Mossberg MC1SC – Extreme Testing Review By Dan Kidder Managing Editor
I
have tested and reviewed a lot of guns. Some are brand new to the market and some are tried and true. Never have I spent as much time or energy testing a new gun than I have on the new Mossberg MC1SC. I first saw the MC1SC with everyone else in the industry in January at the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trades (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas. Being a huge fan of my Mossberg shotguns, I was excited that this 100-year-old, ‘Made in America’, family owned business was offering their first pistol since their first gun a century ago. Additionally, it featured some innovative design characteristics that made it a truly unique offering to the pistol market, rather than a tweak to an already proven design, like so many new offerings. Its unique Safe Takedown System, with a simple press of a button on the backplate that allowed the plate to be removed and the striker assembly to slip out and the slide to then be removed, gave it an edginess that made it interesting, useful, and innovative. Like most of the media present at Range Day at SHOT, I fired five shots, filmed a quick Instagram video and went on my merry way. Unlike many writers and bloggers present, I never write a review based just on five shots at the range. I have a strict testing and review protocol with a variety of ammo, running the gun through various tests. This can only be done at home under very controlled and stringent parameters. I requested a Testing and Evaluation gun (T&E) and within a few weeks, the gun was waiting for me at the Cedar City, Utah Sportsman’s Warehouse to pick up and start testing. Unfortunately, the recordbreaking snowy winter, a national speaking tour, and only having an outdoor range further delayed testing until early April. Testing Methodology To test this pistol, we put a variety of target and defensive rounds through it in varying weights and power factors. Starting with Colt Competition, 124 grain FMJ National Match, then Colt Defense 124 JHP, both from DoubleTap, then 115 grain FMJ polymer coated Syntech from American Eagle, 147 grain FMJs from Aguila, then onto the +P loads with some HST 124 grain from Federal, DoubleTap 124 grain +P Controlled Expansion, and finally DoubleTap +P loaded with 115 grain Barnes Tac-XP solid copper bullets. We then used some weak sauce bulk, reloaded 115 grain copper coated ammo picked up at a gun show, with no pedigree and no clue as to where it was loaded. Once I was able to get the gun to the range for testing, it handled a wide variety of ammunition, from weak sauce range loads to heavy +P ammunition, with a single exception. The 124 grain +P DoubleTap Controlled Expansion made the gun come
22 August 2019 | SPORTSMAN’S NEWS
Our testing protocol was so comprehensive, it lead to a design change.
apart. It seemed that the very quick disassembly mechanism that made the gun unique was now its Achille’s heel. At least with this one single load. The issue was repeated multiple times and videoed. Houston, we have a problem. This is where most testing would end and I even wrote an article detailing the failure. But in an effort to be fair, I took to the Interwebs to see if anyone else had experienced this failure. Not a single mention anywhere in any of the forums. To provide Mossberg a chance to explain, fix, diagnose, or ignore the issue (how they handled it would be their choice) I forwarded the video and article to Linda Powell, a veritable icon in the shooting sports industry and my media contact. I received an immediate response. Mossberg was more than concerned. They wanted more information. They ordered several thousand rounds of the same ammunition from DoubleTap and could not repeat the failure. They wanted to know if perhaps it was the way I was holding the gun. The video showed that I use the standard twohanded, thumbs-forward shooting grip that the majority of competitive shooters use. I posited that perhaps the lower air pressure of my range at 6,000 feet was a factor over their testing at almost sea level in Connecticut. Perhaps I got a bad gun, slightly out of specification. The gun was shipped The MC1SC worked flawlessly with back and within the week, I had a all of the ammunition we tested with the replacement from Mossberg. Testing exception of the DoubleTap 124 grain +P resulted in the same issue on the new Controlled Expansion, which caused the gun. Mossberg still could not replicate gun to spontaneously dissasemble. the issue.
