Quality on a budget with Mossberg

With a company history dating back to 1919, the American firm of O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., based in North Haven, Connecticut, is well known for producing shotguns for hunting, military, and law enforcement applications. As time went on, however, Mossberg branched out to produce and market other types of firearms as well. One of their forays into the hunting rifle world was the Patriot, introduced in 2015. – BY JOHAN VAN WYK

Formalito, Mossberg’s South African agents, supplied SA JAGTER/HUNTER with a Patriot Revere test rifle chambered for the .308 Winchester, along with a Leupold 4,5-14×40 VX-3HD scope mounted in Leupold PRW2 rings, and Federal factory ammunition loaded with their excellent 180-grain Fusion bullets.

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When we unpacked the Mossberg rifle, the first thing that came to mind was that it was, considering the price, quite a lot of rifle. The classically styled, grade 2 European walnut stock has a cheekpiece, rosewood grip cap and fore-end tip, and a black ventilated recoil pad.

 

With a length of pull of 13,75”, the rifle fitted me well enough, but it was slightly too short for our advertising consultant, Jacques Boshoff. This is not meant as a criticism, however. The Patriot is a factory-made rifle and was designed to suit as wide a range of physiques as possible. It is thus inevitable that the stock dimensions will not fit everybody across the board.

The stock is further adorned with two-panel chequering on the pistol grip and a wrap-around panel on the fore-end. The chequering was a bit sharp for my taste but still neat and practical.

 

The Patriot action features a spiral-fluted bolt and a removable bolt head (some Internet sources call it a floating bolt head). It uses a typical push-feed system with a recessed bolt head and a spring-loaded extractor and ejector, and locks up via twin opposed locking lugs, à la Remington 700.

The trigger is Mossberg’s Lightning Bolt-Action trigger with a small spring-loaded blade within the trigger itself that stands proud when the action is cocked, therefore also doubling as a cocking indicator. The trigger pull was on the heavy side but with no creep, and the mechanism is adjustable for a trigger pull from 2 to 7 lbs. The bolt release and safety catch are located on the left and right side of the bolt shroud, respectively, and both worked as advertised.

 

The Patriot comes in two action lengths. The short-action version, as tested, is available in .243 Winchester, 6,5 Creedmoor and .308 Winchester, all with 22” barrels. The long-action version is offered in .270 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield and .300 Winchester Magnum, with 24” barrels. The removable drop-box magazine is a standard feature (capacity: five rounds for the short-action version, three rounds for the long-action version). The test rifle also sported a recessed match crown, although threaded and fluted barrels are available with other Patriot models.

 

ON THE RANGE

As the test rifle was brand new, I ran a dry patch through the bore to remove any excess grease, oil or other potential obstructions that can cause damage before settling down to fire a few groups with the Mossberg. The Patriot weighs in at 7 lbs without the scope, so it is on the light side, but the well-designed stock and soft recoil pad helped tame what recoil the .308 cartridge delivered.

I must admit that the trigger took a bit of getting used to, but it worked fine after dry-firing the rifle a few times. I then settled down to see what the rifle would do after bore-sighting the Leupold.

 

It took but a handful of shots to get the scope on target, and I concentrated on firing a grouping to see what the Mossberg was capable of. Well, quite a bit, as it turned out, as the first three-shot string landed just about within an inch of each other at 100 m. Please bear in mind that this is factory ammunition from a brand-new rifle, the action of which is bedded directly into the stock.

With a different diet and a chance to exercise the barrel a bit, I have no doubt that the Mossberg will be capable of even better accuracy. However, for a budget .308 with factory ammunition, I have no complaints about the rifle’s accuracy.

The function was also good. The Mossberg fed cartridges smoothly from the magazine into the chamber. The design allows cartridges to be loaded into the detachable magazine without physically having to remove the magazine from the rifle. In addition, the Patriot comes standard from the factory with a set of Weaver-style scope mount bases – a nice touch.

 

CONCLUSION

With regard to the Leupold scope and Federal ammunition, what is there to add? Both manufacturers have excellent reputations for quality built up over many years, and both continue to innovate and introduce new products to keep up with the times. Therefore, both the scope and the ammunition get a thumbs-up from me.

The Patriot Revere is good value for money. It is a good choice for the occasional hunter who does not spend weeks on end in the hunting field every year, or as a first rifle for a young or beginner hunter. For the farmer looking for a working rifle to do duty on all sorts of pests, or perhaps the occasional springbuck, blesbuck or kudu for the larder, the Mossberg will fit the bill perfectly.

* Mossberg, Leupold and Federal products are imported into South Africa by Formalito in Pretoria. They can be contacted telephonically on 012-664-7793 or via the web at www.formalito.co.za.

(This article was published in the January-February 2022 edition of SA JAGTER/HUNTER)