Mossberg MVP Patrol Repeater Rifle in .300 Blackout: Review

The Mossberg MVP Patrol repeater rifle, chambered in .300 Blackout, combines the capacity of AR-style magazines with the accuracy of a bolt action. Here's a review.

January 07, 2023 By Steve Gash

Mossberg says that its MVP rifles couple the capacity and flexibility of AR-style magazines with the accuracy and reliability of a bolt action. And that is the defining feature of the MVP series. Announced less than two months ago (as this report is being written), the newest MVP is the MVP Patrol chambered for the popular .300 Blackout (BLK) cartridge.

The .300 BLK is sort of an odd duck, so its popularity defies logic. It is the .221 Fireball necked up to .30 caliber, and it has the ballistics of the vintage blackpowder .32-20 Winchester. The appeal is that one can shoot pointed bullets out of an AR, and as I have been told by those knowledgeable on this subject, the real purpose of the .300 BLK is urban crowd control in a suppressed rifle. Based on the proliferation of ammo and guns available for the round, it must have a considerable fan base.

The MVP Patrol comes with a sturdy synthetic stock that is a lot stiffer than many I’ve seen on inexpensive rifles, a 16.25-inch button-rifled barrel with threaded muzzle and A2 muzzle brake, and open sights. The barrel has what Mossberg calls a “Medium Bull” taper, and that’s a pretty good description.

Mossberg MVP Patrol Repeater Rifle Magazines and .300 Blackout Ammo — The Mossberg MVP combines the cartridge capacity and flexibility of AR-style magazines with the reliability of a bolt action.

The Williams rear sight is adjustable for elevation and windage, and the front sight has a round, red fiber-optic bar on a tapered ramp. Both sights are attached with screws and are easily removable, if desired. In addition, a 5.25-inch Picatinny rail is attached to the gun’s receiver.

The bolt has two locking lugs up front, a removable bolthead, and a fluted body. The bolt handle is about three inches long, sweeps back slightly, and has a large knob, all of which make the bolt easy to operate.

An interesting feature of the Patrol’s push-feed bolt action is a tiny part on the bottom of the bolthead that engages the rim of a cartridge and pushes it out of the magazine. This part (#49) is appropriately called the “cartridge pusher.” The cartridge pusher catches on the follower of the 10-round magazine that came with the gun, so the bolt won’t close on an empty magazine.

The MVP Patrol also has Mossberg’s patented “Lightning Bolt Action” trigger, which is adjustable from 3 to 7 pounds. My rifle’s trigger pull averaged 2 pounds, 3.7 ounces over five tests with my Wheeler Professional Digital Trigger Gauge, and it was as crisp as snapping Bugs Bunny’s carrot.

Mossberg MVP Patrol Accuracy and Velocity Chart

The gun has the built-in trigger safety lever and a two-position thumb safety at the right rear of the receiver. In the “Safe” position, it does not lock the bolt, so the chamber can be unloaded with the safety on. A red dot is visible when the safety is in the “Fire” position.

I used two optics for shooting the new MVP Patrol .300 BLK—a new Bushnell RXS-100 reflex red-dot sight and a Trijicon AccuPower 1-8X 24mm riflescope. Both worked great. I was sure the group sizes with the dot sight would be much larger than with the scope (set at 6X), but as you can see from the accompanying chart, that was not the case.

I gathered as many .300 BLK factory loads as I could find and fired three, five-shot groups with each at 50 yards with each optic. The average group size with the scope was 1.04 inches, and it was 1.07 inches with the red-dot sight. To say I was surprised would be a gross understatement. (If you'd like to know how the handloads performed, read this reader's question on handloads for the Mossberg MVP Patrol.)

Overall accuracy with factory ammo was excellent, with most loads grouping around an inch. A typical example is the Barnes VOR-TX 110-grain TAC-TX load. It averaged 1.02 inches overall with both optics, but one of the five-shot strings fired with the Trijicon scope measured an impressive 0.43 inch. This load would be good medicine for smaller game, such as Texas deer, javelina, and feral hogs.

What we have in the .300 BLK is a specialized cartridge that is carving out a narrow but apparently deep notch in the shooting world. The sturdy Mossberg MVP Patrol bolt-action carbine in .300 BLK offers a lot of value for the money and provides a solid and versatile platform for many uses.