Mossberg 500 FTE

[bratch]

I took a new to me old Mossberg 500 out tonight to put it through it paces and had multiple failure to extracts in 10 rounds.

Some of the FTE would pull the empty hulls out .5-.75" and sometimes the hulls were never pulled out of the chamber.

I removed the bolt to look at the extractors and have several questions.

1. The extractor on the right (ejection port side) is a sharp 90* at the lip, the left extractor is more of a 45* to the lip. Is this normal?

2. Both of the extractors seem rounded off of the bottom corner where the lifting gate would encounter the bolt. Is this normal?

3. Anything else I could look for that could be causing the FTEs.

 

[1KPerDay]

Has it worked in the past? What ammo were you using? Winchester universals perhaps? They suck and have caused issues in a couple of my guns...

Could you post some pics of the extractors in question?

 

[RaceM]

The lifter shouldn't have anything to do with it. Most likely cause is ammo. Steel base shells can be a bit sticky, some more than others. Give her a good cleaning, check the chamber for burrs, and run some brass base ammo through it.

 

[evan price]

The left and right extractors will be differently shaped because the ejector is on the left and the shell has to pivot out of the left extractor first and spin sideways out the ejection port.
Check the spring tension on the extractors; often gunk gets in the bolt face and the extractors don't get a good enough grab on the base of the hull. If any burrs on the extractors file them off with a fine stone. If the springs feel weak you can replace them. Also if there's any buildup in the chamber it can combine with weak extractors to cause FTE.

Good luck with it.

 

[bratch]

Ammo was Federal LE 133 and Winchester silver box field loads (Super X maybe). I had issues with both.

This was the first time I had ran the gun so no base line reliability.

I'll check for gunk and burrs.

 

[ChCx2744]

I had a similar problem with my 870 when I ran Winchester Lite 00 through it; those have a silver lip that's very short. After running a couple hundred rounds through it, though, things smoothed out and it feeds everything fine now.

 

[1KPerDay]

Also check the chamber for obvious roughness, etc. Easily polished with some fine steel wool, oil, and a drill.

Next time you go out, cycle some loaded rounds through (carefully) and see if they extract well. If they do, a rough chamber or questionable ammo is the likely cause, IMO.

 

[bratch]

I think I may have a tight chamber.

With the barrel removed I tried dropping rounds into the chamber and then dumping them out. I experienced the following.

To count as coming out the shell had to use gravity only.

Federal LE133 5 in, 4 out.
Federal LE127 5 in 5 out
Federal LEB127 5 in 5 out
Brenneke KO 5 in 5 out
Remington #1 5 in 4 out
Winchester Super X 7.5 5 in 5 out
Win Ranger Slugs 2 in 2 out
Win Ranger 00 5 in, 4 out, 4 wouldn't chamber under gravity

 

[RugerMcMarlin]

answer first two questions YES, Answer 3rd question try it with brass head shells, I'm betting they are something else. I also would scrub chamber, must be jacked smartly to function.

 

[bratch]

I tried cycling some live rounds through tonight.

It pulled most of them out of the chamber but dropped them on top of the shell on the lifter causing a double feed. It did leave the shell in the chamber completely a couple times and had a few partial extractions.

I tried this with Federal LE127, LE127RB, and Win Ranger 00.

It cycles the Brownells dummy rounds perfect.