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Mossberg Model L

rossowmn
I recently ran across a Mossberg Model L Martini-style singleshot lever rifle. I can find a manufacture date of 1929-1932 but not much other info. Can any Mossberg experts here offer additional information about this rifle?
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5 comments

Date Votes
  • rufe-snow
    Vic Havlin has a chapter devoted, to the Model L. In his excellent book, "Mossberg More Gun for the Money". It was a very innovated, and attractive .22 rifle.

    Unfortunately they didn't have many, in the way of buyers, During the depths of the depression. Circa 1929-1932.

    Actual total production is unknown, estimated to be in the 3,000-5,000, range. Very uncommon, I've seen few over the years. As they were sold as a inexpensive, "boys-rifle". For less than 8 bucks. To find one in at least very good original condition. After being out of production for 85+ years, would be a coup.
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  • charliemeyer007
    http://www.nramuseum.org/guns/the-galleries/for-the-fun-of-it/case-45-plinkers/mossberg-model-l-falling-block-single-shot-rifle.aspx

    Never saw one that I know of.

    added I'm not a mossberg person but I think you got a good deal.
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  • rossowmn
    Thank you for your responses. I'll get a copy of the Havlin book. My only previous Mossberg rifles were several Model B's, one of which was my father's first rifle for which he paid $2 used as a teenager around 1930.

    A gun dealer with whom I went to dozens of shows as a "gofer" over the last 15 years bought the Model L as one of several guns someone brought into his shop. He was unfamiliar with it and only paid $50, but he did some research and put a $550 price tag on it. (He tended to firmly believe in buy low, sell high[;)].) He showed it to me a couple of weeks before we went to the Tulsa show in November; he didn't take the Model L to the show. I never thought much about it at the time. But less than a week after our return from Tulsa, he died while carrying guns into a local gunshow, and something made me start wondering about the L.

    I went to the Tulsa show this spring with his son (the tables had been paid for in November --$525, so what do you do?). I asked him about the L, but he knew nothing about it and didn't even know if it was still in the now-closed shop. He told me to stop in after Tulsa because he was going to pack up his father's remaining guns and haul them to an auction. There in the back room were two or three racks of various guns, the L among them. He looked at the $550 price tag and said, "How about $300?" I grabbed it, even though it's the most expensive boy's rifle I've ever bought. I felt good knowing the money is going to my late buddy's widow, and I was satisfied paying six times what the old gent paid for it. (He's probably chuckling in heaven.)

    Now, hearing how very scarce the Model L is, I feel even better. I'm quite cautious about describing guns (at least one's that I can find and afford) as "rare," a word that some collectors throw around like confetti. But perhaps the Model L is, indeed, rare [:)]. (Of the 300 or so guns I own, I consider only one other gun truly rare, an all-nickel combo gun that was only made one year.)

    Thanks again for your comments.
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  • 11b6r
    First, DO get a copy of Vic Havlin's book. And you can contact him thru the website for his company, havlinsales.com

    Vic and his wife Cheryl run the Mossberg Collectors Association, are THE go to folks on anything Mossberg, and are very nice folks to deal with.

    And a very little bit of info on the letter model mossys: www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6069409
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  • rossowmn
    quote:Originally posted by 11b6r
    First, DO get a copy of Vic Havlin's book. And you can contact him thru the website for his company, havlinsales.com

    Vic and his wife Cheryl run the Mossberg Collectors Association, are THE go to folks on anything Mossberg, and are very nice folks to deal with.

    And a very little bit of info on the letter model mossys: www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6069409


    I ordered the book last night. I'm interested to learn more about these letter models. I suppose with three or four Model Bs plus the Model L already in hand, I now have a moral obligation to look for the rest of the letter guns.[:D][:0]
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