Surprising 500/590 series failure mode

Thanks for posting that. We have a couple of 500's in our family. I always thought of them as inexpensive, dependable workhorses. If that ever happens, now I'll know how to fix it.

Well, don't drop a Mossberg in that specific way. I know all manner of things can happen in a fight but dropping a gun has always been taught to me to be a major faux pas.

Good to know, but I suspect if this was a prevalent problem it would have reared its ugly head many times before now.

Did the Russians conduct this test ?

I have seen it happen a few times with 500's that were dropped, but that's out of thousands of guns I have had in for repairs. I think some of those were the owner trying to disassemble the gun, and trying to drive out a pin which was actually the shell lifter. I suppose if you were really concerned you could drill and tap the lifter pins and put screws in with large enough heads to overlap the holes. Anything mechanical can fail under the right (wrong?) circumstances. I personally think the 500/590 series is the most reliable shotgun on the market out of the box.