Mossberg 140B

ronl

New member
Years ago I picked up this old Mossberg 140B .22 for next to nothing. It didn't have the magazine(that explains the next to nothing) and I figured I'd get one and find out how it shoots. Well, it's been at least five years now and I happened to remember it back in the gun safe, so I dug it out. Someone had put a clear coat of something over the wood, which looked rather dull with all the splotches of paint on it(next to nothing, remember) Removed the action and cleaned it up, hmmm, this thing doesn't look too bad. After looking at the stock, it looked as if a decent piece of walnut resided beneath the crud. Some elbow grease, sandpaper and 5 coats of clear finish later, I find I am right. Needless to say, the magazine is on it's way and I'm looking forward to shooting my "new" old gun for the first time. I know some of these old Mossbergs can shoot very well, because I used to own a 146A-B. My friend took it to a silhouette comp and won money in the ram bash with it. I told him to tell some of the guys with the high dollar Martini's and Anschutz rifles that they had been bested by a $20 Mossberg. I hope this one shoots as well. I know that it looks much better than the old 146. I guess I could go out and single feed the old girl and find out how she shoots, but it's been this long, a few more days won't matter.
 
Yes, Mossbergs often shoot pretty well. I got a 144 target model to stay about 3/4" at 50 yards, but the chambers are a bit large. If the bore is okay, you may want to have the barrel set back and re-chambered and the muzzle re-crowned.

Trigger pulls are usually long and may have a lot of backlash, but corrections can be made there if you're handy.
 
similar story

Cleaned an old Moss146B up for a pal, and beneath the crud was a nice piece of walnut as well. Adult sized stock, beefy, would lend itself to postion shooting I would think. The trigger was good, far better than my 44US.

My pal had tears in his eyes, given to him by his dad, at age 10. Rifle bought used, cost...$7.00, in 1957.
 
The mag arrived Thurs., and so I tried it out today. Just shooting cheap Remington stuff. The old girl shot very well. Shot it with the target sights, then added a 2-7 scope and fired a 7/16" 4 shot group at 50 yds. It would have been 5 but I didn't have as many rounds in the mag as I thought. The mag worked flawlessly. There was an old Natty Light can sitting around that had been used as a target previously and I set it up on the rack. Shot at the N on the can and I could clearly see I had hit it. Okay so let's try the A and I hit that too, although I couldn't see a hole from the firing line. Good enough for me. Look forward to more fun with this old girl and I'm going to try some better ammo.
 
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