Bought a super bantam for my son last Saturday at Academy for $299.00. It has the stock with a spacer and an extra recoil pad to shorten the stock to a LOP of 12 inches. It is a 243 with a 20 inch barrel.
First off the rifle itself: Stock is simple plastic but much more rigid than other rifles in the same price point (especaily the Stevens). Also is free floated.
Bolt is a bit ruff but wasn't expecting Tikka quality at this price. The trigger is the LBA and this is by far the best part of the rifle. I have tried the Savage accutrigger before and this one feels a bit more crisp than the accutriger. No ceep and minimal overtravel.
Took it to the range the following day to sight in with a 3-9 Leupy VX-II mounted and used an old box of 80 grain Federal I had lying around. Got it sighted in and my first 3 shot group at 100 yards was 4 inches:barf: Second group was 5 inches
Went home pretty dissapointed and gave it a good cleaning and started to work up some loads. Since this will be for my 8 year-old son, I checked the manuals and decided on a Speer load of 35 grains of RL19 with a 100 grain Hornady interlock at about 2500 fps. Seated it right off lands and went back to the range. Two 3 shot groups both at 1.25 inces. This will be the load for my son this year as he will not shoot further than 100 yards, more likely at 70 yards. Will try some max loads later, but for now, I am happy.
Oh and by the way, when searching the internet for accuracy issues after the first trip to the range, I came across the whole bolt issue of the lugs not locking. Scared me so I did some exhaustive research and could only find one documented case of this happening in Florida where the guy sued mossberg. Seems the case was dismissed after the plantiff's own expert witness testifed the failure was most likey caused after the bolt pin was inserted incorrectly after the guy took it apart to clean.
I also called Mossberg and asked them about this and if there was a recall. The CS rep stated there was no recall and if I had any doubt as to the rifle's integrity, to send it to them (now or any later time) and they would dissasemble the rifle and do a complete inspection and fire it 8 times by person, not machine rest, before sending it back. Pretty good CS if you ask me.
First off the rifle itself: Stock is simple plastic but much more rigid than other rifles in the same price point (especaily the Stevens). Also is free floated.
Bolt is a bit ruff but wasn't expecting Tikka quality at this price. The trigger is the LBA and this is by far the best part of the rifle. I have tried the Savage accutrigger before and this one feels a bit more crisp than the accutriger. No ceep and minimal overtravel.
Took it to the range the following day to sight in with a 3-9 Leupy VX-II mounted and used an old box of 80 grain Federal I had lying around. Got it sighted in and my first 3 shot group at 100 yards was 4 inches:barf: Second group was 5 inches
Went home pretty dissapointed and gave it a good cleaning and started to work up some loads. Since this will be for my 8 year-old son, I checked the manuals and decided on a Speer load of 35 grains of RL19 with a 100 grain Hornady interlock at about 2500 fps. Seated it right off lands and went back to the range. Two 3 shot groups both at 1.25 inces.
This will be the load for my son this year as he will not shoot further than 100 yards, more likely at 70 yards. Will try some max loads later, but for now, I am happy.Oh and by the way, when searching the internet for accuracy issues after the first trip to the range, I came across the whole bolt issue of the lugs not locking. Scared me so I did some exhaustive research and could only find one documented case of this happening in Florida where the guy sued mossberg. Seems the case was dismissed after the plantiff's own expert witness testifed the failure was most likey caused after the bolt pin was inserted incorrectly after the guy took it apart to clean.
I also called Mossberg and asked them about this and if there was a recall. The CS rep stated there was no recall and if I had any doubt as to the rifle's integrity, to send it to them (now or any later time) and they would dissasemble the rifle and do a complete inspection and fire it 8 times by person, not machine rest, before sending it back. Pretty good CS if you ask me.