Phil Bourjaily
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Over/under shotguns are a rare sight in the turkey woods. And with its coat of Mossy Oak Greenleaf camo and its 20-inch barrels that keep its overall length to a stubby 37-½ inches, Mossberg’s new Silver Reserve Turkey is a gun that won’t be seen so much as heard. O/Us have their advantages for turkey hunting One is that two barrels give you a choice of chokes, so you can be ready for the long shots with an XX-Full turkey tube, and have an open-choked barrel ready for birds that sneak in tight. Also, because the O/U action is shorter than the average repeater’s action by 3/4 inches, it’s a more compact gun overall, making it easier to tote and handle in the bushes.
The other standout feature of Mossberg’s latest is that it’s one of only a few guns available in 3-inch 28-gauge. All told, the gun comes in 20-, 28- and .410, all with three-inch chambers, and they come cut down, turkey-choked, and camo-ed from the factory. I chose the trendy 3-inch 28-gauge to test. My full review is below, but let’s first take a look at the new Silver Reserve’s specs and the idea behind using an O/U for turkeys.
Mossberg Silver Reserve Eventide Turkey Specs
Mossberg’s new over/under turkey gun is available in 3-inch 20 gauge or 3-inch 28. Mossberg
Length: 37.5 inches
Weight: 6.5 pounds
Barrel: 20-inch vent rib, fiber-optic bead, two X-full turkey chokes, one Improved Cylinder
Action: Break-action O/U
Trigger: Single-selective,7-plus pounds
Capacity: 2
Finish: Mossy Oak Greenleaf
Stock: Synthetic
Chambering: 3-inch 20-gauge, 3-inch 28-gauge (tested), 3-inch .410
Price: $927
The idea behind using an O/U for turkey hunting has been around awhile. Years ago, an employee at Briley Manufactuting in Houston told me that one of his rich customers got tired of missing gobblers up close and asked Briley to convert a Remington 3200 into a turkey gun by bobbing the barrels, dulling the finish, and putting an IC choke in one barrel and a turkey choke in the other. The gun sparked a small trend among other rich Texans who were tired of missing turkeys up close (apparently, they make up a larger subset of the population than you might think), and for a while Briley was doing 30 or so of these guns a year. But you don’t need spend a bunch of time and money finding a nice older 3200 and wrecking it, because Mossberg will now sell you a Silver Reserve O/U turkey gun for less than $1000.
Mossberg Silver Reserve Eventide Turkey Test Results
Mossberg’s new Silver Reserve Turkey in 28-gauge patterned more than well enough to take turkeys out to 40 yards or more. Phil Bourjaily
The new Silver Reserve Turkey is cute, it’s tiny, and it’s a simple gun, with a single selective, mechanical trigger and extractors. It has sling-swivel studs on its barrel and synthetic stock and a vent rib with single fiber-optic bead. Mossberg now uses two different O/U actions in its International Reserve Series, and the Silver Reserve guns are the taller, bulkier design, so even as a 20-inch barreled 28, this gun weighs 6 1/2-pounds, and I’d bet it’s built on the 20-gauge frame.
Like so many Turkish-made break-action guns, this one has a heavy trigger—creepy and squishy at 7-plus pounds. In its defense, I would say that good turkey gun triggers matter most on guns that kick hard, and this one didn’t, because there is only so much kick that fits into a 28-gauge hull. I shot it with slow, 1000 fps 1 ½-ounce Apex loads and 1200 fps, 1 ¼-ounce Hevi18, neither of which beat me up in this gun.
While it shot indifferently with the lead I used to sight in my red-dot, and it patterned HeviShot Magnum Blend abysmally, when loaded with pure TSS, the Silver Reserve Eventide shot very well. At 40 yards, the Hevi18 1 ¼-ounce loads of 9 TSS averaged 135 hits in a 10-inch circle. The Apex 1 1/2 ounce Greenleaf loads of 9/10 blends recorded one monster, average-distorting 225-hit pattern, but mostly scored 160 hits and above, which is very good performance and more than enough for turkeys at 40 yards and a step or two more.
The gun comes with in IC choke, so you can set your gun up in “oil-tycoon-tired-of-missing” mode with one turkey choke barrel and one IC barrel. Out of curiosity, I tried it, and decided those Texans might be onto something good. At 15 yards, as I expected, the turkey choke put almost the entire load of Hevi18 TSS into a 5- or 6-inch circle. The IC choke put 189 pellets into the 10-inch circle, and I estimated its overall lethal spread at 13 inches. As an experienced misser of turkeys, I can tell you that an extra 7 or eight 8 of pattern spread up close can make a big difference.
The gun shot to point of aim with the top barrel, and the bottom barrel wasn’t far off. I didn’t expect the barrels to be perfectly regulated, and they weren’t, but they were close enough. While the single fiber-optic bead made a serviceable sight, I used Meadow Creek Mounts fine, no-gunsmithing, rib-mounting system to put a Holosun EPS Carry closed-emitter sight on the gun. Having wrecked an open-emitter sight a couple of years ago while trying to clean out all the mud I’d clogged in it, it seems to me a closed-emitter sight might be a more durable optic. The EPS offers a choice between a 2MOA dot and a 32 MOA circle, which is 16-inch circle at 50 yards and an 8-inch circle perfect for surrounding a turkey’s head and neck at 25 yards. It runs for 50,000 hours on a battery and has a solar panel on top and has an RMSc Shield footprint. It makes a dandy turkey sight.
Mossberg Silver Reserve Eventide Turkey: Final Thoughts
The Silver Reserve Turkey is a very handy gun that can be set up with one barrel for close birds and one barrel for far-away ones. Phil Bourjaily
Pros
Shoots to point of aim
Compact
Choice of chokes
Cons
Single bead sight only
Heavy trigger
I would take a Silver Reserve Eventide to the woods, although I’d probably choose the near-identical 20-gauge because I’m boring that way, and also because this doesn’t come in a 12-gauge. The 28 that I tested, though, is one of the few 3-inch 28s now on the market. If you find that exciting and you want a gun that gives you the option of choking for turkeys near and far, this is the gun for you.
The post Shotgun Review: Mossberg Silver Reserve Eventide Turkey, Expert Tested appeared first on Field & Stream.
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