Why buy a 'gamble' of a new rifle when for $100 more you can get one generally known to be very accurate? Aren't your hunts worth that much more?
Well I just like variety myself, so any cheap/value rifle usually catches my eye, just because it's something different (I've already got guns that I trust in the field). It's not often to find a modern sporting rifle this cheap (most of the cheap bolt actions are milsurp, and while they're interesting in their own way, they're different from a modern rifle).
That being said, I dropped by a local Wal-mart today which had apparently gotten in a new shipment of guns (the cases were full), and I did manage to find this new Mossberg in .30-06 in one of the revolving cases.
Earlier in the thread I mentioned that I had heard it was built by Savage. I still don't know if this is the case, but in some areas it kinda looks like a Savage 110, but there are also things different. The safety on the Savage is an ambidextrious slide safety right in the middle of the receiver. and to the rear of the bolt. The Mossberg has a swinging lever saftey on the right side of the receiver, a la a Remington 700 (though the swing distance on the Mossberg looks considerably shorter). Also, the Savage's bolt sleeve apears to be non-existent, with the bolt basically ending after you get to the handle. The Mossberg bolt does have a sleeve the protrudes about an inch behind the bolt handle. Also, though this is just a judgement call and might be incorrect, the receiver on the Mossberg looked larger (in diameter) than many other rifles. I'm not sure though.
As to things similar to a Savage, it does seem to use a barrel nut like the Savage, but it's completely smooth and has no griping area for a wrench to remove it. The bolt handle is also seperate from the bolt body and looks like it attaches to the body as a collar like with the Savage. The actual handle does look larger and more swept back than on a Savage though.
Now, as to general comments. The finish didn't look very good. It was very obviously some sort of spray on finish that had a somewhat coarse grain to it. The stock is synthetic (ugh!) with the sling swivels and the trigger guard all molded into the stock (double ugh!). Finally the crown on the barrel looked very odd. Instead of the nice, rolling, smooth crown that I've seen on most rifles, this had a very thin wall at the end of the barrel. It was about 1 mm thick and 4 mm deep. After you got to the bottom of the wall there was just a flat surface that looked like an abrupt end to the bore/rifling.
Now, I haven't actually bought one (I haven't ruled it out, though I'd definately want the .270 instead of the .30-06), but IMHO for it be be in any way decent looking you'd need to get a new stock for it, and unfortunately with this gun a new stock requires a new trigger guard. I don't know how it shoots though.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to actually touch the gun or work the bolt, so I can't comment on the "feel" of the gun.
