Mossberg 500 randomly not firing. Options??

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Nan_wpg

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So, my 500 is about 2 years old.

It's now starting to misfire about 6-8 times out of about 50 shots.

It's concerning as this is my primary cabin bear/wolf defense gun.

My options are:

1. Mail it to Ontario at a cost for warranty work

2. Pay a local gunsmith to fix

3. Just replace a bunch of stuff in it myself (maybe cheaper than mailing costs for warranty work?)

4 buy a new shotgun.

Kinda leaning towards #4 as I have lost all confidence with Mossberg and this shotgun.


What are your opinions?
 
Ammo has,been ruled out. I've tried different,rounds from different manufacturers, and lots.

I,usually bore snake after a shoot, and swab the bolt head.

I,have not,done a complete strip, and clean/lube. It looks pretty clean.

I will try that before I think about,firing pin replacement.

Is the pin a diy thing, or is it best left to,a gunsmith.
 
It's seen 50-75 shells tops.

It's a cabin bear/wolf gun. I take it to the range every year just before May long before cabin season and practice with it.

I had it this month at the range because the weather was nice, was sighting in my new 308 and I brought the 500 along.

Bang bang bang click bang bang click

Uh oh!

As I said I,run a bore snake each and every time but have not field striped it yet as massberg says to,do that around 200 rounds.
 
You can strip down your bolt and give it a good cleaning. There are a couple of pins that need to be drifted out to get at the firing pin but it's easy enough to do if you have any shop experience. Youtube has several vids on 500 tear downs just watch a few before you get started to weed out the ones that are less effective.
 
Nan_wpg said:
Ammo has,been ruled out. I've tried different,rounds from different manufacturers, and lots.

I,usually bore snake after a shoot, and swab the bolt head.

I,have not,done a complete strip, and clean/lube. It looks pretty clean.

I will try that before I think about,firing pin replacement.

Is the pin a diy thing, or is it best left to,a gunsmith.
Click to expand...

On the rounds that don't go bang are there any indents on the primer , just sounds like it needs a good cleaning , the Mossberg 500 is very easy to strip down , lots of youtube videos if you need help for the first time , I'd bet it's firing pin channel a little gummed up , a little WD-40 or solvent should do the trick , aside from that , check the hammer spring .

Yeah , pull the bolt , spray it down with some solvent or WD-40 , it's easy , I just stripped mine down while typing this .lol
 
Greenhorse six said:
On the rounds that don't go bang are there any indents on the primer , just sounds like it needs a good cleaning , the Mossberg 500 is very easy to strip down , lots of youtube videos if you need help for the first time , I'd bet it's firing pin channel a little gummed up , a little WD-40 or solvent should do the trick , aside from that , check the hammer spring .

Yeah , pull the bolt , spray it down with some solvent or WD-40 , it's easy , I just stripped mine down while typing this .lol
Click to expand...

Do this. There's only so many reasons a pump shotgun will not fire. My first thought would be light primer strikes, due to a gummed up bolt. Especially if you hear a click, and no bang.
 
Scotty454 said:
Do this. There's only so many reasons a pump shotgun will not fire. My first thought would be light primer strikes, due to a gummed up bolt. Especially if you hear a click, and no bang.
Click to expand...

This. Strip the bolt and clean. Likely issue, if not, go from there.

 
Thanks all for the replies.

Yes there are indents on the primer. At first I thought maybe a bad batch of ammo. It can happen, but it was happening with different brands and types, (oo buck / slugs

Looks like I'll try a good deep clean.
 
Remove the trigger group and get boiling hot water and some Simple Green or Sunlite Dish Soap and give it a good wash.
Use an old tooth brush and give it a good scrub.
Pour boiling hot water from the kettle all over the trigger group and of course you best wear some PPE or you might burn your fingers.
Let it dry and then spray some G-96 gun oil on it and reassemble.

I highly doubt there is a mechanical issue with your gun and its trigger group, but if you must buy a shotgun...
Buy a Remington 870 Wingmaster and you will be golden.
Just my .05 worth of advice/opinion.
Rob
 
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FLHTCUI said:
I highly doubt there is a mechanical issue with your gun and its trigger group, but if you must buy a shotgun...
Buy a Remington 870 Wingmaster and you will be golden.
Just my .05 worth of advice/opinion.
Rob
Click to expand...

This whole thread may just be a clever ploy to acquire another gun. Which I have no issue with whatsoever, lol. Maybe his wife is reading...
 
There is no,such thing as too many guns!

I leave for holidays tomorrow so I will give everything a thorough deep clean, and a good lube.

Then off to the range to if,the problem is solved.

So, if I understand correctly the shotgun ships with everything oiled right up. I go to the range and the fouling sticks to the oil and causes misfire.

Everything in the action should have very little lube on it correct? This is what the issue is?
 
Just a quick update. I was unable to disassemble the bolt. The pin would not come out.

So, I cleaned everything, and gave the bolt a few good soakings of powderblast.

Re assembled and ready to go to the range soon.

Fingers crossed.

Bolt was pretty oily. There didn't appear to have any crud or anything.
 
Trigger appear to work with no problems.

I banged on the pin in the bolt pretty hard. It would not come out.
 
And by pin I don't mean firing pin. I tried to bang out the bigger pin that holds in the piece of metal that fits inside the bolt (rides on top of the firing pin/spring
 
Just got back from the range. I put 10 slugs, and 50 rds of buckshot through the 500.

I had 2 misfires, near the end of my session. 1 misfire was buck shot from challenger (misfired in the past ) and the other was Remington buckshot (also misfire in the past. )

None of the slugs, or my federal bucks or misfired.

For ####s and giggles I also retried 5 misfires from a few,weeks ago. 4 went bang and one didn't (challenger buck)

So.... is this acceptable? Does it look like the 500 is ok, and that it's bad buckshot from challenger?

Is 2 out of 50 normal for misfires? I'd like,to think no as none of my rifles have ever misfires.
 
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