It's bad enough when Mossberg puts one of those mag plug dowels in a "tactical"...

Use a dental pick to push one to the side, grab the other with a hemostat and pull it out. Small nail and needle nose pilers may work too.

Can you not remove the cap/extension to clean the magazine tube?

Remove the mag tube from the receiver, remove follower and spring, the dowels should come right out.

Why are they in there and what do you want to remove them for?

Screw a small woodscrew into one of them, then just pull it out

Couldn't you just remove the follower and spring?

All you have to do is get a heat gun and heat the area where the tube screws into the receiver. They use a dab of Locktite to make sure the tube doesn't come loose. Just remove the barrel and have a friend or use a vise to hold the receiver, heat it up and it will twist loose. I did this on my Mav 88.

Think of it as a free plug

All you need is a strap wrench as it is the proper tool for the job. They are cheap and good to have on hand so that you can clean the magazine tube when you need to. Be sure to apply a little locktite every time you remove it. Also don't load the magazine with both those plugs in it as it may damage the spring.

Use a strap wrench or a pair of padded channel-lock pliers. Apply pressure ONLY at the end of the mag tube, where the nut is welded into the thin tube itself so as to not dent the tube. Unscrew the mag tube from the receiver. The follower and spring will pop out along with your dowels. Reassemble. It's no big deal really. In some states the duck plug is required for 'sporting' shotguns. Sure you'll never use it. But now you have two.

Apply pressure ONLY at the end of the mag tube

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that, but here is a visual from brownells so the OP can see just how simple and easy it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ef4GS984sA

The guy who installs the dowels got interrupted and lost track of where he was. S**t happens.

That is another reason you should thoroughly inspect a new gun before buying it. You need to take the plug out and get the gun ready to use before leaving the store with it. That way if there are any nasties they show up before it's your problem. There are a couple gun shops around town who think I don't have that right. I did not buy the gun and I have not set foot in those shops since then.

wow 1st time for everything glad it worked out might send a little love note to mossberg if I was you.

lobo9er said:

wow 1st time for everything glad it worked out might send a little love note to mossberg if I was you.

Click to expand...

I would send Mossberg the bill from the gunsmith. The worse thing that can happen is they refuse to pay it. Anytime you buy a gun use your credit card. When you use your credit card you have an advocate.

I bought a P-3AT that was a POS. I sent it back to Kel Tec. They kept it for three months. Then they send it back with about half the feed ramp cut off. Naturally the gun wouldn't run like that. I send it back to Kel Tec they keep my gun for a couple more months. Finally I call my credit card company. The consumer advocate from the credit card company set up a conference call with Kel Tec. After the conference call I get my gun back in two weeks. It has run great ever since. I got what I paid for a gun I could bet my life on.

If I didn't have an advocate I would have had to dump the gun for $100 and buy another gun or pay a gunsmith to fix it.

The LONG mag tube had a plug to limit to 2 rounds? If so, sounds like it was INTENDED for the longer magazine tube. Strange. Standard 5 round mag I can see it being a miss stup by someone on the production line.

A real man would remove them by fire.

It comes with an "Emergency" spare plug? Maybe we have found the solution to the new high cap magazines that can accept "too many" bullets. Just epoxy a couple of dowels in there. This is precisely why lawyers and politicians should only be paid minimum wage (or less).

Nobody needs two dowels. You got a rare high-capacity dowel extender-clip-mag. I hear they're banned everywhere but Sierra Leone and Wyoming...

I'd send a copy of the bill with a picture and a letter to Mossberg stating you'd appreciate if they reimbursed you for your trouble, no hard feelings, love the gun now, thanks for your time. They should take care of you on this one.

I never took the plug out of my 500. It was in there for 10 years. It wasn't a problem until I was duck hunting one day and realized that I could actually put more than 2 shells in the tube. lol. Apparently, when you use the shotgun alot in humid conditions, that little dowel has a come-apart. I broke off a greet stick, inserted it in place as the plug, and continued to hunt. I made my own out of a new dowel rod that I literally soaked in polyurethane. The old one really made a mess inside of the tube. I wouldn't even want 2 plugs in a 12 ga tube, much less a 20!

My sister got a 20" full length tube Maverick before xmas. Her shotgun didn't even have a plug. I think they must have hired ex Chrysler auto workers to install the plugs...

See if you can thread a wood screw into one of them to hold it in place and push the other on into the magazine with something this should allow you to pull the one with the screw out. you may try putting 2 3" shells in while you're trying to get screw started.