I have a chance to pickup a new Mossberg 930 Watchdog Tactical at a very good price.  I'm worried about how the finish holds up.  Any input would be appreciated.  Thanks.

I don't know anything about the "Watchdog Tactical" model but AFAIK all current Mossberg shotguns sport a painted Aluminum receiver from the factory and in my experience the finish seems to wear pretty quickly on the edges, corners, high spots, etc. with any amount of real use. Heck, I have pulled them new from the box with factory applied scratches and blemishes.

Personally, I don't worry about it too much. My personal Mossbergs (a couple 500s and a 930 SPX) are either field guns or defensive guns for shooting not looking. If it is something that really bothers you, I am sure you can have the gun professionally Cerakoted for a couple hundred dollars and not have to worry about it again.

ETA- Hopefully somebody will come along who knows more about the specific model you are asking about.

+1 to everything said above.


The watchdog appears to be stock with a special cammo pattern. Usually these factory special editions are cheap marketing ploys e.g. Talo editions. Unless done afterwards by a 3rd party I wouldn't expect it to hold up any better than the factory finish which isn't good.

ETA: Actually the spray on the synthetic stock wears worse than plain old plastic FWIW.

Thank You Gentleman.  I'm trying to figure out why the watchdog addition sells for less the the stock black one.  I was afraid I was missing something.  You both are correct It will be a HD shotgun not really worried looks.  I guess a 930 is a 930.  Thanks again.

Unless they changed recently mossberg shotguns come anodized.  It's not very thick, but much harder than any paint.  Mine had a few chips before I sold it, but still looked good.

Special runs might be painted, like camo, and other designs.

Your run-of-the-mill 500, Maverick 88, 590/590A1 receiver is indeed anodized, but I had a 930 many years ago that had some sort of finish applied to the receiver that was pretty brittle and would chip off (mostly around the ejection port).  I don't know what that was / is about.

FYI:

Of the three 930's that have shown up recently at my local 3-gun matches, exactly zero are running right.  Two have gone back to the factory and have come back with issues.  The third chokes regularly and came with the rear sight screws stripped out and loose.

That's really my only experiance with the 930, so take it for what it's worth.

I've also heard bad things at local 3 Gun matches. I've heard that some come from factory OK, others junk. I personally know a guy who bought one and had to strip it bare to clean out metal shavings and do some filing/polishing and it was fine after. I think it's a QC/machining issue, not an engineering issue if that helps at all. In that price range I would go for a Stoeger M3000.

I looked at my 930 and 590A1 and both seem to have some sort of painted on coating.

If your 590A1 receiver is "Parkerized", Mossberg has said that the receiver is really anodized but made to look Parkerized.  I don't know how they achieve that effect.  I suppose that there could be a film of something over the anodizing or something, but my 930 had a finish that was definitely more like paint (it chipped).
Now, if your 590A1 is some sort of special color edition, then yeah, it's probably some flavor of painted finish on top.

I have a 930 I got for about $320 on clearance locally. It has problems. If I load it and leave it (bedside) when I go to shoot it it won't feed from the mag.
I just looked up that "watchdog"... over $700 MSRP.
I can buy a pump that works for $200. I'd never buy another 930.

Well yeah, d00D!  It has vicious little doggies all over it!  Stylin' costs!