Any tips and tricks to make feeding the mag tube smoother?

lavino

lavino

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Sometimes I feel my Mossberg Maverick 88 (basically a 500 clone) feeding is not very smooth. Nothing is wrong with it. It will feed and action pull no problem eventually but once in a while I will feel the shell just won't go in smoothly or the after putting a shell in I will need to double push it in a bit (like 1/4 of an inch) with my thumb to make sure it stay in the tube properly. The gun is brand new bought so I am the first owner. Everything works but just not smoothly sometimes when putting in the shells. The action and cycles no problem as long as I use brass not other metal. I have never taken apart the whole gun and I heard the mag tube is not easy to remove for Mossberg. You can't heat up the loctite too much since the follower is plastic I heard. Any parts I can change to make it smoother? Is there a third party follower I can buy or even changing the follower would help?
 
lavino said:
Sometimes I feel my Mossberg Maverick 88 (basically a 500 clone) feeding is not very smooth. Nothing is wrong with it. It will feed and action pull no problem eventually but once in a while I will feel the shell just won't go in smoothly or the after putting a shell in I will need to double push it in a bit (like 1/4 of an inch) with my thumb to make sure it stay in the tube properly. The gun is brand new bought so I am the first owner. Everything works but just not smoothly sometimes when putting in the shells. The action and cycles no problem as long as I use brass not other metal. I have never taken apart the whole gun and I heard the mag tube is not easy to remove for Mossberg. You can't heat up the loctite too much since the follower is plastic I heard. Any parts I can change to make it smoother? Is there a third party follower I can buy or even changing the follower would help?
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Lots of guys here will be able to tell you more than I, but strip it down to clean all the crap from a new firearm out of it, go out and shoot 50-100 rounds and make sure you operate the forearm fairly hard, don't baby it. this should break it in a bit, yes you have to push the ammo in a bit, you can take the spring and follower out from the muzzle end I believe, if it is similar to the 500/590. But you don't meet to take the mag tube off for cleaning, watch some YouTube videos on field stripping and cleaning the 88/500!
 
I polished the inside of my mag tube, replaced the crappy factory follower with a Brownell's aluminum unit, and for good measure, oiled down the inside of the tube with G96 and let it dry so that it left a dry lube film behind.

Huge improvement!
 
Got a follow up question... these new S&J followers are plastic one so I can no longer try to heat up the receiver end to melt off the loctite I guess. How hard is the mag tube loctite to the receiver in the first place? Is it ok to use a lighter (I heard hair dryer is not working) to try to melt off the loctite the very first time? The original follower is metallic right? So first time it should be fine. Is it ok to just screw the mag tube back in after I changed the follower without any loctite? I was able to unlock a really heavily loctite muzzle break (yeah.. long story about bad decision) with a lighter. That is still ok to use it on the Mossberg right?
 
lavino said:
Got a follow up question... these new S&J followers are plastic one so I can no longer try to heat up the receiver end to melt off the loctite I guess. How hard is the mag tube loctite to the receiver in the first place? Is it ok to use a lighter (I heard hair dryer is not working) to try to melt off the loctite the very first time? The original follower is metallic right? So first time it should be fine. Is it ok to just screw the mag tube back in after I changed the follower without any loctite? I was able to unlock a really heavily loctite muzzle break (yeah.. long story about bad decision) with a lighter. That is still ok to use it on the Mossberg right?
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As I said earlier you don't have to unscrew the mag tube! Unscrew the muzzle end and pop the retainer out, then the Spring will come out and the follower, watch YouTube video it is very easy, 3 minutes and you will have the new one in!
 
Maverick 88's and Mossberg 500's have a different mag tube setup than 590's and 590A1's. 590's and 590A1's have a cap
that screws over the end of the mag tube. 88's and 500's have a large nut that screws into the end of the mag tube, so you will have to remove mag tube to remove follower/spring.
Heatgun is handy for warming her up. Maybe use locktite purple if the tube starts backing out with use. Purple is the low strength loctite. Or get a metal follower and use blue, so if you have to heat it up to get it off again you won't melt the follower.
Or just call it a day and get a 590 or 590A1, if you like the Mossbergs that's what you'll probably end up doing anyway.
Those plastic/rubber strap wrench thingamajiggers are handy for unscrewing tubes/extensions.
 
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On a Maverick/Mossberg 500 dont have magazine cap like the 590 so in order to replace the follower,the magazine tube must be unscrewed. I would think that if the maverick follower is plastic,it would be possible after removing the trigger group to use a rod to push the follower in the tube,away from the receiver then some heat could be applied to break the loctite bond.
 
lavino said:
Got a follow up question... these new S&J followers are plastic one so I can no longer try to heat up the receiver end to melt off the loctite I guess. How hard is the mag tube loctite to the receiver in the first place? Is it ok to use a lighter (I heard hair dryer is not working) to try to melt off the loctite the very first time? The original follower is metallic right? So first time it should be fine. Is it ok to just screw the mag tube back in after I changed the follower without any loctite? I was able to unlock a really heavily loctite muzzle break (yeah.. long story about bad decision) with a lighter. That is still ok to use it on the Mossberg right?
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Use a heat gun , it'll get hot enough to release the Loctite with out hurting anything , if you have a vise , put a 2x4 in the vise and then the stripped receiver on the 2x4 , it shouldn't take much heat to do it .
Most times you wouldn't need to re-Loctite the mag threads , I haven't on 4 of mine , both 590 and 500's , with no issues at all .
 
bobdbldr said:
As I said earlier you don't have to unscrew the mag tube! Unscrew the muzzle end and pop the retainer out, then the Spring will come out and the follower, watch YouTube video it is very easy, 3 minutes and you will have the new one in!
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I understand what you mean but too bad I got the M88/500 which has no cap *sigh*. But then the 88 price is less then half of a 590 and it was suppose to be fun plinking gun. When I get more serious later I think I will buy a higher-end one.
 
You can make a huge difference by getting a 12 gauge swab on a cleaning rod, coating it in Flitz metal polish and running it through the tube, it'll clean the tube, polish it very gently and prevent it from developing any oxidation. Run another one through to clean out the polish. Then use a different follower.
 
lavino said:
I understand what you mean but too bad I got the M88/500 which has no cap *sigh*. But then the 88 price is less then half of a 590 and it was suppose to be fun plinking gun. When I get more serious later I think I will buy a higher-end one.
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Sorry about the bad info, I thought they all had the same type end cap although the end nut is different, I just took the barrel off a 500 I had sitting in the cabinet, never took apart before, sucks to have to remove the tube, but not the end of the world! Heat gun and a strap wrench is what I used on my 590 a couple days ago when installing the 14" barrel and it came off fairly easy, be careful with how much heat you use. Also my 500 had metal follower but the 88 is obviously a different rig. Good luck!
 
Few things to note a out our s&j followers
There are cnc machined from delrin/actel
Notcjust molded plastic like other Vag comp /Wilson combat /choate .
Melting point is about 180 deg C.
Delrin falls under the Teflon group of synthetics
You will not need to polish or lu be you mag tube any longer
Which aids is stoping you mag from freezing up
As IT good to -140
Same goes for sandy or wet conditions .
We have out sold all other brand of aftermarket shotgun followers.
Bbb
 
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