Range report: EAA Witness Elite 10MM and 13rd Mossy 930 12g

[musicman]

Here's the thread I posted when I got my guns in hand a little over a week ago: http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/80914-new-level-of-personal-firepower-achievement-unlocked/

I finally got to try these out! w0lfattack, TNPoPo, and I went to the OK Corral in Woodbury today. The weather was nice, if just a touch warm. Great day at the range. Let's get to it!

The Mossberg 930 - What a beast!! On the way out there, we discusssed the propensity of semi-auto shotties to not cycle with light target loads. I started with a box of cheap, 1oz Estate clays shells and loaded up 13. (Freakin's sweet!!! 13 rounds in ONE SHOTGUN!) All 13 went right where I wanted them, and without a hiccup. SuhWEET! TNPopo, especially, was pleasantly surprised the gun ran so well with such a light load. I was pretty happy myself!

Next, I wanted to see exactly where the thing was shooting so I loaded 2 and a half boxes of slugs in the tube and went to work! I have VERY little experience shooting slugs and am not very good with just the front sight with no real rear reference. I was standing about 15 yards away from the target and I was consistently putting my rounds about 3-4" up and left. I think it's all on me, as the gun went right to target in the hands of a better shotgun shooter. Next we ran some sabot slugs, then 12 pellet, 9 pellet, and 8 pellet 00 buck. TNPopo showed us what a dramatic difference in patterns you get going with a lower pellet count. at about 12 yards, the 12 pellet buck spread HUGE! 10 pellets landed inside the standard torso sized target, with one slug landing in the paper just off torso on the right, and another on the left. I've never seen a spread that open in such a short distance. With the 9 pellet stuff, everything was pretty tight in about 4-5". The eight pellet shell was STOOPID tight! All eight easily under 3 inches. That doesn't mean any one is better than the other... it means I now have some great knowledge and different choices depending on what I want to do with my shotguns. Everything cycled great, and recoil is VERY manageable!!

I normally get a little bruising when I shoot a lot out of my Mossy 500, but I'm not even a LITTLE sore now, and I put a lot of slugs and buck through the 930 today. That action soaks up a LOT of recoil! Honestly, unless I'm trying to distinguish the recoil between loads, I barely even noticed a difference between basic birdshot, slugs, and buck. The gun shoulders well and just feels pretty darn good to me!

Now for the less exciting characteristic of the gun - You have to really make sure you insert shells in the mag tube ALL THE WAY before moving to the next. They seem to need to go in about another 1/8th of an inch to engage the shell stopper, or whatever you call the little tab that keeps the shells in the mag until the action is cycled, than I'm used to in my Mossy 500. If you don't get the shell ALL the way in, it can jump up under the loading gate and cause a doublefeed situation. It's cleared easy enough by holding the bolt back and removing one offending shell, but it'll be a real pain in the keister on a 3 gun stage. I need to practice loading in a more positive manner... I think that'll pretty much clear up the problem.

I DID get it to malf eventually! I loaded another tube of the light 1 oz birdshot and shot from the hip with a pretty weak grip, and got one to hang up. My "limp-wristing" DID get cause the gun to short-stroke and not completely pull the next shot out of the mag tube, causing a hangup.

Verdict: 8.5/10 stars. Super happy with the cycling, felt recoil, and overall quality of the gun, but the loading issue is a little annoying. For almost exactly half the money of the comparable Benelli, I think this thing is a steal. I am absolutely happy with this purchase.



Now, the EAA Witness Elite Match 10MM! Wow. WHAT A GUN!! I hope the other two guys will chime in with their impressions of this sweet piece. Incredibly smooth slide, all the way up and back. Tight fit, exactly zero play. I took the slide off for a quick wipe down before the range trip, and the gun is well finished inside and out. No burrs, unsightly machining, or other shortcuts visible. Excellent overall feel and quality. I have to make sure you all know... this gun is under $600 BRAND NEW!! I know I said before in my initial impression posting that I've not felt another sub $1k gun this nice, and I still stand by that. Now, I have two other people that agree with me!

Ok, she's pretty, but how does she shoot?! FANTASTICALLY is how it shoots!! This gun is no lightweight, and it's a PERFECT match for the 10 MM round! I couldn't believe how easy this gun was to handle. Seriously, I am still in awe of it. It shoots right to sights and has a really nice, crisp trigger. The small slack after takeup I mentioned in my last post just wasn't present today. Once I set the overtravel screw, I don't think I'll make any other changes to the gun. This gun shooting the 10MM (shot 50 Remington 180gr fmj, and 30 Freedom Munitions 180gr fmjs) feels better to me than full size poly guns shooting 40. It's much closer to a 1911 shooting 45s. Now, I said feels BETTER than a poly 40... not necessarily easier... the recoil I believe is on par or maybe a touch more, but it is much smoother, and the gun comes right back down for the next shot. We had zero hiccups with the gun.

It has a strong, well-tuned extractor! Cases made a nice high and wide arc, flying about 12-15' between the 3 o'clock and 4 o'clock positions, getting 9-10' of air in flight. It was kinda' fun to watch! The high mag releasse I complained about before is simply a non-issue, now that I've shot the gun. I didn't even remember that I disliked it until a moment ago when I reread my old post!

My Wolff extra power calibration pack of recoil and hammer springs came in today while we were at the range. I'm guessing the Remmy and Freedom Munitions ammo I shot was not necessarily 100% full power ammo. I'll either make some of my own, or Underwood will hurry up and stock some again, and then we'll see how hot the loads get. As for now, though, I think the recoil spring that came in the gun is just fine. Everything worked smoothly and I didn't feel any frame battering or anything harsh happening.

The only issue with the Witness centered around the magazines. When loaded with 12 or 13 rounds (I mentioned in the other thread that the mag springs are CRAZY hard, and I couldn't load them to their 15rd capacity) two of the mags would not go all the way into the gun. We played around with them for a bit and found that if I just put in 10 rounds, they would work fine and drop free. Any more than that, though, and the internal stress must flex the mag walls just enough to cause problems. I will research this further tomorrow. We have a few ideas as to what's going on and how to fix it, but I won't bother typing all of that out until I've played around with them some more.

Verdict: 9.9/10 stars. Phenomenal gun, regardless of the price. When the price is factored in, it almost becomes ridiculous to think that another gun could possibly justify costing 3 times as much as this does, as it just seems it's impossible to be 3 times better. Tactile sensation, build quality, and function are all excellent. The mag issue is keeping me from rating this gun a perfect 10, and even that's hard for me to do. I love it THAT much!

Here's a little vid of me being a goober and shooting a junker guitar. Unfortunately, I'm quicker on the trigger than my camera buddy thought I'd be, and the guitar fell over on my very first shot, which the camera just missed. Oh well, it's still a video of some sweet guns goin' off!

http://youtu.be/PK1OL8Cyv48

Edited August 17, 2014 by musicman

[Luke E.]

I was there all afternoon. When were you guys there?

[musicman]

Oh man! We musta just missed you! We finished the day on the rifles lanes, and left about 1:40.

[Luke E.]

 I had a big group from my wife's workplace that wanted to take their carry permit course so I was helping with that. We went straight to the pistol range and stayed there until 5. 

[TrickyNicky]

Man looks like you all had a great time. I'm even more intrigued by the mossy now, I've been looking at getting a pump for awhile, but you've got me really thinking about that one... I

I'm glad the EAA turned out to be such a winner, always nice to hear when something's nicer than expected. Sounds like you've got a real keeper and all the better when you've sorted out the magazine issues. I'd fairly ignorantly say that it sounds like there's too much spring vs too stiff a spring. Hope it's an easy fix anyway.