Stoeger M3000 torture test! (with gross pics!)

[openclassterror]

Just got back from the MGM Ironman in Parma Idaho. My first run there, and what an event! The primary reason for me going was to run an abuse test on my gear, and it delivered in spades. From shooting inverted prone under wooden power line spools to fine sand blowing sideways at 25 mph, the conditions are hell on gear. Add to that courses of fire that generate multi-hundred degree barrel temps, and most guns show their weaknesses. I shot open class, and was squadded with open, limited, and trooper class shooters. There were 4 saigas, 3 VEPRs, a Benelli M2, a Benelli M4, one Mossberg 930 and 2 JaM Pros on our squad, in addition to my Stoeger. Basic overview of the shotgun performance in our group, with no account taken of owner care or maintenance, only functioning during the match-

Saigas-

At least one major stage meltdown for each. One would not cycle slugs at all for half the stages, ran the same ones perfectly on other stages. Another went single-shot with ALL ammo for most of a stage. Magazines seemed to be a major influence, as one ran awesome through the first mag on every stage, then always started misfeeding after the first reload.

VEPRs-

2 of the three had severe accuracy issues with slugs, though all three ran well. One would not cycle slugs at all, though it ran with all other ammo. Likely a light load issue.

Benellis-

2 FTFs on the M2, both after difficulties with speed loaders. Likely deformed shells. M4 had no issues, other than stock collapsing on the shooter partway through a stage.

Mossy 930-

A couple FTEs, mostly ran well.

JM Pros-

One had an occasional failure to load a shell onto the lifter from the magazine, about once per stage. Empty ejected, bolt closed on empty chamber.

The other ran well for two stages, then began a string of malfunctions that resulted in a complete lockup on day two. The owner then borrowed her Father's JMPro, which had about the same rate and type of failures as JMPro #1.

Stoeger-

Zero failures. None. 191 Federal Walmart #7-1/2s, 73 Remington High-base #6 Pheasant loads, and 52 Federal Truball 1300 slugs. During a stage on day one I got the barrel so hot that when I turned the gun on its side to dump it, I burnt my thumb, leaving a series of blisters nearly an inch long (see pic 1). I noticed later in the day that slug accuracy wasn't as good as before, and I couldn't flip the 85 yard slug spinner. I pulled the barrel the next morning, and saw that molten plastic from the shot wads CAKED the first 10 inches of the bore! (see pic 2. Dark spots further down the bore are barrel ports). Apparently it was getting hot enough on some stages to melt the wads as they passed down the barrel. By far the worst plastic fouling I have ever seen. I swabbed it with shooter's choice and let it soak until I was the on-deck shooter, the patched it and re-assembled. While I had it apart, I noticed that the follower felt a little gritty coming out of the mag tube, so I stuffed a paper towel through it before putting it together and put a couple drops of Rem-Oil on the action bars. I also paper toweled the barrel extension, and dripped a little oil on the bolt runways. Ran it the rest of the match in that condition. I will admit, I brought along gun socks for all my guns and kept them wrapped on my cart until I was on-deck each stage. That really helped keep the sand intrusion to a minimum. But overall, I was VERY impressed with its performance. This shotgun is now over 5,000 rounds, and not showing any undue wear to this point. I will resurrect this thread and update if and when it starts breaking down.

Edited June 11, 2014 by openclassterror

[usmc1094]

Thanks for all your hard work Tom! Glad you had a good time at the match. I've been covering my shotgun and rifle on the cart to keep dust and sand out because of the chamber flags.

[openclassterror]

The biggest surprise to me was the failure rate of the box magazine shotguns at the match. They are heavily favored in Open and Trooper divisions. The USAMU guys were on the squad behind us, and because they shot so much faster than our squad they often ended up on our stage waiting on us to finish. General consensus from Payne and Horner (who have seen MANY more matches than I am likely to) was that the Saiga guns just really are not robust enough for what we do. Even the guns re-worked by the top guys seem to require almost a gunsmith level of constant intervention to stay running at 100%. We had a big debate on our squad, as one of the guys kept pointing out that he could reload 20 rounds in 1.5 seconds. However, he spent about 10 or 15 seconds a stage manually cycling the gun, and had fail-to-engage penalties on several clays due to jams on the flipper targets. Hard to see the benefit there.

[B45C22]

Thanks for the report. I find this info very interesting. The only real surprise there is the benelli hang ups. I find that I need to replace my mag tube spring before every big match and I don't have issues.

Glad to hear your 3000 was a champ. Based upon all the reports it appears to be a beast.

[uncledoc]

Thanks Open,

Considering this gun as a backup to my 1301.....appreciate the reporting!

[openclassterror]

Benelli hangups were not that surprising, considering the particular circumstances on each. The M2 was run by a guy new to open class, and it was his first competition with speed loader tubes. Both feed failures occurred directly after he stubbed a speed load from too much angle. From my experience with speed loaders, when you stub a load like that, the plastic part of the shell usually has a kink in it just ahead of the brass, and the head is out of square. The M4 operator was trooper class, and collapsed his stock between stages so it would carry easier. As dirty as everything gets with the sand blowing around, I would surmise that the latch wasn't fully locked before he fired it.

[Oskino]

Great feedback Tom, your thumb looks nasty man. Hey thanks for all your input on this Great Shotgun and all your custom parts that you make specific for the Stoeger M3000.