MOSSBERG 940 TACTICAL

A New and Improved Dumpster Defender?

- Iain Harrison

Despite being the go-to American brand when it comes to pump guns, Mossberg has never been able to capture the public imagination when it comes to semi-autos‚ mainly because past iterations of their offerings have been various flavors of hot garbage.

The last model, the 930, was launched with the blessing of the prophet Miculek (PBUH) and seemed to be destined for greatness, but after witnessing first-hand several examples fail during courses of fire on the three-gun circuit, questions regarding consistency in their manufacturing persisted. Some users report nary a hiccup, while others seem to require detailed and rigorous cleaning every few hundred rounds in order to stave off gremlins.

The 940 seeks to address all these concerns with a comprehensive revamp of several key components, and the ones we’ve shot all seem to run well. So far, so good.

OVERVIEW

The 940 lineup debuted in 2020 with the JM Pro competition shotgun, an astute move by Mossberg. Rather than immediately move to production with a mass-market version, the new JM Pro allowed the company to put a limited number of high-touch examples in the hands of high-volume shooters; any shortcomings could be identified quickly and corrected before too many were in circulation. Since then, the company has rolled out a waterfowl version and a turkey model, before finally committing to a tactical or home defense variant. We were the first members of the press to get hands on an example outside of the carefully controlled environment of a press junket.