Meet the Mossberg SA-28 Tactical Turkey
The semi-automatic, gas-driven SA-28 is purpose built for small-bore gobbler hunters. The 28-gauge chambers 2.75-inch rounds and touts a 4+1 round capacity. There’s a 22-inch ventilated rib barrel that culminates in an extended, extra full turkey choke tube. Mossy Oak Greenleaf camouflage covers the entire gun.
The stock is a fixed length, but the length of pull is only 12.75 inches, putting it not at bantam length but not wildly long, either. Overall metrics reach 39 inches from muzzle to butt pad, but it’s the thin lines and 6-pound weight that keep the SA-28 feeling light and easy to carry.
The shotgun falls into what Mossberg calls its International Series, so named for those built overseas. Our test gun was marked as having been built by Armsan in Turkey. Retail price on the SA-28 Tactical Turkey is set at $902.
Related Review: Mossberg’s 940 Pro Turkey – Gobbler Chasing Shorty Shotgun
Tactical Turkey?
The words “tactical” and “turkey” are misfits, yet the SA-28 works. A tactical shotgun it is not, though it would be immensely useful to stalking tactical turkeys. All kidding aside, the handful of “tactical” features actually make sense here.
Mossberg’s svelte 28 wears a rubberized pistol grip, a purely practical feature that’s found its way onto many gobbler-specific shotguns in recent years. Likewise, the Picatinny optics rail caters to the boom of hunters opting to add optics, while the fiber-optic ghost ring sights acquire quickly on the necks of gobblers.
Field Notes
The gun is incredibly wieldy in the tight quarters of a hunting blind. For instance, with three adults plus gear crammed into a popup blind for hours in Sonora, Mexico, there was ample room to shoulder the shotgun – and make a quick shot on a lively Gould’s turkey charging our decoys.
The gun is so light and well-balanced that carrying it afield is a breeze. The included extended choke patterned well, with dense patterns ideal for toms. Though the primary purpose is obviously gobbler hunting, where the included choke excels, we wouldn’t mind having a few additional tubes included for the price. The rubberized pistol grip makes this piece a handling beast of a dream. Recoil is pretty well nonexistent with 28 gauges anyway, but the soft rubber recoil pad certainly doesn’t hurt.
Though we adored the Leupold Delta Point Pro optics atop our test guns in Mexico, we went sans optic back in the Midwest to test Mossberg’s stock irons. The latter are actually quite unique in the shotgun hunting world thus far. The fiber-optic ghost rings are set in contrasting colors with a red rear and green front. They acquire quickly on paper or gobbler necks and get the job done. With the included Picatinny rail, though, adding a more traditional scope would be a snap as well.
One important note, which can be held true for most any autoloader on the market, is not to baby the action. When chambering a round, let that bolt slam. That’s how the guns were designed to function. Closing it gently and quietly will almost certainly result in a failure to fire, and that’s not an issue unique to Mossberg. In the turkey hunting world, the workaround most often means loading up before sneaking quietly into position beneath those roosting gobblers. The SA-28 uses a quietly moving crossbolt safety, so safe handling is not a problem.
The 28?
Naysayers may claim the 28-gauge “not enough” gun for turkeys, but they’re wrong. First, we can look to the baby-bore 410 boom in turkey-specific firearms and ammunition, which are cleanly harvesting birds when practiced responsibly.
Related: 2023’s Best 28-Gauge Hunting Shotguns
The 28 offers the same low recoil and easy-handling, lightweight platforms but with greater performance. Though turkey-specific 28-gauge ammo is still incredibly limited at the time of this writing, more options are on the way. We enjoyed using Federal Custom Shop, but testing various current factory offerings will reveal more than serviceable results given the hunter make sensible choices about range – which should happen regardless of the bore.
When partnering the SA-28 with Federal TSS, we found devastating patterns out to 40 yards. With less specialized ammo, that distance can be closer to half, yet plenty to bag dandy longbeards. Those who appreciate the repeater’s sleek design but simply want more oomph, or a bore with more readily accessible specialty ammunition, can purchase Mossberg’s SA-20 Tactical Turkey in – you guessed it – 20 gauge.
Conclusion
Sure, the retail price point sounds steep for a Turkish-built gun with a fairly limited advertised use. The gun may not be ideal for shooting clays or upland hunting, but it’s such a pleasure to carry and fire that we simply must try both soon. What’s more, real world prices see the gun coming in well below MSRP.
Besides, it’s hard to put a price on the kind of memories we made this year alone with the SA-28 Tactical Turkey, not to mention the light recoil, wicked patterns, and old-school camo on a modern “tactical operator” of a repeater.
