay wont be much longer on those rails. Do you know about fitting heat shields to a 930 m24 and will a 590 shield fit? What brand would recommend? Not trying to look cool but my support hand using my rifles and pistols is at thumbs forward position and I want to keep it this way with the shotgun. The problem is with the mossberg is that if I do this I end up burning the crap out of my thumb. Maybe even cut a heat shield down and just mount it where my thumb will be plus a few inches fore and aft to save weight possibly.

WRT railed forends:
Yes. I know of two outfits that are working on them. They were expected to be out late summer. I will see if I can find out a little more and get a better idea of a release date.
I'd personally like to see them come out, I know a lot of people would be happy to have them.

[m24shooter]

I know there are some people that have adapted some heatshields to fit. I know the heatshields had to be cut to clear the forend, but I'm not sure what make they used. I am pretty sure one was a John Masen version. However I think that one was held on with zipties, so that may not be the best way to go.
Given the forend, I think no matter what you're going to have to modify the heatshield or the forend, and you might need to make a clearance cut at the back for the barrel band too.
It isn't something that has really interested me, so I haven't really paid attention to how it has been done. Sorry I can't help you more there.

[jaxman7]

Gotcha and thanks. Oh and fyi if anyone has questions on the 930 (and not trying to blow smoke up or kiss his a$$) but M24 is the dude to ask about this gun. Heck half the stuff I wrote about earlier I discovered through some threads of his.

[altramagnus]

Don't feel bad, a lot of people don't know just how much is out there. Part of the problem is that while there is some stuff made/marketed/labelled as being for the 930, a lot of stuff for other shotguns will work as well. There are parts for the 1187/870 and 590 that will work on the 930. You just have to know what to look for.
The sling plate is indeed the GG&G model. It just came out within the last month or maybe two. There is another guy who is making a similar unit, but it is a single man operation I think and I don't know if they are still available and if they are of suitable quality.
If you have a NOB, then you have the best bolt knob I've ever used on the 930. It is my favorite for the way I run the bolt.

Yeah it's the first one that was made, I believe MAX100 was the guy who made them. I do love it and found no need to try any of the new models released.

Thanks on the info, I will pick up the rear sling plate.

Shawn

[SteveL]

I haven't seen a lot about this shotgun, and the first time I saw one in a store I mistakenly thought it was an FN SLP for a minute. How well do the two compare in terms of reliability and overall quality like fit and finish?

[m24shooter]

Jax-Thanks.

Re: FN SLP:
The FN has better fit and finish, without a doubt. FN hasn't had nearly the problems that Mossberg has had. At the time the SPX came out there was a substantial difference in price, although I believe that gap has narrowed.
Mossberg set up a perfect storm of dickup with the SPX. It was very highly sought after when it was released. It was not a limited production gun, but it was not made in super large numbers. They basically subcontracted it out with Choate doing extension components, LPA doing the sights and rails, a third place installing those, and then the normal Mossberg production/assembly.
The sight assembly REALLY got screwed up when the barrels were not correctly placed in the jigs to have the sights attached to the barrel. QC screwed up because the cant wasn't caught before it left the factory. Because of the large number of screwed up sight towers, the Service Center was very quickly overwhelmed by the numbers of repairs. Add in that the Service Center further aggravated the situation by not taking care of customers, not havign enough repair items, sending back new barrels that were canted as badly as the original barrels, and the limited number of staff having to deal with way more complaints than they were staffed to handle.
Another problem was that the front sight height could be off enough to cause POI issues. There is apparently enough of a tolerance issue between the sight, the receiver, the rail, the rear sight, and the barrel that some people had no problems with POI, while others had all kinds of problems with the sights maxed out. On top of this, OFM once again screwed themselves when they didn't put any info in the pubs that even told owners that the front sight was adjustable. To this day, I still talk to people that do not know that the front sight is adjustable. Who knows how many front sight problems weren't problems at all but were actully improperly adjusted.
There were also problems with mis-installing the screws that hold the rail on. There are two different lengths of screws, and sometimes the incorrect length was used. Some of them were overtorqued and stripped the receiver threads out and would literally fall out if the shotgun was inverted.
Reliability issues have generally been with brand new shotguns. The shotgun needs to be cleaned well before it is shot. Mossberg uses some heavy thick preservatives that can cause some problems. Best results with those that have had problems has been to run hotter loads through it to start, usually above 1200 fps. Some people never have problems. I haven't had any.
Some people have gotten the shotgun out of the box with a broken forearm retainer. Not a big deal, but should not be an issue with a new gun.
The Choate extension has been responsible for some reliability issues due to the extension nut not interfacing with the mag tube body correctly, the extension body being incorrectly aligned, dents in the mag tube extension, and followers hanging up in the transition area. A new problem with the Choate extensions has been that the springs supplied by Choate (both to the Mossberg assemblers and also to aftermarket purchasers) are too long. This has put too much spring pressure on the shell latches, and the first round of a fully loaded mag tube will not release. This is being seen in people with new from the factory shotguns and also those that purchased just the extension kit from Choate. The spring should be I think in the area of 25" and some of them have been up to 40" in length.
If you shoot it for long sessions, you will notice the bolt slowing down after some time. When it does this, I squirt CLP in the open receiver and on the bolt body, then operate the bolt by hand a couple of times. It picks right back up.
I've been able to shoot even light loads in mine, and FedTac buck and slugs have been absolutely no problem.
If you get a newer production gun, you are not as likely to have the problems I mentioned above. The sight tower is on it's third version now, and they haven't had issues with the cant in a while. I haven't heard of a lot of the problems in a long time, so hopefully OFM has gotten their act together.

[altramagnus]

Had to remind me of the stripped out screws on the top rail. The front 2 on mine are stripped. Never sent it in though, rail is pretty tight with the remaining screws and i'm not throwing a heavy optic on it.

Sucks though. Man forgot how many issues they had in the beginning.

Shawn

[DMR]

Aimpro is shipping out the first of his rail forends. M24 I am preety sure you are on the distro list.

[SteveL]

M24 thank you for the very thorough response. It is much appreciated. It just goes to show why I love this site so much.