Mossberg 500 Cruiser Forend tomfoolery.

[hjaeger]

I recently picked up a Mossberg 500 Cruiser model on an impulse purchase - was on sale, felt great in my hands, parkerized, blah blah blah.

Anyway...I want to swap on a different forend. I'd like to gift the gun to a friend.

It has this type of forend (see picture), not the typical Mossberg action tube with the forend nut.

Can I adapt a Hogue aftermarket forend to this setup, or am I SOL and must I pay up for a standard Persuader forend with action bars?

I feel like this question has been asked before.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RandKL]

Yeppers. Sorry to say. That's a Mav-type forearm, no action slide tube. To use your Hogue, you'll need to buy the tube and nut that fits it.

One good thing about those new forearms is that with no steel on steel rubbing, they don't mark up the mag tube so easily. Not much consolation, I know.

rich

 

[shockwave]

You just may have answered my question. So if my Mossie 500 Cruiser has side rails on the forend, then I can get one of those vertical grips? The grips I am finding all say that there's some recent variety of Mossberg they don't fit.

 

[Al LaVodka]

The version they may not fit are PROBABLY the 1 1/2" shorter forearm -- the kind with the wraparound forearm is an, if not the, example. Completely different from the forearm nut thru to and including the action bars.
Al

 

[RandKL]

You just may have answered my question. So if my Mossie 500 Cruiser has side rails on the forend, then I can get one of those vertical grips? The grips I am finding all say that there's some recent variety of Mossberg they don't fit.

There are two different forearms for the Mossy/Mav shotguns. The Mossy forearm, which was originally wooden, had to have a steel tube that it slipped down onto to reinforce it so it wouldn't break. All pumps do. Well, all 'cept the Mav 88 lol. That's called an "action slide tube". If yours has the tube, the action bars will be attached to it and not to the forearm furniture as H.J.'s is. Action slide tubes have a large nut circling the mag tube in front that holds the forearm wood in place. But when the Maverick 88 was designed, Mossberg looked for ways to skip manufacturing steps to lessen the overall cost and one way was to do away with the wood altogether in favor of the synthetic stuff you see today. With no fragile wood, just a synthetic forearm, the forearm furniture no longer needed the action slide tube to reinforce it thus the bars could be pinned directly to the synthetic forearm. Those that are are called Maverick-type or Mav-type forearms. They can't be switched for aftermarket forearms because the after market stuff is designed for the action slide tube of the Mossy. H.J.'s forearm above is a Mav-type....bars pinned directly to the forearm and no tube/nut. To use an aftermarket forearm on his, he'll need to buy an original Mossy action slide tube. They aren't expensive and they aren't rare, they're just a pain to have to buy separately. Either way, though, you have to pay for the action slide tube if you use it, either by paying Mossy $25 more for the gun or another owner $25 for his.

Why do they do that? Well, Mossberg realized long ago that a *lot* of users buy their guns and then replace the wood with synthetic anyway....so why not save a few bucks on a few models and just sell them with the synthetic already there?

Those forearms you looked at, the vertical ones etc, they won't fit Mav-type forearms for the reasons above....but you can easily switch to a Mossy action slide tube and mount them. It's not a big deal....just time consuming finding/getting the right part and all.

Peace.

rich

 

[AcceptableUserName]

you don't want to mount a vertical foregrip on a side rail even if it can be done. youll want it directly on the bottom of the forearm.


I don't think you'll want a vertical foregrip anyway, but that's a different story for a different time.