The Mossberg Shockwave: All Tricked Out

John Boch brought a tricked out Shockwave, Mossberg’s new $400 “firearm” to many of the GSL meeting locations for Tech Time.  Here’s the story.

by John Boch
I didn’t know the fourth anniversary present was blue steel, but by golly, my lovely bride came through for me over Labor Day weekend.  She hit a home run (grand slam?) with her first firearm present for me in a Marinecote version of Mossberg’s hot-selling, innovative shotgun.  Meanwhile, she is just as happy with her new patio furniture.

Officially, the BATF (and really big fires) classifies the Shockwave as a firearm.  But let’s be candid here:  if it walks and talks like a shotgun, and uses shotgun shells, it’s not just a firearm.  It’s a 14” barrel shotgun with a raptor grip.  Even better, with this gun, there’s no $200 tax stamps or hurdles to jump in order to buy it.

Taking it out to the range, John Naese and I both quickly discovered how it brings big grins to your face as you make it sing.  

Virtually all of my social shotguns sport sidesaddle shell carriers.  While the Shockwave comes with a 4 5+1 capacity, six more on the receiver adds peace of mind (TacStar Sidesaddle $40ish at your local gun store).  The only downside to the carrier is that you’ll bump your hip with the carrier if you crowd your side while firing the gun.
Two of our Chicago GSL members warned against holding the Shockwave out in front to aim it conventionally.  “You’ll eat it every time,” they cautioned.  We followed their advice.  Both Mr. Naese and I shared a tendency to fire high and left from the hip without the laser.  

Knowing early on that I needed a better aiming system than SWAG (scientific wild-assed guess), I ordered a Crimson Trace CMR-206 green laser (about $100 Amazon, or a made-in-China knockoff for $42).  To mount it, GG&G makes a combination rail and sling attachment adapter ($30 GG&G).  The laser works wonderfully and I have it sighted 1.5” low and left of point of impact.  

Instead of stipling the grip for better control, I pulled a bicycle tire inner tube over the grip, which helps with both grip control and soaking up more of the mild recoil.

Yes, Mossberg’s engineers worked some serious magic designing the raptor grip.  Shooting it from the hip, the gun’s recoil is not the least bit objectionable.  A .45 Auto pistol has more snap when fired.  

Aguila “Shorty” shells felt extra-mild, but ejecting them proved highly problematic.  I ran some of the original minishells purchased roughly fifteen years ago and they consistently created problems after virtually every shot.

Yes, the OpSol Mini-clip ($15ish – pictured above in the loading port) makes cycling the short shells reliable, but when it takes two hands and a few four-letter words to open the action after firing, what’s the point?  My advice based upon my experience:  skip the shorties.  Conventional shells cycled smoothly and flawlessly.

So, with a barrel 4” shorter than anything available to mere mortals until now, you probably want to know how it patterns.  In short, far tighter than I expected.

The old rule of thumb about riotgun shot spread says expect patterns to spread at 1” per yard.  

This Mossberg, using Remington Law Enforcement Reduced Recoil buckshot (8 pellet) patterned at half that.  At between five and six yards, the gun consistently delivered sub 3” groups, thanks mainly to one or two fliers.  One group came in at 2".  So, if you think that 4” less barrel means a shot spread similar to a blunderbuss, rethink that.  You will need to aim this boomstick if you want hits.  Hence the laser.

This story shouldn’t serve as a formal review, but at first blush, this Mossberg will provide you lots of grins, while serving faithfully as a relatively compact, controllable and highly effective home-defense tool.  Tell your significant other to have Santa put this under the Christmas tree for you.  If you can wait that long.