Having owned a pre-'64 Win 94 and Marlin 336 some 40yrs ago, I wanted a thudy-thudy that had a better action and felt better at the shoulder. Neither of the current versions we acceptable to me so I thought I'd just pass on one as I don't 'need' one for hunting here in the West.
A friend got an early Mossberg 464 with the extractor issue that once resolved by Mossberg seemed to work well, however, I wasn't a fan of his birch stock. His shot very well, had a decently crisp action and trigger and great Marbles sights straight from the factory.
So, when I found out that Mossberg was releasing a pistol grip version with a walnut stock, it got my attention. After checking it out at the local funstore, I plunked down my money on a NIB walnut beauty, took it home, and spent 1 night cycling the action after a good clean to smooth out the action.
At the range I was very pleasantly surprised at it's performance, smoothness, and decent trigger. The Marbles sights are perfect for it as well and with some 5 different loads of my handloads in both 150 and 170grn and some 150grn X-Treme plated plinking loads I also worked up, I proceeded to test it out.
Even though my other longer range leverguns have a tang sight, this carbine isn't set up for one so I used the stock sights and had a go at bowling pins at 200yds. I was pleasantly surprised to do quite well on them as this little carbine is a shooter.
Now, after some 6 yrs and well over 500rds of zero problem fun shooting, it's a real favorite. Crisp cycling, good shooting, and just a fun 30-30, it's a keeper.