Do all Mossberg 500 have sloppy forestock?

[JW in Ohio]

I shopped some pump shotguns at the local stores today and all (3 or 4) of the used Mossberg 500s seemed to have a loose, sloppy foregrip which rocked right and left and just didn't instill confidence. The 870s seemed a bit tighter, but none were as nice as my old Ithaca 37 which is well worn. Is this just the way it is, or did I just get some bad examples?

 

[foghornl]

My Maverick88 by Mossberg is not as "tight" as an 870, but I have run it for about 15 years with no problems....other than the occasional 'operator error'

 

[NMshooter]

They are all like that.

Remember, a Mossberg goes for a lot less than an 870 or an Ithaca.

The cheap 870s are kinda loose out of the box, come to think of it...

It is a shotgun, not a match pistol or rifle.

I guess you could try to find an old Remington 37.

 

[pauli]

that's just how they are. sorta like a 1911

fiddle with it at home or the store, and you'll say "hmm, that's kinda wobbly." take it to the range and start shooting, and it doesn't even enter your mind.

 

[GunnySkox]

Yeah, I noticed that the forend sort of wobbles back and forth. S'cause it's attached to the receiver just by the two "action bars" that connect it to the bolt carrier and the tube that holds it around the magazine tube.

~Slam_Fire

 

[1911 guy]

Doin' the twist

If the shotguns were used they might have been 500's, not the updated 500A model. The difference is the 500A has an action bar on both sides of the forearm to keep it a bit steadier. I personally like the 500 series and have had no problems with any of the several I have/had.

By the way, the model 37 was an Ithaca shotgun, not a Remington. Also a prize when you can find one that is older, in good shape and has the original trigger group.

 

[scott.cr]

The 500's action bars are joined to the slide with a spring-loaded hinge. So even if it's sloppy, any slop will be absorbed by the spring hinge. This has a side effect of making the forend easy to twist.

Really, it's part of the design, and any firearm design is really just a collection of what the engineer considers to be the best compromises.

I have a Hawthorne (Montgomery Ward) shotgun. Forend feels real solid. But the action bar has no give. I'm afraid it'll break someday (I haven't fired it yet).

 

[c_yeager]

My 870 had more foreend play right out of the box than any Mossberg i have ever handled. It hasnt had any impact on its performance whatsoever.

 

[swampsniper]

I can't even remember how long I've had my old Mossberg, it is one of the early ones. It has been soaked in the bilge of canoes, dragged through the mud, you name it. I still works fine, but it is ugly. It has never failed to work, 100%. I can live with ugly.

 

[Steelcore]

Ithaca 37 was a revised Remington M30.I think Remington sold Ithaca an entire tech package.

 

[scout26]

scott.cr nailed it. That's part of the design. The "slop" that you feel is there to make sure that if you do twist or fail to pull back the fore-end perfectly straight, it won't bind/break on you.


Especially when you need it most.



It's not real a flaw so-much as it's a feature.

 

[SLCDave]

I had a 500A in 20 gauge that had the same wiggling ability.

 

[New_geezer]

The looseness in the Mossberg forearm is part of the design. It is intended as a working gun to be used in rough conditions and still function reliably. That "looseness" allows a Mossberg to get awful dirty before you start having problems but even then you can usually restore it to working order by rinsing it off with a garden hose (the aluminum receiver won't rust). It bothers some people more than others, and some don't like the noise but the 500 design has been around a long time, and used by the military and many police depts. Functionally it is not a problem.

 

[kahr404life]

Yes, and you can't clean out the magazine tube without unscrewing it from the receiver.

 

[Legionnaire]

Only "functional" problem with the wobbly forend is if it rattles ... and you're using it with slugs to hunt whitetail. I don't mind the wobble, but really don't like the noise it can make.

 

[mrrev]

Yeah, mine''s the same. I sometimes feel its going to break, but for 200 bucks. Now when I get my FN Tactical and it feels the same, I'm sending it back...

 

[adaman04]

My 500 is as tight as any of my other pump guns. The worst slop I have ever felt on a shotgun was a Benelli Nova. When shopping for a 3.5" gun, the shop owner said "Try this Benelli", handed it to me, I grabbed the forend with one hand to take it from him and it sounded like we were passing a set of rattling antlers to each other. That was enough for me. The "slop" in the Mossberg could have just been those guns you looked at, but either way, it's a Mossberg. You could wrap it around the light pole outside the gun shop and still fire a case of shells through it that day.