Mossberg ATR any good?

[Ural Driver]

Some years back I bought one in .243, intending to give it to my daughter as her first deer rifle. It shot just fine, came to shoulder and carried pretty well, so I took it to the woods for a shakedown. Went thru the brush, over deadfalls and up and down tree stands carrying both in hand and slung. On two occasions, both with the rifle slung, after walking thru some really heavy chest high grass, I found the bolt hanging open. Never did find what had hung on and disengaged the (two position) safety and flipped the bolt open but was not comfortable with it from that time forward......gave it to a neighbor and bought the girl a Savage model 110. I have a 110 and am a big fan of their 3 position safety.
If I tripped over an ATR at a really good price, I might pick it up.....but I won't go searching for one anytime soon.

[brstevns]

270 Jack O'Connors favorite cartridge. Do a google on Jack and his love for the 270. win

[richhodg66]

270 Jack O'Connors favorite cartridge. Do a google on Jack and his love for the 270. win

Read several of his books many times. Can't remember exactly where, but even O'Connor eventually admitted the .30-06 was the more versatile of the two and he was right.

Winchester was dumb to introduce a weird bore size nothing else used. Should have necked it to 7mm and had the .280 Remington which is the better cartridge.

[Lloyd Smale]

Rich I have to agree. Seems some times the entry level guns outshoot the high end guns. Especially when your talking ruger. I have an american in 300 bo and its a tack driver too. Ive duracoated lots of things and never saw rust blead through any of it. I think if i was going to do another cheap gun with a cheap finish id not just degrease it id sand it down to bare metal. At least that would eliminate any chance that some of the rust wasnt because of the finish. Ive wiped down even sps rems with an oily rag on that cheap matt bluing and it always surprises me how much rust is removed. I also SURE agree that the old 06 if it came out today would still have the gun industry going nuts. NOTHING is as versatile and it will always be my favorite rifle round. I own 4 o6s and other then ars dont own a single other centerfire rifle that i have more then one. Sorry 270 fans but ive owned probably a half a dozen through the years and they were the first guns used as trading material. Never could figure out why it became popular and the 280 which is better in every aspect didnt. But as much as i like the 280 im the first to admit its not as versatile as an 06

[Lloyd Smale]

270 Jack O'Connors favorite cartridge. Do a google on Jack and his love for the 270. win

tweed jacket wearing yuppy. He loved the 270 because he used his bs to make big money writing about it. Of all the gun writers ive ever read hes at the very bottom of the stack. He was a college educated journalist. Many here have shot more ammo down range in a year then he did in his life. HE IS THE REASON i have a mental block against the 270. But then without him it would have gone the way of the 250 savage 257 roberts 225 win ect.

[richhodg66]

I'm a Walnut and blued steel guy, but got curious about the "Cheap" rifles nowadays after all the raving and figured it was hype. Same genral thing about the 6.5 Creedmoor, I'm a trdaitionalist at heart and wondered, but was open minded to it. Anyway, an opportunity for a new American Predator pretty cheap presented itself (guy won it in a raffle and didn't want it).

Threw a 3x9 low lever Leupold like they sold at Wal Mart for 250 bucks. Shot a box of cheap S&B ammo through it which all went almost through one hole at 100 yards. Got some dies and reloaded some brass with stuff I had sitting around, had similar groups.

Not sure how much of it is rifle and how much is caliber, but I sure can't gripe with the results and honestly, that rifle could do anything I will ever ask of a rifle, even if I don't really like it that much, ugly as a bowling shoe and generally a soulless tool and nothing more. But I sure can't fault it where performance is concerned.

[Lloyd Smale]

I'm a Walnut and blued steel guy, but got curious about the "Cheap" rifles nowadays after all the raving and figured it was hype. Same genral thing about the 6.5 Creedmoor, I'm a trdaitionalist at heart and wondered, but was open minded to it. Anyway, an opportunity for a new American Predator pretty cheap presented itself (guy won it in a raffle and didn't want it).

Threw a 3x9 low lever Leupold like they sold at Wal Mart for 250 bucks. Shot a box of cheap S&B ammo through it which all went almost through one hole at 100 yards. Got some dies and reloaded some brass with stuff I had sitting around, had similar groups.

Not sure how much of it is rifle and how much is caliber, but I sure can't gripe with the results and honestly, that rifle could do anything I will ever ask of a rifle, even if I don't really like it that much, ugly as a bowling shoe and generally a soulless tool and nothing more. But I sure can't fault it where performance is concerned.

oh the creedmore will kill deer. No arguing there. Ive never owned one but own and shot about a dozen deer with its little brother the grendel. I really got to like that little round. Only real thing i have agains the creedmore is its one of those rounds that a guy buys a gun in it and thinks hes a ballistics expert or thinks its some kind of new reinvention of the center fire rifle. Like was said rounds like the 6.5 swede, 257 roberts 757 708 260 and i can go on and on do everything the creedmore does and in some cases more. I ran into a chuckle last winter. I was on a gun shopping trip. It was about a 200 miles and covered about 8 gun shops. Seen 6.5 creeds at every shop and about nothing else. The last gun shop i went into had 7 of them and the only other rifle they had was one was a 6mm creedmore. I asked him why and he said they were flying off the shelf as fast as he got them in. Then the ammo shortage came and nobody wanted them. About shows me at least up here most of those buyers werent even handloaders.

[richhodg66]

Agreed. I am knowlegeable enought to know that the instant I touch one, I don't transform into Carlos Hatchcock, LOL, there are some mall ninja types posting around the net that seem to think that.

Seems to me it's about the perfect level of ballistics for deer hunting, but I've only used it one one thus far. I'm kinda looking forward to how this one does with cast bullets.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup to me its a fine mid range deer gun. In the same catagory as those other ones i listed. But very few are really capable of doping range and wind good enough to even shoot deer at 500 yards with it and at that range its pretty well pooped out anyway. But it would be a fine 300 yard deer rifle. I wonder how many deer have been wounded by those mall nijas thinking there shooting some heat seeking projectile that shoots fiddle string flat when in fact it isnt much flatter shooting then a 308 and doesnt hit any harder way out there. my best friend does crop damage shooting with me. I had to chuckle a while back. he picked up a browning abolt in 6.5 creed. brought it over to show it to me and bragged on how flat it shot and how it was THE long range rifle. I got a good laugh out of that. Told him he has a ruger 77 in 264 mag that shot the same bullet at least 300 fps faster. My 6.5-300wby does another 200 fps on top of that. Told him his 264 hit as hard at 200 yards as that creed did at the muzzle. Even he who has shot 100s! of deer drank the kool-aid. Then he was talking using it for crop damage shooting. Said he had 3 boxes of match hps and cant find any other ammo but the gun shop told him thats the perfect load for deer. Why? Because that dealer had a couple cases of it. I told him the smart move would be to stick it into the safe until he can find a set of dies and some real bullets. Now theres like i said a guy thats shot more deer then probably anyone here. More then even me. But hes not all that gun savoy or reloading savoy. How many are out there with those creeds that are even less knowledgeable then him. its again why i detest the 270. Up here its like a badge of honor. buy a 270 and go to camp and tell everyone that your a gun crank and smart enough to choose it over an 06. Its if nothing else entertainment for guys that really know.

[Hogtamer]

Nothing wrong with a good tweed jacket or a good .270 shooting 130 gr bullets. Of course an ‘06 is a superior round at long distance but you buy that with increased recoil. I can hit a baseball at 400 yds with mine or the end of a coke can at 300 yds every time off a rest and am none the worse for wear after shooting 15- 20 rounds. Terminal ballistics are awesome at those distances too.

[Lloyd Smale]

If i blind folded you and gave you a 270 with factory 130s and an o6 with factory 150s and had you shoot them randomly and rate recoil youd never be able to reliably tell the differnce. Matter of fact id about bet youd come away thinking the 270 kicked more. Factory 06 and even reloading data for it is pretty lame. I had my featherweight 06 at the range this summer and factory 150s went 2700fps and top end loads with 150 interlocks using the hornady manual that said they were doing 2950 werent even breaking 2700 fps. I did get them up to 2920 with a case filled to the top with 4350 and still had no pressure signs what so ever. Ive got those kinds of numbers out of 20 inch barreled 308s. So id about bet my home that in the real world using factory ammo or book recipes an 06 with 150s kicks less then a 270 with 130s. Now its a no brainer that if you load 150s in the o6 to the same velocity as 130s in a 270 (which can be done safely) the o6 would recoil a tad more. But id still be in a blind folded test youd never tell the difference ands surely that tiny differnce isnt going to determine that one is comfortable and one isnt.

[nekshot]

Saw one at a pawn shop and it was too cheap to let it stay there. It is a 270 and the blasted thing is very accurate and is now a favorite gun. Ugly can be nice!

[FergusonTO35]

Agreed. I am knowlegeable enought to know that the instant I touch one, I don't transform into Carlos Hatchcock, LOL, there are some mall ninja types posting around the net that seem to think that.

Seems to me it's about the perfect level of ballistics for deer hunting, but I've only used it one one thus far. I'm kinda looking forward to how this one does with cast bullets.

I have a Remington 700 6.5 Creedmoor and love it. I don't pretend that it is anything but an entry level rifle in .250 Savage necked up and improved. And that's all it needs to be. Easy to shoot, way more accurate than I can take advantage of, will kill anything here in the Bluegrass cleanly. What's not to like?

[richhodg66]

I have a Remington 700 6.5 Creedmoor and love it. I don't pretend that it is anything but an entry level rifle in .250 Savage necked up and improved. And that's all it needs to be. Easy to shoot, way more accurate than I can take advantage of, will kill anything here in the Bluegrass cleanly. What's not to like?

Agreed on all counts and I can't understand why all the hostility towards it on this site. Especially when the same guys fall all over themselves to worship that weird .350 Legend thing.

I don't consider myself a sniper, I kill a few deer every year, nearly all within 100 yards, most much closer, that little 6.5 is just fine by me.