Mossberg 464 Leaver

Gave myself a late birfday present: a Mossy 464 in thuty-thuty. A pretty, straight stock Leaver, an enhancement (Heresy!) of St John's 1894.  

I have a provisional Kitchen Pass for a range trip tomorrow, I'll letcha know.

Waitin' to hear.

<Grumble>

Handy gun, smooth, accurate to minute of deer, nice looking, and a great value.

And it isn't working.

Using light 150gr loads, the gun locked up tight starting with the third shot. Only way to get it open was to repeatedly cock and fire the hammer. Shells show a raised and slightly flattened primer. I'm thinking the gun has headspace issues. Calling Mossberg tomorrow.

Interestingly, 170gr loads worked flawlessly. Although, they too showed equivalent raised and flattened primers.

Also, all the shells were discolored to about 1/16th of an inch below the case mouth. Haven't seen that before.

Mossberg tomorrow.

Be interesting to hear what they say. It sounds like your chamber is messed up. Not unlocking after firing is usually a sign of overpressure. Lighter load might have more powder, so higher pressure. That would explain the different results of the rounds.

Yeah, but... Both the 150gr and 170gr loads exhibited the same pronounced primer and slight flattening. Winchester is usually pretty well below the SAAMI specs. Then there's the sooting of the case mouth... which I haven't developed a hypothesis about.

I'll let Mossberg puzzle it out.

Well, over pressure is over pressure. Sooting of the outer case is usually a sign that the case is not expanding to the size of the chamber, IIRC. Not a good enough theoretician to be able to put this together. ?Chamber too large. ?Chamber too short. ?Both.

Can’t wait to hear what Mossberg has to say. ?Have you sent it yet.

Called Mossy this morning - before the normally scheduled 10 AM shitstorm - and talked to a pleasant young lass in Customer Service. She thinks it could be a headspace issue, but would like me to test the gun with other ammo. If I have the same issue - they want me to send it in.

Soooooo... I need to go to a gun store to buy ammo, and then to the range to shoot it. Aw, shucks.

The wifey will not be happy; but, it's for SCIENCE!

That is stupid. You have signs of overpressure and she wants you to shoot it some more. ?What are you suppose to do - wait until it blows up.

Send that puppy to Mossberg. Tell them you are worried about your safety. THAT ought to get them to move on this.

Devereaux wrote:Send that puppy to Mossberg. Tell them you are worried about your safety. THAT ought to get them to move on this.

Yep. Good thought.

YOU are not suppose to be THEIR test pilot. THEY are suppose to test their own products and give you a safe one.

Mossy has approved sending it back to the factory. Tomorrow, likely, she gets shipped off. They sent me a prepaid FedUPS shipping label.

NOW it begins.

Devereaux wrote:NOW it begins.

Yup.  Gotta say, to this moment, it hasn't been bad. A pain in the arse, but not too bad.

Mossberg customer service has been reasonable and pleasant. I found a rifle shipping box to safely pack up the carbine. (An old Mosin box. There's a nod to the Scot pack-rat gene: "Tro nay awah. Ye cood kneed et!") And Academy Sports, who sold me the lever, agreed to act as a shipping point - even though they didn't have to. That saved me two 80 mile round trips to the nearest FredEx shipping center.

It could all be undone if Mossburg pulls a Remington and sends back an unopened box with a snarky note that "The problem could not be replicated." I don't think that's going to happen.

Gun's back from it's visit to its birthplace.

Mossberg did test the 464 Leaver, found it wanting, and replaced the Locking Bolt. They then tested it again with 5 shots, cleaned it, and mailed it back. All according to the documentation they sent with the gun.

I picked it up today. The action does feel appreciably smoother.  If I'm lucky, I'll get a kitchen pass and test it Sunday. If I'm REALLY lucky, I'll have the new scope mounted on the 6.8, and I can sight that in, too.

We look forward to your report.

Short AAR: The repaired Mossy 464 worked flawlessly.

Longer report after I get through cleaning and putting the iron away.

glad to hear they fixed it up for you.

Cornmastah wrote:glad to hear they fixed it up for you.

Very pleased with both Mossberg and Academy Sports.

Still NO PIC!