 DUCK
SEASON WITH MOSSBERG’S DENNIS KENDALL
Reliability
EDITOR’S NOTE: The mourning begins on the last
day of duck season, which is usually the end of January.
Many months will pass before we once again don waders,
gather up our decoys, load up our retrievers and head
for our blinds. However, duck season doesn’t have
to end. How would you like to be able to hunt ducks
from March through August and take 40 ducks or more
per day without drastically affecting the North American
duck population? If this sounds like an unrealistic
dream, it’s not, if you travel to Argentina. Argentina
is the Valhalla for the duck hunter where you see thousands,
possibly millions of ducks. This duck-hunting paradise
is so good that you’ll have a difficult time believing
what you’re about to read. Dennis Kendall, director
of marketing for Mossberg of New Haven, Connecticut,
invited me and two other outdoor writers, Wayne Van
Zwoll and Lamar Underwood, to Argentina to test the
newest of the Mossberg shotguns, the 930 model. A three-shot
autoloader that cost less than $300, the guns were to
be given the acid test. We drug them through the muddy
rice fields and marshes and shot three to four boxes
of shells every morning and every evening to test the
durability of the 930 Mossberg Autoloader.
 Question:
Dennis, you come from a waterfowling background growing
up on the eastern shore in Maryland. Now you’re
employed by Mossberg, a company that not only makes
waterfowling guns but also many other types of guns.
What would you like the public to know about Mossberg?
Kendall: We know that Mossberg makes relatively-inexpensive
high-quality guns that can be purchased at a number
of discount stores.
Question: What else do you want the shooting public
to know about Mossberg?
Kendall: We want the public to know that the Mossberg
shotguns are the real deal. At Mossberg, we believe
that the sportsman doesn’t have to spend $600
or more on an autoloading shotgun to purchase a high-quality,
rugged, dependable autoloader. We feel that we build
the safest, most-reliable high-performing shotgun on
the marketplace, even though we’ve kept the price
where the average hunter can purchase them. By taking
our shotguns to Argentina and proving their accuracy,
reliability and performance, other people will learn
what we already know: Mossberg produces quality guns
at reasonable prices.
Question: What has Mossberg done to improve the accuracy
and versatility of their shotguns?
Kendall: Our guns have always patterned well. However,
we’ve realized that shotguns have to perform a
wide variety of jobs from taking turkeys to downing
doves to breaking clays. Therefore, we make our own
choke tubes specifically designed for our guns, and
we provide three different choke tubes with each of
the guns we sell. To make our guns as high-performing
as possible for any test the hunter may need to use
them for, we’ve included an improved  cylinder,
a modified and a full choke tube – with each of
our shotguns. Because Mossberg makes the chokes for
each one of the guns it produces, these chokes fit perfectly
into the Mossberg barrels.
Question: What will you tell anyone who decides to
go to Argentina for the first time to shoot ducks?
Kendall: First, I’ll advise them to bring a Mossberg
shotgun and a quality pair of waders and plan to shoot
a lot. You’ll never anticipate just how much you’re
going to shoot. So, be prepared to shoot a lot, hunt
hard and see more ducks than you’ve ever imagined.
Question: Mossberg shotguns have proved their reliability
in Argentina. How did the company build that much reliability
into a shotgun?
Kendall: We at Mossberg have never felt that reliability
should be a factor in a price. We feel that economical,
safe, affordable guns like those we build should be
reliable. We’ve worked at Mossberg in our research-and-development
department to build reliability into our guns. For instance,
the gas system in our autoloaders contains no O-rings
or rubber parts like you’ll find in some other
guns in the marketplace. I think these factors increase
reliability. We make sure Mossberg guns contain very-few
moving parts that can malfunction or break, which also
increases the reliability. We’ve had guides and
outfitters here in Argentina tell us horror stories
of guns breaking down and malfunctioning because they’ve
become so beat-up from repeated shootings that the  metal
and plastic parts melt. We’ve built our guns to
take the torture test of constant, repeated shooting
and continue to perform. Our guns are durable, reliable
and can take the torture test of Argentina. Yet, they’re
affordable enough that most hunters can purchase them.
For more information about Mossberg's products, you
can visit the company’s website at www.mossberg.com.
To learn more about duck hunting in Argentina, please
visit www.pacoriestra.com.
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