Mossberg 100 ATR 30-06 Info and Cleaning

The Mossberg 30-06 is a very popular and commonly used rifle here in the US. It comes in a variety or models and feed methods. Feed method is after firing a round how the gun reloads another live round into the chamber. This particular model is the Mossberg 100 ATR with a bolt action feed method. The 100 is just the number given to it without any real significance to the value and dependability of the rifle. Some guns will have the model number assigned based upon different characteristics belonging to the rifle, but this is not one of them. ATR stand for All Terrain Rifle, meaning it can be taken over almost any condition of land. The “condition” includes altitude, weather, temperature, moisture, ground and soil composition, and plant life. This means that it’s not a rifle to baby and constantly worry about. Its sturdy nature, high capacity rounds, and surface treatments make it favorable to back country hunters and bushwhackers alike.

If you’re looking for a rifle that goes bang with a lot of “umph” this is your rifle. The 30-06 round is large enough and has enough punching power to take down all large game animals in the US. It may need to be shot with more precise accuracy to kill the larger animals but should take care of anything on four legs, or two.

Tools you will need in addition to your cleaning kit will be an allen wrench.

You do NOT need to completely disassemble your guns to the nuts and bolts every time you clean it. The first part of the disassemble of this particular rifle will start with the bolt. Open up the ejector port and slide the bolt back. There should be a release should be almost directly on the opposite side of the safety. Push it down while removing the bolt.

Next you will use your allen wrench to remove the screw on the under side of the rifle in front of the trigger guard and a second one further down the handle. One will be longer than the other. It’s good to remember what part went where so you’re not having to put things in place and later removing them bc they weren't in the right place.

The drop magazine spring should stay attached to the bottom part of the rifle or the actual housing for the rounds when you separate the top and bottom. If it comes out like it showed in the video it’s fine, there is nothing wrong with your gun. That's the spring in my right hand.

Use a cleaning patch attached to a ram rod in order to clean out the barrel. This rifle was pretty much clean to begin with and didn’t really need a wire brush or soft brush to clean it. The patches did the trick just by themselves this time.

To wipe out the action all you need to do is add oil to a cleaning patch and use your finger to just reach around to the different areas. If you need to get to a space where your finger won’t fit used a brush, not the one that attached to the ramrod, with a few drops of oil in order to dig them out. You’ll find yourself using this method in order to get into corners mostly.

I poke and prod at the bolt opening up areas making sure I don’t have to disassemble the bolt in order to clean it. If the openings to the moving parts don’t have any carbon build up there won’t be any inside the bolt either.

Give everything a nice polish off and double check for dirt and grime before reassembling your rifle. When I went poking at the bolt I moved some parts around in order to open up and look inside. You need to reset everything to where it was when removed from the gun.

You can always backtrack and open your gun in order to make sure everything fits and moves properly. The spring to the magazine didn’t set straight when I was putting the rifle back together so I had to do just that.

My last comment was “sometimes the part just wants to say no the first time” before I put the loose screws back into the rifle completing the reassembly.