Looking at all the new firearms and calibers that have sprung up over the recent past, it’s incomprehensible to imagine where it will all end. While those in power determine for us which guns are bad – and by omission, which are good – I haven’t bought into the idea that newer is always better. Over the years I’ve latched onto some well-crafted old-timers that can keep up with anything in the accuracy department currently manufactured.
One of them is an O.F. Mossberg model 152 made in New Haven, Connecticut in .22 rimfire caliber.
Mossberg Model 152 (Red marks indicate shots already on this target before sight-in
It employs a detachable box magazine, sports an 18-inch barrel and weighs a scant 5 pounds. The Monte Carlo stock is of straight-grained black walnut that subtly conveys quality. But, here’s where good guns go evil: It has a hinged forearm that pulls down to form a stabilizing hand grip, and it too is walnut. Made in year 1948 it shoots only .22 long rifle ammo – no shorts or longs. It also has sling swivels on the left side of the stock for the sling.
When I began testing the diminutive game-getter, it wasn’t feeding properly, so I took it to a local gun shop offering gunsmithing service. When I got the call to pick it up, I was happy to learn the bill was only $40 and the employee of the shop said it worked fine now.
Eager to give it a go back home, I loaded and fired. Immediately, it jammed just like before. Feeding it different ammo didn’t help, either. Although the shop didn’t tell me how they repaired the malfunction, it wasn’t difficult to see. The lips of the magazine had been filed in an attempt to solve the feeding issue, but removing material certainly was not the solution. I now owned a single-shot semi-auto rimfire that was essentially useless.
Before giving up on the notion of bringing the little pea shooter back to its original form, I contacted Numrich Gun Parts, which remanufactures parts for old guns. The firm showed that the particular magazine I needed was not in stock. However, sometime in the future, when demand for the part was great enough to warrant manufacturing some of them, they’d have some available. The good news was that the slick little Mossberg used the same action as other rimfire models the company produced over time and apparently other folks must have had similar issues. Numrich finally received enough orders to make a new magazine for me for a mere $28. Heck, that was less than the “gunsmith” bilked me.
Still not knowing if it would solve the feeding issue, I fed it various .22 rimfire ammo and it spit them out like the machine it was over 70 years ago.
Now to make it pretty. The stock was refinished and coated with Minwax spar urethane and the metal work was cold-blued. Without a scope, it would still be of no practical use for me, so I installed an inexpensive fixed 4-power Bushnell rimfire scope with a 1-inch tube.
One thing I’ve learned about these old rimfires is that they are extremely accurate with sub-sonic ammo – those that fly below the speed of sound at 1120 feet per second. I don’t recall what ammo I settled on for the newly revised version of the old classic, but it was then put back into storage until last week.
A target was set up at 25 yards and the old Mossberg was stoked with Federal Gold Medal target ammunition. With my pal, Joe, spotting over my shoulder, the gun was rested on sand bags and I squeezed off three rounds to see where they were striking the paper. The first was less than ½-inch from the center and the next two rounds touched each other in the tiny center ring. The next 3-shot string found all shots touching in the center-X ring measuring a miniscule .245 of an inch! Unbelievable – and, with absolutely no adjustment to the scope.
Newer is not always better. Who knew?
