I picked up a 930 SPX last week to replace a Remington 11-87 Police I've had.
The Remington's operationally good, in that it is reliable, eats crappy ammo, and doesn't have an especially exotic manual of arms. That said, the bolt/carrier release positioned on the elevator drives me insane, the o-ring is an item that needs replacing, and my particular model has tiny deer sights that I dislike. Also, I bought the gun with an amazingly ugly choate pistol grip stock that works, but lacks refinement.
The 930 that I picked up looked amazing. The ghost ring sights are crisp, clear, and fast. They're probably among the best ghost rings on the market. The gun itself is balanced, if not heavy (from a pump gunner's perspective). The stock is solid, the handguard a little hollow, but sufficient. The follower is a steel piece that seems adequate. While I was at the shop, I checked for a canted front sight, as was the hallmark of the earlier QC issues that long-plagued the line. The NRA seems to think everything's good, though, and proclaimed it the "2009 Shotgun of the Year".
Well, I'll skip to the point: those QC issues may well still be unresolved. My ejector wasn't pressed in correctly into the barrel, and rotated around. Then there's the ammo issue. It's ridiculous, the bifurcation of behaviors in this gun, in accordance with the ammo fed to it.
The gun is utterly, boringly reliable with any kind of buck or slug I've had on hand (I haven't tried reduced recoil, admittedly). It also eats the Remington Premier Nitro Gold 1300 FPS sporting clays shells absolutely perfectly.
Continuing the string of perfection, though, it perfectly does not eat any of the $22/100 Value-pack offerings at Wal-mart. Not the Remington, not the Winchester, not the Federal. Unfortunate, because that's what I shoot 90% of the time, and it's what I compete with. I can't tell if it's a bad extractor or straight-up underpowered operation, but it's almost 100% unreliable with those ammo offerings. It does fail in essentially three modes:
From time to time, I'll get a stovepiped empty, or even more rarely, the gun will cycle and perform properly.
I've tried to fix these problems, because I do essentially like the gun a lot. Earlier in the gun's stay with me, the stovepipes were really fierce. Diagnosing the loose ejector and loctiting it basically fixed the problem. Also, the FTE's empties originally had to be pried out with a screwdriver, because the extractor consistently slipped over the rim as I manually cycled. I polished the chamber lightly the first day. While it still doesn't feed well, I can usually get the stuck cheapie hulls out of the gun without a screwdriver, provided I wait a while. Maybe more polishing would help, but I'm not going to risk it yet.
Mossberg's website boasts "The 930 handles 12-gauge, 2 3/4" and 3" ammunition with ease, from low brass target loads to non-toxic magnum rounds to the latest in sabot slug ammo." The page for the 930 SPX curiously modifies that to "target loads", without the "low brass" mention. Maybe that has something to do with the problem. I can see a distinct line in the chamber for the low brass, and I can definitely feel on failed ejects that the shells are really snug against the chamber. The chamber looks rougher than I would expect, and I've read blurbs about the cheap low brass shells actually being steel. Maybe the chamber can be polished, and the aggressiveness of the extractor enhanced. But my friend's 930SPX will eat perfectly from the same box of ammo that mine struggles with. More annoyingly, the 11-87 that I dislike eats anything like candy.
I'm spending a lot of time on negative aspects of the 930 SPX. In honesty, if all you shoot is defense-type ammunition, the gun is perfect. But I'm a shooting sports competitor, and the gun hates affordable ammunition. Unfortunately, I'm not rich, and I still need to practice, so I need it fixed. I called Mossberg customer service, which sent me a shipping label. The gun's going back to the factory this week.
One last thought: Before I pack this gun up, I'll be at the range later this week to see if it'll eat some Federal gameloads that're 1 1/8 oz at 1290 feet/sec. While the speed sounds suspect to me, it'll be a coup in terms of my ability to shoot this gun inexpensively, as the game shells are actually $4.60/box, making them cheaper than the Valuepacks, and a damn sight cheaper than the $7.50 Remington Nitros. I plan for this contingency, and hope it is effective, as some people report that their 930SPXs have never eaten the cheap stuff, even after trips to the factory. One forum participant mentioned that Mossberg bought his gun back. I hope I won't have to exercise that option, but it's nice to know it's on the table if the factory can't get things right.