Loading a 930
I have a question for Mossberg 930 owners. My local shop has two new 930 SPX's for sale (standard rear stock and PG rear stock). I read the online manual for this gun and it seems that the first round cannot be chambered from the mag tube. According to the manual, the safety is pulled back to the "on safe" position, the bolt is pulled back until it locks back, a round is fed into the open ejection port, the bolt release button is hit (chambering the round), and then rounds are fed into the mag tube.
Unlike my pump-action shotgun (Winchester SXP Defender, which is awesome), typical autoloading rifle (like my AR-15), or auto-loading pistol, the Mossberg 930 will not feed a round from the magazine when you work the action manually. Does this mean the 930 must be stored with a chambered round or no rounds at all? With my pump shotgun, the mag tube can be filled with the chamber empty, action locked, and safety on. Pressing the action release allows me to pump a round from the magazine to the chamber, safety on the whole time.
Some people advocate storing a pump shotgun with a full mag tube, empty chamber, and hammer down so that the gun can be racked without needing to press the action release. I don't agree. Pulling the trigger on a gun with a loaded magazine is not a good practice. It also means the gun is stored with the safety off and once racked and chamber loaded, the safety will be off. Someone else unfamiliar with the shotgun's controls might be hindered by having the action locked and the safety on (a good thing). Having the action unlocked and safety off means anyone can load the chamber and fire with minimal effort (a bad thing). And yes I keep my guns locked up securely.
One thing I really like about my Win SXP (and hate about the Rem 870) is the action release position. On the Win SXP, the release is behind the trigger guard and can be activated with the middle finger of the trigger hand, no shifting of grip. You can't do that with the Rem 870.
Can you load the Mossberg 930 mag tube first, with an empty chamber? If you did, I don't think working the action would load the chamber. You would have to have a loose round ready to throw into the open ejection port. Seems awkward and will likely be a deal breaker.
