Mossberg 500 Jams

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I found a slight design flaw today on my Mossberg 500 12 guage. When cycling 2 3/4 shells while the barrel is pointing toward the sky on roughly a 45 degree angle this occasionally happens...

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The 2 3/4 shells are just short enough to slip past the elevator and jam the action. This has only happened a few times but every time it is when the barrel is facing the sky.
I checked a buddies Mossberg 500 and I can squeeze a 2 3/4 shell past his elevator too.

Every once in a while when I rack the slide the shell will pop out in to the receiver on an angle like this...

1BEB5723-324A-4660-A793-8C7A1327B88F-1950-000002A068BB46B2.jpg


As you can see the shell is on the verge of dropping down past the elevator and jamming. Most of the time it will still load the shell fine but every once in a while it will slip past and jam.

This is with bulk pack Winchester target loads.

Anyone run into this before? I don't believe it is a fault with my shotgun in particular as the design of the shotgun in general allows this to happen.

Is it just this ammo? Some shells from the box slip past much easier than others, and some won't slip past without really trying.
The difference in shell length from one that slips past and one that doesn't is only a 16th of an inch, if that.

I'm not really complaining, and it's not a huge deal. Just wanted to share my findings and see if anyone has experienced this issue.
 
I've had the same issue and have seen it with others as well. It goes to prove that sometime the open and out of the way carrier of the Mossberg is less reliable than the solid and down design of the other companies! On my gun I simply took the MIG welder and carefully added a little material to the center tab to make it longer. Your gun looks a little too new for that remedy though. You'll probably just have to switch brands of ammo...and you'll find other brands that will have the same problem as well.
 
It's a shame when engineers and designers don't have enough brain cells to see this problem before it starts production. Students in any Grade 9 machine/tool class would have caught this. You should send Mossberg the photos and tell them to mail you a carrier that works, because this is what you paid for.
 
Some guys we were shooting with had shells drop out from the mag tube when they fired on their Mossberg. Is this a common problem also?
 
I think you have every right to complain. Kind of makes follow up shots or multiple targets a little difficult dont you think? In a lot of cases your gun is going to be at a 45 degree angle when shooting.
 
I had a shell drop out of my M500 once before, I thought it was due to the mag tube loosening up screwing up the timing of the shell being released before the lifter came down to collect it.
 
Not sure what it was, but it happend a few times. He would fire, not work the slide at all and the shell would drop. The gun looked to be in pretty much new condtion.
 
I can just see the the ducks coming in!!!! :D
Bang!!!!!!
F***. (Pissed)
In the swamp it goes and I hope my buddy's hit me in the head for thinking about getting a ********!!!!!!
Oh wait while the others were screaming at there equipment I was shooting !!!!!
Thanks to the guy who talked me out of that and into spending the extra 100$ for a benelli!!!! :D
 
Mossberg 500s are good shotguns, 10 million+ sold since 1962. $325 even today is great value.

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The shell dump is common but an easy fix. It is a simple shell stop adjustment. I have fixed many. Don't know about the 45 dgree jam though. How fast were you pumping the gun? I can't get my 16 gauge 500 to come even close to that.

Darryl
 
It's a buddy's gun. I'd like to help him get it fixed. I'll google it, but if you have a link to how to fix it that would be appreciated.
 
THE FIX: (for Sbarkowski's issue) take the gun apart enough to remove the right and left cartridge guides. (shell stops) The shell stop situated on the left side looking from the top of the receiver is configured with a near 90 degree bend at the end. Place this part in a padded vice with the bent end up. Ensure the front end of the bend is exactly flat and not curved or polished incorrectly. (this is the end that the cartridge in the mag tube rests against when the action is closed) if is not gently file and polish till it is. Next bend the shell stop so the stop sits further to the centre of the mag tube. This bend will occur about 1/2 way the length of the shell stop. NOTE: check where it sits on a cartridge head PRIOR to bending the degree of the bend will be about non detectable with the naked eye. Mark the cartridge head with a sharpie so you can control how much you bend it. Go very little at a time and test it. This can be only tested by firing the gun with a loaded magazine because recoil is a component in this problem. Go easy and when bent enough the problem will disappear. Mosin Master, those ducks are so dead they look like a 2000.00 B gun killed them.....

regards, Darryl
 
madtrapper143 said:
THE FIX: (for Sbarkowski's issue) take the gun apart enough to remove the right and left cartridge guides. (shell stops) The shell stop situated on the left side looking from the top of the receiver is configured with a near 90 degree bend at the end. Place this part in a padded vice with the bent end up. Ensure the front end of the bend is exactly flat and not curved or polished incorrectly. (this is the end that the cartridge in the mag tube rests against when the action is closed) if is not gently file and polish till it is. Next bend the shell stop so the stop sits further to the centre of the mag tube. This bend will occur about 1/2 way the length of the shell stop. NOTE: check where it sits on a cartridge head PRIOR to bending the degree of the bend will be about non detectable with the naked eye. Mark the cartridge head with a sharpie so you can control how much you bend it. Go very little at a time and test it. This can be only tested by firing the gun with a loaded magazine because recoil is a component in this problem. Go easy and when bent enough the problem will disappear. Mosin Master, those ducks are so dead they look like a 2000.00 B gun killed them.....

regards, Darryl
Click to expand...

Funny you mention the B guns. My uncle was shooting and singing the praises of his SBE in Max4 blasting 3.5'' shells. He told me that you can get on target faster. Hm.. well I bagged more ducks using 3'' magnums that day with the M500 :) I don't really see the pump being slow, I actually find that the time for me to cycle the action allows me to choose my next target and point.
 
Sebaz said:
I can just see the the ducks coming in!!!! :D
Bang!!!!!!
F***. (Pissed)
In the swamp it goes and I hope my buddy's hit me in the head for thinking about getting a ********!!!!!!
Oh wait while the others were screaming at there equipment I was shooting !!!!!
Thanks to the guy who talked me out of that and into spending the extra 100$ for a benelli!!!! :D
Click to expand...



Lol.
It will almost never happen when hunting because I use 3" shells, only the 2 3/4" shells will do this.



Madtrapper,
I was racking the slide hard when this was happening, if I don't rack it like an ape it won't happen. And most of the time while racking the #### out of it this won't happen either. Just occasionally.
 
Update,

I ended up bending the little tang on the elevator slightly and fixed the problem. If you bend the tang too much the elevator will jam against the bottom of the bolt when cycling the action with the gun upside down. (Not that I cycle the action upside down very often but when the zombies are coming you never know)

The bend that was needed is not easily visible by eye so a new picture won't really help but it's the little tang that the end of the shell is resting on in this picture.

1BEB5723-324A-4660-A793-8C7A1327B88F-1950-000002A068BB46B2.jpg


Now that tang is bent slightly up compared to that picture and its just enough to keep the short 2 3/4" shells from dropping past.
Over all I'm extremely happy with this shotgun, great gun for a great price.
 
Glad it is working now. 500 models are good guns that get little repect from experts and gun writers. Hunters, law enforcement and military don't have time to write about how good it is. They just keep shooting them.

Darryl
 
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