Maverick 88 security firing pin not moving.

The Cocker

The Cocker

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Fraser Valley B.C
My friend tried out his BRAND NEW never fired maverick 88 security today. When he pulled the trigger nothing happend. We checked over the gun and noticed the firing pin isn't moving when we pull the trigger. The gun was cleaned after he took it out of the box. All he cleaned was the reciever and barrel.

We also noticed that if we pull the trigger around the bottom of it it will make a hollow click sound, then you can pull it again without cocking and it will make another click.If you pull the trigger at the top it makes a normal sounding click and only clicks once.

Anyone have any ideas what is wrong with this thing? seriouse ideas only please no "you get what you pay BS"

We have to wait until next week for the gun store guy to come back to take a look, until then we were just wondering if any one has a cluse as to what this is.
 
We figured it out. I took a look at it with him and it appears the firing pin spring has way to much tension. It is EXTREMELY hard to push the firing pin out. The hammer in the trigger group goes forward enough, but it does not have enough force to move the firing pins over powered spring.

We have to wait for the gun store owner to come back on Monday and we'll see what he can do about it.

As for the second stage of the hammer, that appears to be a half ####, and because it just bounces off the firing pin instead of pushing it through the bolt we figure that's why it will make that second click.
 
Did you guys ever find/get a fix for this problem? I've just gotten a used 88 and it is doing the exact same thing with live rounds. Will fire 2 or 3 in a row and then fail to fire one or two in a row. Wait in case of a hangfire, eject shell, and in each case no mark on the primer. My first guess was that the shotgun was being shortstroked, as the bolt lock prevents the firing pin from traveling all the way forward unless it is fully engaged. But the slide lock will not engage unless the bolt is fully locked, as these are interconnected. With each misfire the slide lock was engaged, so this tells me that the bolt was fully locked as well. When I got home I tore the gun apart, disassembled the bolt, pulled the firing pin and everything is moving smoothly. the return spring though is insanely stiff, which leads me to think I am experiencing the same problem as above. In the bolt assembly there is a little washer/shim that sits against the spring and acts as a collar to prevent the firing pin from pushing through the spring. When I take this out, everything moves alot easier, but it creates an obvious problem of firing pin overtravel. But it tells me that the spring is too tight. Should I just order another spring from Mossberg or am I missing something in my diagnosis?

BTW, before anyone chimes in about ammo probs. I was firing 2 3/4 slugs and experienced the same problem with federals, winchester, remington and even brenneke, so it is not ammo. The gun was bought used (so no warrenty) but obviously was never fired before me. I bought the the 88 as a bear gun - lets hope I don't run into one or I might have to install a bayo lug instead to make any use of it.

Thanks for any input.
 
I'd talk to Mossberg, In my experience they are great to deal with, and besides which these shotguns are still American Made.

My only complint with the Mav88 is that it is light...hence more recoil, so I will no longer use the pistol grip with it...other then that Mine works fine.
 
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We were able to get it to at least fire once we loosend the pistol grip it came with. But now it'll fire 2 out of 3 rounds. I told my room mate to try it with the butt stock but he didn't. We just gave it back to the gun store and he's going to call mossbery warrenty and see if they'll let him fix it because he's a smith, or if they want him to send it off.

Bear defence strategy for these two 88's is to hope the bear rolls over laughing at our crap gun when it just goes click.
 
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Well the gun shop tested 50 plus rounds and not one error. They figure i'm mite have been short stroking the 88. Well thats not reliable enough for me, especialy for bear's. So im not sure what ill get instead. I think ill just get some sort of 870.
The Cleaner
 
The Cleaner said:
Well the gun shop tested 50 plus rounds and not one error. They figure i'm mite have been short stroking the 88. Well thats not reliable enough for me, especialy for bear's. So im not sure what ill get instead. I think ill just get some sort of 870.
The Cleaner
Click to expand...

If you're shortstroking, then it's your problem and NOT the guns.

Mossy's are reliable, and you CAN shortstroke an 870 or Winchester.

Learn how to use it BEFORE going bush.
 
RePete said:
If you're shortstroking, then it's your problem and NOT the guns.

Mossy's are reliable, and you CAN shortstroke an 870 or Winchester.

Learn how to use it BEFORE going bush.
Click to expand...

+2 agreed.
 
I've also got the Maverick 88 and one of the first things that I noticed was that cycling the action it wasn't as smooth as I thought it ought to be and that at first it did seem to take minor bit of force to get'er all locked in and ready to fire, I just figured that this was a still new thing, so what do I do? I went out and got a couple hundred rounds of target ammo and setting out targets, milk jugs filled with water pop bottles, heck even useing some of the tall weeds that are all over my place, out at various distances I just put my self right in the midle of it all, loaded up and went to town on all of those nasty targets, yes now the feild is all weed free:D . I also spent some time in my living room just working on practicing cycling and working the action.
Now all is said and done I find that the action on the 88 is alot smoother and easier to cycle now than when I first bought it and werks wonderfully.



Russ
 
What ever, each to there own. I dont feel that should be a possible problem considering I need this for bear protection. I dont need something I'll have to remember when the time comes to slam the hell out of the shotgun. Cheap gun cheap performance. So its out the door. I have a Remington police tactical and I never had this problem I've used other quality shotguns with out a hiccup. I'll just buy another Remington for the bush.

The Cleaner:rolleyes:
 
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My concern was simple and did not involve shortstroking or working the action. If the firing pin does not strike the primer when the hammer falls and the bolt lock is engaged, this is not operator error, but a problem with the assembly. Short stroking leads to either one of two things: 1) either the action remains partially open (bolt lock does not engage, disabling the firing pin), or 2) feeding problems. Therefore replies about shortstroking, which in my case is clearly not a concern, are not conducive to resolving the fault. Again, this is clearly a mechanical, not an operator problem. Perhaps someone who has fieldstripped their gun recently can provide feedback as to how hard it was to push the firing pin to the firing position with their thumb with the bolt lock up. This would be constructive feedback. Thanks.
As for my 88, say what you will about Wholesale, but I am impressed. After concluding that they could not repair the SG on site, they took it back, although I bought it as a used consignment piece, and gave me all my money back. All I came in for was to ask if they could order a $4.02 return spring for me. I don't know how many shops you can expect that from. Oh ya, no smart remarks about me short stroking it from them.
BTW, I haven't given up on Mavericks, just next time I'll be getting one with full warrenty and pull the bolt b4 I buy it. The older ones were reliable as hell - don't know what happened since.

Cheers
 
Mmmkay, so I have my 88 feild stripped here in front of me on my desk, and with the hammer fully forward I pushed it fully back to the ready to fire position, I'd have to say that it wasn't hard at all. there was some force needed to push it back but not much.

Hope this was what yer after
Russ
 
BTW the older 88's had only one side action bar, and the new ones have two...other then that I have had both types apart, and they are both pretty much the same from what I can tell. Also I have had no problem with my 88's bolt spring.

From the first post...
My friend tried out his BRAND NEW never fired maverick 88 security today.
Click to expand...

So if you bought this on consignment then it was prob' buggered up by the original owner somehow. I doubt it would have left the factory like this.
 
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That it was consigned because of the problem could very much have been the case, but looking at the barrel you can tell that there wasn't a single round fired from it. The bolt had not been apart before I disassembled it, as the retaining pins were near impossible to drive out. I guess the trigger group could be to blame too. If the hammer does not strike the bolt forcefully enough, then this would lead to the same problem. But man was the return spring ever tight. I could not push the firing pin all the way forward with my thumb with the spring in place. When it was removed, there was no drag on the firing pin. I even stuck the spring in a vise overnight to try to get it to relax a little, but after that there was still no impovement. BTW, I had the same experience with the gun as the Cleaner: with fired rounds with a piece of paper acting as a primer substitute the firing pin always struck, yet at the range there would be a consistant misfire every other round.
 
Yah but, Barrels can be changed with a turn of little dial up front in 5 seconds...look new shotgun! :D
I have come accross quite a few at gunshows like this.

Sounds like a bubba had the bolt apart already, and maybe even put in a spring that doesn't belong to the shotgun, and maybe even the wrong firing pin.

Glad to hear SIR was good about the return and such...good folks.
 
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