The magazine on my Mossberg .22 recently broke, and I need to replace it. Trouble is, this rifle is secondhand, and has no identifying information other than its brand name. The magazine is stamped with “S-L-LR.” I’ve found an image of such a magazine, but it differs slightly from my own. Can anybody suggest how I might track down a replacement? Having a single-shot rifle is nice, but this is ridiculous.
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Sure I can. I suppose Chris at STD can too.
Go to any reputable gun dealer, Waldo. I had to replace a magazine on a 30-.06 I inherited from my grandfather a few years ago, and one of our local gun dealers set me right up.
OK. Have at me.
Oh. Right. Gun dealers. Duh. :) I tend to forget that it’s possible to find things out off the internet. :) Woodbrook Sports & Pro Shop is where I generally buy ammo — I’ll bring it to them and see what they can do. We have a dearth of gun dealers here in C’ville, making a drive up to Clark Brothers frequently the best option.
Thanks, James!
Ah, Clark Brothers… a happy place.
Heck of a drive from C’ville, but a happy place nonetheless.
Waldo
.22 rounds come in different lengths, short, long and long rifle. That is how you get S, L and LR on the magazine. It simply means your Mossberg can handle any of the .22 cartridges. IIRC, that is fairly standard.
Actually, this will be trickier than you think. First of all, Mossberg was notoriously terrible about clearly differentiating between differing designs in their model names for .22 rifles for many years. You can think that you have the model name or number pinned down for a particular Mossberg rifle but then when you go to buy what’s supposed to be a used magazine for it you find that it doesn’t fit the rifle. Even serious Mossberg collectors have trouble figuring this out.
New magazines will not be available for your rifle. You are going to have to look for something used. The odds of finding this part in any given gun store, however good they are, is minimal. Your best bet is either mail order or perhaps finding something at a gun show where there are literally hundreds of people there selling all matter of odd little metal doo-dads related to firearms that they’ve collected over the years..
This probably isn’t what you want to hear but the most sensible thing to do is probably going to be buying another rifle. I have a spare .22 autoloader with a scope mount that you can borrow in the meanwhile if you want. The good news is that there are plenty of great bolt action .22s out there for under $150. I bought a brand new Marlin last summer for only about $140 and there is absolutely nothing about that rifle to complain about. It shoots 1″ groups for me off a rest at 100 yards without any modifications at all. Spare 7 round magazines are something like $10 each and can be found almost everywhere.
Rifles made within the last 10 years or so are amazingly accurate even at the bottom end of the price range. It’s hard to really go wrong buying a new bolt action .22 these days since they all have many reliable safety features and they all shoot close to minute-of-angle. If you aren’t looking for match-grade and don’t plan on doing any serious hard-weather hunting then the differences between a cheap new bolt action and a pricey one are mostly cosmetic.
Henry makes a nice lever action .22 for around $150 new. I suggest avoid the newer Mossberg .22s such as the ‘Plinkster.’
Try Brownells.com they have a butt load of replacement parts. Woodbrooks works also.
Try a gunshow.
Lots of dealers who specialize in the obscure and like to show off.
That’s where I found a replacement magazine for my sears and roebuck 22LR. (made by winchester but not marked so)
http://home.epix.net/~damguy/magazinecross.htm
If you knew the model this would be one place to cross reference
That’s a great resource — thanks, Larry!