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Mossberg SC1sc Compact 9mm Pistol.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a media/industry event at Gunsite Academy in late January, 2020, and I was pleased that Mossberg brought out their new pistols, the MC1sc and the MC2c, for testing and evaluation.  Gunsite was founded by the late Colonel Jeff Cooper in 1976, and is the premier gun-fighting school in the world.  Gunsite teaches not only marksmanship, but also gun-handling and mindset; with around 3,000 acres, over twenty different ranges, and about fifty instructors (both men and women who have a background of military, law enforcement or have a high degree and experience of training in their field), the training experience Gunsite offers is almost unlimited. Gunsite offers a wide variety of ranges and scenarios, from basic pistol square range, to indoor and outdoor simulators, long range rifle, and force-on-force.  There isn’t much that you can’t train on there, and it makes for a perfect venue to test and evaluate weapons.

Mossberg kindly brought out an array of shotguns and their two pistols, the MC1sc, introduced at SHOT Show in 2019, and their brand new MC2c, introduced a few weeks ago at SHOT Show 2020.  The focus of my attention were the two pistols, as I hadn’t yet had the chance to handle, fire, or evaluate either of them.

The MC1sc is a steel slide, polymer frame, subcompact 9mm pistol that comes with two magazines, one with a pinky extension and capacity of 7 rounds and the other with a flat base plate, with a 6 round capacity.  The MC1sc comes equipped with a set of dove-tailed, fixed, white 3-dot sights and a 3.4” barrel.  While the gun is definitely a very mission-specific one, intended for deep concealment, I found it to be quite ergonomic.  I have fairly large hands and, because of that, I had expected the MC1sc to be hard to handle, but found it to be quite the opposite: the MC1sc pointed and balanced well.  For my larger hands, the magazine pinky extension that is offered made a tremendous difference and allowed me to get all of my fingers around the grip.  When using a flat magazine, I have to curl my pinky finger under the grip.  The magazines loaded fairly easily, without needed to use a loading tool.  I found that it almost perfectly fit an S&W Shield holster that I had.   I unboxed the brand new MC1sc, loaded up a few mags with frangible ammo, which is notorious for inducing malfunctions, and headed to the Playhouse, one of the indoor simulators on property at Gunsite.

This indoor simulator requires clearing a mock house, neutralizing “bad guy” targets, using situational awareness to avoid the few “good guy” targets under the stress of clearing each room, hallway, closet, and openings.  During this drill, I fired all frangible ammunition while going through two tactical reloads, where the partially full magazine is replaced with a full magazine, without any issues whatsoever.  This was a good start for a new, out of the box, gun using frangible ammunition.  

We then proceeded to shoot through a modified “5 to Go” steel challenge drill, with an added twist of a mandatory reload before hitting the last steel plate.   The small pistol required me to really get, and stay, on the sights in order to quickly run through the drill.  The mandatory magazine reload, on the clock, mandated a speed reload, where the partially full magazine is dropped from the gun and to the ground while a fresh magazine is inserted so the gun is back into the fight quickly  This provided me with the opportunity to test the robustness of the polymer magazines.  After dropping them multiple times in the northern Arizona grit, dust, and sand during this drill, I experienced no malfunctions whatsoever with the pistol or magazine.

We then moved the Urban Scrambler, an outdoor simulator, with various size steel targets, at distances varying between 30 and 45 yards, behind various forms of barricades such as vehicles, doors, walls, a simulated rooftop, etc.  Some of the seventeen targets are small, thin pepper poppers, while others are human size.  The pistol handled well and I didn’t experience any issues hitting all of the targets, even the steel “hostage taker” (a swinging plate behind a “no shoot” full size steel target).  As I never want my gun to run empty during a fight, I am consistently doing reloads during drills, which allowed me to go through four magazine changes during this drill.  In order to better test the robustness of the magazines, I opted to perform speed reloads, where the magazine is dropped on the gravel, and found no adverse events, which is another positive for the robustness of the magazines.

Switching to the new MC2c pistol, I found it to be larger in size and a much better feeling pistol to my big hands.  It has a steel slide, with polymer frame and rail.  The grip has a slight palm swell, which was very welcome after shooting its older but smaller brother, the subcompact MC1sc. The MC2c also has a mildly aggressive texture to it that allowed for a positive grip.  The proprietary double stack magazine allows for a higher capacity than the MC1sc, with either 13 or 15-round capacity, while still keeping a very slim profile (factory specifications indicate the MC2c grip being only 0.07” wider than the MC1sc).  The magazines are made of steel and are thus thinner than the polymer MC1sc magazines, which helps with keeping the MC2c grip width down.  I had no issues wrapping my hands around the grip with these magazines!  The barrel is 3.9”, which is half an inch longer than that of the MC1sc.  Ergonomically, I found the gun to be very user friendly and easy to use, much like the MC1sc.  I liked the textured areas on both sides of the frame for indexing my trigger finger and opposite hand thumb.  The sights are dove-tailed, white 3-dot sights, just like the MC1sc.  The pistol fit my hand and grip very well and is a great size for concealed carry, belt carry, or range use.

I used the MC2c for a series of Gunsite School Drills, where a standard target is engaged at varying distances from three yards to fifteen yards, either with head or body shots, with time limitations varying from as little as 1.5 seconds at 3 yards, to a few more seconds than that at fifteen yards.  However, in order to better test the pistol, and not my skills as a fast shooter, we opted to run the drill under no time constraints.  The pistol performed flawlessly through multiple of these school drills, consistently delivering good accuracy and reliability.

As of this writing, the pistols are still in pre-production at Mossberg and should start shipping by February/March.  As they are still available in very limited quantities, I was only able to evaluate the test gun supplied by Mossberg and have ordered one from them for me to further test and assess performance, comfort, and reliability.

I found both pistols to share a few similar features that enhanced my experience with each of them.  Personally, I like the "Safe Takedown System™" feature, where the trigger does NOT need to be pressed in order to take down the gun for field stripping and cleaning.  Both guns have a grip that just feels good.  I realize that this is a bit qualitative, but both guns pointed, and felt, more like a 1911 to me; both have a palm swell with that slightly “grippy” texturing that really helped get a firm purchase on the pistol.  Both pistols also share the same flat profile trigger, something that is usually seen as an upgrade in the striker fire pistol market, with a very clean and crisp reset, and trigger pull that is advertised in the 5-6 pound range (not having a trigger pull scale there during the event prevented me from checking this with the test pistols). 

Overall, I came away very favorably impressed with both pistols.  I found that if I did my part with sights and trigger press, the pistols performed flawlessly, reliably and accurately; enough so that I decided to purchase one of each of them for my own.  The MC1sc should be here any day, while the MC2c will be available in a month or so.  I have no qualms about using either of these pistols to defend myself, my family, and loved ones, and insert them into my rotation of carry guns.

Click Here for more info on the Mossberg MC1sc pistol.

Click Here for more info on the Mossberg MC2c pistol.

To find a Mossberg dealer in your area, click on the DEALER FINDER at Lipsey's.

To order Mossberg products online, click on the GUN GENIE at Davidson's Gallery of Guns.

Order Ammo online at Buffalo Bore Ammo, Double Tap Ammo, and Lucky Gunner.

For the finest in working holsters and leather gear, check out our pal Rob Leahy at Simply Rugged Leather.

Matt Olivier

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