How to remove the limiting plug from my Mossberg 500

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JClendenin

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Jul 24, 2006
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Location
Chicago, IL
Hey everyone,

I'm having a heck of a time removing the dowel rod from my Mossberg 500. It's a 12 gauge combo. In other posts I've seen the solution is very easy - remove the mag cap and take out the rod! My gun is not set up that way. The cap at the end of the mag tube is also a screw that keeps my barrel locked to the stock, if that makes sense. When I unscrew it (to remove/change the barrel), the only thing there is the threads. In other words, I cannot see the dowel rod at all or anything else for that matter. The only solution I can think of is to unscrew the whole mag tube which is damn tough and so far I cannot get the thing off. Does anyone know if that's what I need to do or is there another solution? The manual is no help, nor is the Mossberg website. Thank you for any ideas you might have.

Josh
 
If your friend wants to just remove the restiction plug on the 500 he can just remove the barrel and point the rest at the ground and jiggle . The plug is a small piece of wooden dowel that will come out the threaded hole on the forward end of the magazine tube.
If he want to remove the magazine tube , they are screwed into the reciever - right hand threads. Some require a strap wrench or simular to break loose if they are tight

courtesy http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=114044&highlight=500+plug
 
1. Make sure your weapon is clear and unloaded.
2. Check twice
3. Unscrew the barrel retainer on the end of the magazine.
4. Remove said barrel.
5. Point firearm down and shake vigorously.
6. The wooden dowel should start to come out of the threaded hole that the barrel retainer screws into.

Mossberg's plug is nothing more than a wooden dowel with a rubber o-ring on each end.


^^^I see Hoppy beat me to the draw.
 
You guys are awesome! It took about 5 seconds. What an easy solution. Man do I feel like a jackass! Now there will be less time re-loading and more time shooting! Thanks alot.

Josh
 
Just make sure you don't lose it. If you ever decide to go hunting, some states (and the feds if you're hunting waterfowl) insist that you have "a magazine limiting device." so that you only have a total of three shots.

Check your state's Hunting Regs. ;)
 
I definitely will not lose it. I'm from Chicago as well. I'm not too much of a hunter but I shoot skeet often at Silver Springs. Thanks for the tip.
 
I had a mossberg 500 at one time. I think it will work without the o rings if you do hapen to loose them. Dont remember mine haveing them.
 
2 o-rings?

Uh-oh... I only saw one o-ring. I've already put it back together too. I put 5 shells in the magazine and cycled them through. Everything felt fine. I will have to go and look for the other o-ring. There was an o-ring on the rear end of the wooden rod. So, hopefully the other o-ring fell out during the jiggle session.

Thanks for the info guys. I found this thread using search.
 
i bought a mossberg 500a used and it didnt come with a restrictor plug so could i simply make one and put two o-rings on the ends or is it more complicated than that?
 
Making a magazine capacity reduction plug for the Mossberg/Maverick is just that simple. A standard unsharpened wooden pencil is just a fraction too short for the 5+1 round Mossbergs & Mavericks. If I pressed real hard, I could get 3 in my Maverick 88 using a pencil as the plug.

So, I bought a plastic 'cut to fit' (Butler Creek ? ? ?) plug for under $5 and cut it at the properly sized notch. [I have long since lost my original dowel-and-o-ring thingy that came with my Maverick.]

I figure that when I {rarely} do go hunting, $5 for the plug is a whole bunch less costly than dealing with the Game-N-Fish Guys.
 
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Federal law on hunting migratory birds and some state laws
limit magazine capacity to two (plus one in firing chamber).
Do make sure that the plug limits you to two of the shells
that you are carrying afield with you. A 3.5" magnum with a
plug for two 3.5" shells might accept three 2.75" shells:
friend of an acquaintance got a $175.00 fine for hunting
upland game with 2.75" shells in a 3.5" gun: when the game
warden checked the gun, it would accept three shells.
It would not hurt to have two plugs for a 3.5" magazine,
one for two 3.5" shells and one for two 2.75" shells.

Last time I checked, though, there is no magazine limit
for clay pigeons.
 
When I cleaned my grandpa's old Winchester 97, I found a stick in the magazine. I think someone was out hunting, and either got caught or just remembered the capacity restriction, and broke off a dry twig to the correct length and stuck it in there. Just about anything of the correct length will work.
 
thanks so much! i thought i was a retard when i got my new moss500 home and couldnt fit 8 slugs in! thanks for the help for us dummies!
 
Thanks for the help, I only just bought my Moss. 500 a couple of weeks ago and discovered my mag limit only when I was about to walk into the woods to go deer hunting and was like ***? Found this site through google, it was the first to come up.
 
When using dry twigs, make sure they are ultra-dry. Otherwise they will rust your magazine tube and spring. I have replaced quite a few magazine springs that were rusted through because shooters put green sticks in their guns and forgot about it. Some claimed they saw the game warden heading toward them and did what they had to do. It didn't help the gun any.
 
Thanks again guys... don't you just love the internet!!!

Tried unscrewing it... nothing doin' Shook it for 5 seconds... out it came.
 
David: just get a piece of wooden dowel and cut it to length. Hell, even a straight piece of branch will do. The plug that was in my father's Model 12 was a piece of whittled something or another one of my relatives stuck in after the federal limits started (and probably right after he spotted the game warden). Much cheaper.

But if you have to spend money on it, I've seen them at Wal-Mart, in the section that has the gun cleaning supplies.
 
I was pheasant hunting in a corn field in South Dakota when I discovered that I had forgotten to replace the plug in my BPS. Not being from the state, I was not sure if they had a restriction. Right there in the middle of the field, I broke off a segment of a dry corn stalk, put it in the gun, and it was the perfect length to block the magazine down to two rounds. Kind of funny.
 
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