At SHOT Show’s Range Day on Monday I went hands-on with Mossberg’s new little pocket pistol, the MC1sc. I’m not gonna lie, when I saw the initial press release I figured this is a crowded space, the MC1sc didn’t exactly look revolutionary, and Mossberg isn’t who you think of when you think pistols. Of any sort.
But then I shot it . . .
The MC1sc surprised me. It feels very good in the hand and shoots amazingly well. Great trigger, smooth recoil impulse, highly controllable, and very accurate.
The cross-bolt safety also surprised me. This seems like a weird idea and I expected to dislike it. But it works.
Not only that, but the end user can easily reverse it so it’s on “fire” when clicked left, as pictured above, or on “fire” when clicked right. Basically, you can choose whether you want to flip it off “safe” with your index or middle finger or with your thumb, whether you’re right- or left-handed.
For those who are entirely opposed to manual safeties on a carry gun, Mossberg is also selling the MC1sc sans safety.
We tend to shrug off the idea of a gun requiring a trigger pull to disassemble, but the fact is that plenty of negligent discharges and a non-trivial number of injuries and deaths have occurred from this. While this is absolutely user error/negligence, it’s also a risk factor that can be eliminated by an engineer.
So Mossberg has done what many manufacturers are choosing to do these days and designed the MC1sc to field strip without a trigger pull.
Simply lock the slide back, push the button on the striker cover, and slide the striker cover down and off the gun. Now the slide will come off the front of the pistol, pushing the striker out the back at the same time. Everything else field strips as you’d expect. It’s quick and easy, and even gives you easy access to the striker and striker channel for cleaning.
Six- and seven-round, transparent magazines are available. Seen above is a pair of seven-round mags with short grip extensions loaded to, yes, only five rounds. We know there’s five in there because the magazines are clear. Handy, eh?
I walked away from the Mossberg bay impressed. This little gun feels and shoots like something larger and heavier. Oh, and it’s only $425 at full MSRP. Nice.