Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Beer Goggles Creedmoor (Mossberg Patriot Predator) A Crappy Review

Mom won't approve because drinking was involved while making a decision. 16Bore won't approve because this ain't a Tikka. PaulBarnard will not approve because it says Creedmoor on the barrel.

Once upon a time, I was enjoying a few adult beverages, minding my own business while perusing the 'Fire and checking a few websites for sales. You know, innocent stuff. I've enjoyed poking fun at the 6.5 Creedmoor folks even though I know it's a good cartridge. Low and behold I find what appears to be a good deal on a Mossberg Patriot Predator chambered in the said cartridge for $320. I've spent more than that on a bad (good?) night in Vegas without batting an eye. I figured with the popularity of the 6.5 CM this might be attractive to folks who are new to the sport, and being made in America is a nice bonus:

Cheap, I mean, uh, affordable: Check
Threaded barrel , an obvious must-have? Check
Uber camo pattern? Check
Tactical cerakote? Check
Wicked fluted bolt? Check

I bought it here https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsupers...n-rifle-with-strata-camo-synthetic-stock

Ordered late evening on 12/28 after the Christmas shipping madness and still had it at my FFL on 1/7, which I consider to be pretty darned good. Sadly, it did not ship with skinny jeans or a flat-brimmed hat, but I shall survive.

The gun is advertised as 6.5 lbs and mine weighs in at 6 lbs. 11 oz.


The bolt travel feels like most fluted bolts, and it bumps along the magazine so Sako aficionados will not be impressed. Decent amount of play when opened, but so what. It locks up pretty tight and opens relatively easily. The 2-position safety won't lock it closed so that will be a no-go for some folks.


The magazine is about what you'd expect from a gun in this price range. It weighs 2 oz. and isn't impressively rigid, so I wouldn't hammer nails with it. It has a wide mouth and loads easily by popping in rounds straight from the top. It drops freely and the release is intuitive and easy to use. It's not perfectly flush with the stock but I didn't find it uncomfortable to carry bare-handed for a short trial. Balance point with my rig seems to be slightly forward of the mag. The stock won't convert any McM fans but it doesn't suck too bad. The butt stock actually feels more solid than many economy offerings and is shaped well. There are some molding lines meant for decoration (I think) that felt odd at first but I didn't notice them when shooting. The forend flexes quite a bit under pressure, but there is so much clearance between stock and barrel that I can't imagine putting enough pressure on it to touch during normal use.

It comes with a premounted rail, which I removed to check and de-degrease. It seems well made but is very lightweight. There was a small amount of thread locker on the mounting screws from the factory but I reinstalled with blue Locktite. I decided to use a Sightron S-Tac 2-10X32 with plex reticle that I had on hand. The scope weighs just over 16 oz. I used Warne 30mm low rings which aren't lightweight, but I've had good success with them over the years. Bolt clearance is good with this combo. It's not a bad looking rig, IMO, and all-in the weight is acceptable:




With my assumed target audience of young shooters and cheap-azz buzzed middle-aged doods, I approached shooting it in an appropriate manner. I bought 1 box each of the two cheapest loads available at the store and went to the range. I used a fairly basic set up on the bench and didn't take a lot of time doing it:


I pulled a bore-snake through the barrel a couple of times and loaded the mag. I started with the 140 grain Remington Core Lokt to sight it in. My intent was to shoot all 40 rounds in one day, but I got to the range a little late and the wind was doing some funny things. After each 5-round magazine I pulled the bore-snake through twice; that was the extent of the cleaning regimen. The trigger is surprisingly decent and I'd guess around 3.5 lbs (didn't check). It feels like an Accutrigger to a great degree, but not exactly the same. Take up is fine and it breaks pretty cleanly. To be consistent with the theme of this crappy review I made no adjustments to the trigger. I shot all 20 rounds of the Remington and honestly wasn't overly impressed. Granted, the wind was giving me a yeast infection and 20 rounds including the sight-in isn't some great test, but I didn't shoot any better than about 1.5 to 2 inches.

Day 2 I shot Winchester 125 grain Deer Season XP, which is $19/box at Wal-Mart. The wind was down and this ammo shot much more consistently. I shot all 20 rounds and made some small adjustments to the scope, with this being the final 5-shot group:


Granted, it's only 40 rounds up to this point, but I've experienced no issues with the rifle. It feeds fine without having to force anything, and ejects without fanfare. The recoil is pretty mild in my opinion, so it should be a good rifle for my daughters to get a fair amount of trigger time on. For the price of admission, I won't care if it gets bounced around in the truck or if the kids don't treat it gently, and it will save my Win 70 in 6.5X55 from that fate. Hell, I'd even let PaulBarnard shoot it...

Congrats... I think.

I've lost too much hair to try for a manbun, so no pics will be forthcoming of that. You're welcome.

Great review. That's awesome....

I have been thinking about doing a beer goggles 6.5 PRC in that same rifle.

Great review, thanks for sharing.

Good enough for government work

Try the hornady America gunner ammo in it and I bet the groups tighten up. All of mine seem to really like that ammo and it’s cheap.

Just leave the leopard print thong underwear at home along with your murse and no one will know what you're shooting.

Thanks for a great review. Hornady American Whitetail ammo with the 129 grain bullet was accurate in my Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor.

Nice rig.
I had a mossberg 4x4 in 06.
It was a great rifle, accurate and lite weight. The locking or lack of locking the bolt when safety is on never bothered me. But with this rifle, once chambered or cocked, the action was very lite and The bolt could be opened just swiping your hand up over it. Found it Half way opened more than once while hunting from rubbing on my body.
Sold it to a buddy and told him why I’m selling it.
All good with him and when we went to sight In his and my new rifle, it shot as good as my new tikka.

Yeah...same here..

Its like a Savage..yeah I KNOW they shoot well...but they still say Savage or Mossberg on them and I can't get past the stigma that carried for decades...

And being a Creed sure does't help...

Thanks, Gents. I intend to try different ammo going forward, but intentionally bought the cheapest stuff I could find. I've read most of the Hornady offerings shoot well so I'll probably start there. It may be a bit, though, as I have some business travel coming up. I've never owned or even had any interest in owning a Mossberg rifle, but decided to give one a shot since the price of admission was so cheap. I'm mildly surprised to find it compares well with many other 'entry' rifles. At the list price of $540 I wouldn't consider it a bargain but $320 is a different story. I'm not sure how much room is left in the entry-level rifle market but I'll be pleased to see another American company do well in that space, and more options are a good thing for consumers.

Paul4, let me know next time you're headed to the range and we'll try to meet up.

I like your style and pronounce you Not A Creedtard. Interjection of lay language contributes heavily to the readability of an otherwise mundane range report.

"Granted, the wind was giving me a yeast infection."

I've been wondering about these. Thanks. Is the rail a 0 MOA? Or can you tell??

I didn't check, so I called Mossberg service to ask them. They picked up the phone within 30 seconds and responded immediately that the rail is 0 MOA. They spoke English, too, which was nice.

I see that EGW offers a 20 MOA rail.

I’ll be at the range for last session on Friday before I leave for my Barbary hunt if your free. I buy that American gunner in bulk just for plinking and it’s been really accurate and consistent for as cheap as it is.

0 MOA is fine for a cheap rifle. I'm your huckleberry. I just ordered one from KY Gun for $279.99 shipped. I've already got rings and a 6X Superchicken in the safe ready to go!! This will be a good one for me to shoot the crappy primers that Winchester won't replace......boltface be damned!

https://www.kygunco.com/Product/View?ItemNo=137219

ETA: Odd that the 243 and 308 chambered offerings are $399, but the current craze(y) chambered offering is $279.

I'll give that American Gunner a go; I think Sportsman's had some on the shelf. Not sure I can break free on Friday but I'll text you if I can pull it off.

257heaven, thanks for sharing that link. Kind of hard to believe what a fella can buy for less than $300. Which rings are you going to use? I 'think' you could get away with lows for that scope so I'd be interested to see how it turns out.

I have some TPS super low sitting in my parts box that will hopefully work. Just wish I had some low SWFA rings. I guess I sold them all?? Not sure.

I bought a different, more basic, style of Mossberg Patriot in 6.5 CM in 2018 for one of my son's friends to use on his first deer hunt. We've only shot the 125 grain Winchester/Olin Deer Season XP in it and I have been very impressed how well it shoots and how solid it feels. I bought a used Savage Axis in 6.5 CM just because it was priced so low, $215, and have found it to be as accurate, maybe even a little more accurate, as the Patriot, but it feels cheaper, less robust, to me.

I think that Wal-Mart would sell a lot of 700 ADL package guns in 6.5 CM if they had them in the display case and immediately available for the impulse purchase buyers.