Tough Times
As the Depression raged in 1932, Mossberg produced its first shotgun, a .410 bolt-action single-shot. Improved .22 rifles, the Model 30 single-shot and box-fed Model 40, followed a year later, only to expire in ’35. Priced in those hard days for as little as $6, they wore Mossberg’s own No. 3 receiver sight. It would sell many rifles!
By 1934 Mossberg had repeating bolt-action shotguns in .410 and 20 gauge. It overhauled its .22 rifle line in ’35 and added telescopic sights. Harold designed the $7.50 No. 6 scope and mount, and Mossberg made it inhouse rather than outsourcing. Between 1926 and WWII the firm would list over 30 models of rifle scopes. Spiegel and Montgomery Ward branded more than 87,000 of them.
Oscar Mossberg died in 1938. His sons added the round brick New Haven Gas House to expand the nearby Greene Street operation. Both plants ran at capacity until Mossberg moved to its North Haven, Connecticut facility in 1960.