Any bolt action love?

A

August West

Joined
Nov 1, 2009
Messages
795
For some reason, probably perverse, I love those old, clunky, bolt action shotguns and can't hardly pass them up. Paid 45 bucks for this old stevens 12 gauge. Chris

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I got my first bolt shotgun for Christmas when I was eight and have kept one or two ever since. Mossberg 385KB for me. It only has a two shot clip and one in the pipe, but it has worked on ducks and bucks and everything inbetween.
 
My 1st gun was a Mossberg 185D 20 gauge bolt gun given to me by my father. I still have it. Every other gun I own has been better taken care of and every one of them (including a Rossi single shot that I also like) has at one time or another jammed or otherwise had a mechanical failure. Never once that old Mossy. If you cycle it a lot it will chew up plastic shells a little but no harm done. It also has the old style interchangeable chokes that screw on to the outside of the barrel. Not a C-lect choke. These are individual tubes that screw on or off; just like today's except they go ON the barrel, not IN the barrel. Not worth a dime to anyone else, but to me it is priceless.

P.S. If anyone has a reliable source, I would like to get at least one more detachable magazine for it. Unfortunately, they will likely cost as much as another gun. Wait, I just had a thought. Hhmmm.
 
Actually, ten years ago, I located a source for the discontinued Mossberg parts. I bought a spare clip and choke and another whole new gun. Ask Mossberg. The guy bought out their old warehouse stocks.
 
I agree Codger, with these guns, you can sometimes buy a complete whole gun in decent shape, cheaper than a set of chokes or a magazine. Chris
 
That's the guy! Victor Havlin in Festus, MO.! He was great to deal with. My "new" 385KB came from his parts bins. He assembled it for me and shipped to my local FFL holder along with the spare parts I requested.
 
Codger, man that thing is clean, hard to find one of these ole workhorses in that kind of shape. I wonder if Mr Havlin has any more parts laying around. LOL
 
Likely so. He broke down the new old stock guns and filled barrels with the sorted parts. As I said, he cherry picked the parts to assemble mine. IIRC it was $125 or so in 1997. Plus spare parts, ship and FFL of course.
 
No bolt shotguns but I have a number of bolt action rifles. I recently just bought an old ~1942 savage .22 bolt action off a guy in a parking lot for $50 it's in mint condition I'll take some pics later. But I also have two rem 700 bolt actions in .22-.250 and .308 and a CZ 452. Love bolt action firearms.

By the way what the hell is that? A fisher cat? I've never seen them with white feet or face like that.
 
VTguy17 said:
By the way what the hell is that? A fisher cat? I've never seen them with white feet or face like that.
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Good ole East Carolina Fox squirrel, real common here and that coloration is also common, although that is one of the biggest ones I've ever killed, he was a hoss. Chris

EDIT: Here is a pic of the same type of squirrel but different color phase.

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I have no pics to show, but I started hunting at age 8 in 1963 with my dad's Mossberg 16 ga. bolt action with polychoke. It was a handful for me back then, but I managed to kill rabbits and even a few pheasants with it. Long gone now, but not the memories . . .
 
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