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I've taken my Mosquito out for the second time, and it's time for a range report. This one came from a calguns member, with 2 mags, 3 different front sights (including the one on the gun), and an extra recoil spring that was sent by Sig to the original owner when he complained about reliability (I'm not sure which spring is in the gun right now). It was pretty lightly used, with little to no signs of wear.
The Mosquito is styled as a 3/4 size Sig, and is a good looking gun. It's got a plastic frame with a 3 slot rail under the barrel, and weighs 26.8 oz (760 gm) with 10 rounds of ammo.
It has a safety, a decocker lever, and a mag block, which means it won't fire with the magazine out. When the mag's out and you pull the trigger, the hammer won't drop if it's cocked, and if it's uncocked, the hammer cams back but won't go all the way back and drop.
The safety goes up for fire, and down for safe. When the safety's on, the gun acts like normal - when the trigger's pulled, the hammer will drop if cocked, or will cam back and drop if it's down. There's no way to tell that the safety is on by feel, and I had one time where I had it on and thought I was having failures to fire. On the third failure to fire, I stopped to look, and sure enough, the safety was on, with no primer dents in the rounds I had cycled out. I'd consider this a serious design flaw on a defensive gun, but it's not a problem on a .22.
The sights are good, but not great - bright semi-fluorescent 3 dot sights that were easy enough to pick up in the range lighting, but weren't super precise. With the light behind me, the dots predominated, and made it harder for me to line up the sight edges. With the light at the front, it looked more like a traditional target sight.
The Mosquito has a reputation for finickiness.
The first time I took it out, it really upheld this, with a bunch of failures to feed, eject, and fire, and a few forward assists required to fully chamber the round, using a variety of ammo - Minimags, Remington Golden, Zappers, and SK Plus. All the failures to fire worked fine when fed through the second time. The lower energy ammo, like the Goldens and the SK Plus (target ammo) often either wouldn't extract the empty, would stovepipe, or would extract and eject but not load the next round or cock the hammer. The Minimags were best, and it definitely got better as it warmed up, with 60 Minimags in a row cycling with no problems at the end of the session. Total rounds - 250 for this session.
The second time out, it had a ton of trouble with the first mag, loaded with Zappers (normally reliable in my .22 semi-autos), then the second mag was OK. After that, everything ran through pretty reliably, even the normally troublesome Remington Goldens. I didn't try the SK Plus, since they ran so poorly the first time and are a bit expensive. Minimags and Stingers ran flawlessly (and the Stingers had great muzzle flash!), and the Zappers had a few problems, but not many. It was a cold day, and it seemed like the gun needed a mag through it to warm it up and get it cycling well. Total rounds - 250 for this session.
Shooting at 10 yards two-handed, the groups were all around 2.5-3" high, and went from 2" across with Minimags to 3" with most other ammo. I had forgotten about the high groups after the first session, and after the second one I put in the tallest of the 3 front sights, which hopefully will bring the POI down pretty close to the POA at 10 yards.
At this point, I like it better than the Walther P22, but not as much as the Ruger MK512 bull barrel MKII. It's more fun to shoot than the Ruger, but not nearly as accurate.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the performance. It's no target pistol, but is getting more reliable as I shoot it more, and it's got a good feel. Sig recommends cleaning the gun every 250 (!) rounds or every time the ammo type is changed (!!), but I just don't swing that way. Now that it's digesting a bigger variety of ammo, I'm going to keep on shooting it with an assortment of ammo until it starts jamming on the normally reliable stuff, then clean it and see how it does.
Update 5/09:
It still continues to be flakey about reliability. Sometimes it shoots 3-4 mags with no problems, other times it chokes every mag. I put the highest sight in, and it now shoots lower, and pretty close to POA. There's some peening showing up on the chamber where the firing pin falls - I don't dry fire it much, but whe it fails to feed, it's easy to drop the hammer on an empty chamber.
ETA: Here's some info from another sight on Mosquito serial numbers and changes. I can't vouch for the accuracy, but it's another resource:
The Mosquito is styled as a 3/4 size Sig, and is a good looking gun. It's got a plastic frame with a 3 slot rail under the barrel, and weighs 26.8 oz (760 gm) with 10 rounds of ammo.
It has a safety, a decocker lever, and a mag block, which means it won't fire with the magazine out. When the mag's out and you pull the trigger, the hammer won't drop if it's cocked, and if it's uncocked, the hammer cams back but won't go all the way back and drop.
The safety goes up for fire, and down for safe. When the safety's on, the gun acts like normal - when the trigger's pulled, the hammer will drop if cocked, or will cam back and drop if it's down. There's no way to tell that the safety is on by feel, and I had one time where I had it on and thought I was having failures to fire. On the third failure to fire, I stopped to look, and sure enough, the safety was on, with no primer dents in the rounds I had cycled out. I'd consider this a serious design flaw on a defensive gun, but it's not a problem on a .22.
The sights are good, but not great - bright semi-fluorescent 3 dot sights that were easy enough to pick up in the range lighting, but weren't super precise. With the light behind me, the dots predominated, and made it harder for me to line up the sight edges. With the light at the front, it looked more like a traditional target sight.
The Mosquito has a reputation for finickiness.
The first time I took it out, it really upheld this, with a bunch of failures to feed, eject, and fire, and a few forward assists required to fully chamber the round, using a variety of ammo - Minimags, Remington Golden, Zappers, and SK Plus. All the failures to fire worked fine when fed through the second time. The lower energy ammo, like the Goldens and the SK Plus (target ammo) often either wouldn't extract the empty, would stovepipe, or would extract and eject but not load the next round or cock the hammer. The Minimags were best, and it definitely got better as it warmed up, with 60 Minimags in a row cycling with no problems at the end of the session. Total rounds - 250 for this session.
The second time out, it had a ton of trouble with the first mag, loaded with Zappers (normally reliable in my .22 semi-autos), then the second mag was OK. After that, everything ran through pretty reliably, even the normally troublesome Remington Goldens. I didn't try the SK Plus, since they ran so poorly the first time and are a bit expensive. Minimags and Stingers ran flawlessly (and the Stingers had great muzzle flash!), and the Zappers had a few problems, but not many. It was a cold day, and it seemed like the gun needed a mag through it to warm it up and get it cycling well. Total rounds - 250 for this session.
Shooting at 10 yards two-handed, the groups were all around 2.5-3" high, and went from 2" across with Minimags to 3" with most other ammo. I had forgotten about the high groups after the first session, and after the second one I put in the tallest of the 3 front sights, which hopefully will bring the POI down pretty close to the POA at 10 yards.
At this point, I like it better than the Walther P22, but not as much as the Ruger MK512 bull barrel MKII. It's more fun to shoot than the Ruger, but not nearly as accurate.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the performance. It's no target pistol, but is getting more reliable as I shoot it more, and it's got a good feel. Sig recommends cleaning the gun every 250 (!) rounds or every time the ammo type is changed (!!), but I just don't swing that way. Now that it's digesting a bigger variety of ammo, I'm going to keep on shooting it with an assortment of ammo until it starts jamming on the normally reliable stuff, then clean it and see how it does.
Update 5/09:
It still continues to be flakey about reliability. Sometimes it shoots 3-4 mags with no problems, other times it chokes every mag. I put the highest sight in, and it now shoots lower, and pretty close to POA. There's some peening showing up on the chamber where the firing pin falls - I don't dry fire it much, but whe it fails to feed, it's easy to drop the hammer on an empty chamber.
ETA: Here's some info from another sight on Mosquito serial numbers and changes. I can't vouch for the accuracy, but it's another resource:
Post date - 11/07
The Mosquitoes have had the tolerances changed according to SIG, the feedramp has been improved and the springs have changed. (the older Mosquitoes have solid springs, and the newer guns have a small end on one side. -- small goes closest to the trigger, big toward the end of the barrel.)
All of the Mosquitoes I've seen (in every configuration) have been "AO" serial numbered weapons (ETA: current reports indicate newer guns have an F0XXXX SN range).
It is hard to tell on what date things started to change, but the most recent serial numbers coming out of SIG are the AO55-60K range.
Just to place a time line on things:
AO33000 were coming out as early as Sept 2006.
AO35000 were seen around July 2007, but MANY are still leaving the factory.
AO44000 were seen around Sept 2007
AO55000 Are being seen 11/07.
AO60000 Are being seen 11/07.
ETA: The newest guns are reported to be F0XXXX serial numbers.
Sports, TB's, B's, TT's and RTT's all fall into the same serial number ranges.
I've seen Sports in the AO55000 Range, and seen a Threaded Barrel model only a dozen serial numbers off.
Basically, Ask the dealer how long he's had the weapon in stock for, and he should be able to tell you if the weapon was sitting for a few months.
I'd probably stick to the 44-55K Serial number ranges for safety, but like I said previously, SIG is still pumping out Two Tones and Reverse Two Tones in the 35K serial ranges, and those weapons work well according to customers. (perhaps they've had work done)
SIG also claims that the longer barrels on the TB and Sport Models cause more back pressure and help to cycle the weapon. (I guess it makes sense)
The Mosquitoes have had the tolerances changed according to SIG, the feedramp has been improved and the springs have changed. (the older Mosquitoes have solid springs, and the newer guns have a small end on one side. -- small goes closest to the trigger, big toward the end of the barrel.)
All of the Mosquitoes I've seen (in every configuration) have been "AO" serial numbered weapons (ETA: current reports indicate newer guns have an F0XXXX SN range).
It is hard to tell on what date things started to change, but the most recent serial numbers coming out of SIG are the AO55-60K range.
Just to place a time line on things:
AO33000 were coming out as early as Sept 2006.
AO35000 were seen around July 2007, but MANY are still leaving the factory.
AO44000 were seen around Sept 2007
AO55000 Are being seen 11/07.
AO60000 Are being seen 11/07.
ETA: The newest guns are reported to be F0XXXX serial numbers.
Sports, TB's, B's, TT's and RTT's all fall into the same serial number ranges.
I've seen Sports in the AO55000 Range, and seen a Threaded Barrel model only a dozen serial numbers off.
Basically, Ask the dealer how long he's had the weapon in stock for, and he should be able to tell you if the weapon was sitting for a few months.
I'd probably stick to the 44-55K Serial number ranges for safety, but like I said previously, SIG is still pumping out Two Tones and Reverse Two Tones in the 35K serial ranges, and those weapons work well according to customers. (perhaps they've had work done)
SIG also claims that the longer barrels on the TB and Sport Models cause more back pressure and help to cycle the weapon. (I guess it makes sense)
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