What do you do when you’ve got one of the best shooters in the world on your pro staff, and he comes to you with some improvements on a shotgun design? If you’re Mossberg, you listen to Jerry Miculek and implement them, of course. Miculek and Mossberg worked together to bring the 930 JM Pro to market, and after years of competing with the 930, Miculek thought Mossberg could make a great shotgun even better. And, thus, the 940 was born.
Changes made from the 930 were purpose-driven, a persistent complaint on the 930, especially in the rough-and-tumble competitive-shooting world, is that the 930 needs frequent cleaning and is susceptible to elements. The 940 employs a graduated gas system to accommodate a wide variety of shell configurations, from light birdshot to heavy slugs. It’s a robust design that should run significantly cleaner and, theoretically, longer in between take-downs.
I had the opportunity to run the 940 extensively at a private launch at Gunsite Academy late last year. Attendees at this event were given two days of training dedicated to learning how to run the new 940, under the talented and watchful eyes of both Jerry and Lena Miculek. Gunsite’s instructors ran us through standard shotgun drills, while Lena Miculek offered tips and suggestions on loading and setting up the 940 for competition. For someone who had only a rudimentary understanding of the competitive shotgun world, it was like drinking from the firehose of knowledge.
What did I learn about the 940? If Mossberg’s goal was to build a shotgun that will run just about anything you put into it (we didn’t try the Federal Shorty Shotshells, because the 940 isn’t designed for them, and we weren’t sure they’d function 100 percent) and do so for an extended period of time, mission accomplished. Between myself and the other dozen-plus attendees, we fed hundreds of rounds of birdshot, buckshot and slugs through the 940 with no stoppages of which I am aware. Whatever magic Mossberg and Miculek worked on the 940, it’s built to run.
More models will be coming, including a Tactical variant akin to the 930 Tactical that we here at Shooting Illustrated will be quite interested in checking out, as the year progresses. Stay tuned for more information on this new line from Mossberg, as well as other new products as they hit the market. Check out the specs on the new guns here:
