by buddurbiin » Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:35 pm
Bought my 8rd Mossy 500 used at a local gun store. It had only a pistol grip, and the blue on the feed tube was swirled rather badly from repeated use. I put an ATI top fold stock on and a pistol grip forestock (it looks just like the Tommy gun forestock, but polymer) and headed to the range to test out this so called "indestructable" shotgun. I practice the rapid double tap to ensure lethality, and was capable of firing this gun very fast with minimal practice. HOWEVER after about the third trip to the range a pin on the slide sheared off and the arm would hang up and bind, making cycling almost impossible. We managed to fix this with a set screw, but the design of the slide disappointed me because it is a very small pin. If you notice on the Maverick models they seem to have resolved this issue with a MUCH larger pin, but as for the never 500A, I am not sure. Also the gun is chambered for 3 inch shells (which I would prefer to use on the man who kicks in my door) but you have to be easy with them and rack the slide slower or they hang up and cause the elevator to stick. If they added about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of room I believe it would work fine. Other than that I would say that the Mossberg 500 is a great shotgun, especially for use as an "in case I need to" home defense 12GA.