brockgl
Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2008
- Messages
- 169
So, my father-in-law was at his mother-in-law's house a while back. He was there replacing her water heater. When he pulled the water heater away from the wall, he found a shotgun lying up against the wall behind it. *His* father-in-law likely stored it there, and it's been there ever since he passed away.
The gun was SUPER rusty because of where it had been stored. Also, three-quarters of the wood stock had been cut off, to make it into a pistol grip. But (and this is just an assumption), because the bolt for the wood stock was too long for the modified grip, the remaining grip was mounted to the gun using only electrical tape. The tape was also permanently depressing the slide release, so you could pump the slide in all states.
Further, the safety slider was missing, and the safety stop was just rattling around inside the receiver.
My FIL gave me the gun and asked me if I could fix it up and get it functioning. So, I took it home and did some research to see what could be done. It is a 20-gauge, and the brand is "Western Field", which I hadn't heard of until now. But, I quickly discovered that it was made by Mossberg, and it is essentially just a Mossberg 500 with a few small differences.
Because of that, finding parts was easy. I replaced the janky modified grip with a raptor-style grip. Because it's only a 20-gauge, I figured the recoil wouldn't be too much to handle with this kind of grip. I also took it completely apart, including the trigger-group (which was really sticky), and cleaned and lubed everything. I installed a new safety as well. The new safety actually didn't work when I first installed it. The hammer wouldn't fire even with the safety in the "fire" position. But, I was able to find the worn part that was catching on the safety block, and after de-burring it a bit, the safety now works perfectly. I am assuming this was the reason the safety was removed by my wife's grandpa...
I also took some steel wool to the rusty barrel (and to a few other parts) to remove the surface rust. Almost 100% of the barrel had been covered in surface rust. The internals did not have rust on them, which was awesome. And, the inside of the barrel was also rust-free. So, though I haven't tested it yet, I think will shoot just fine.
I grabbed some 20-gauge snap caps, and it loads, cycles, ejects, and dry-fires smoothly and reliably.
Anyway, here is a picture now that it's cleaned up and functional.
The gun was SUPER rusty because of where it had been stored. Also, three-quarters of the wood stock had been cut off, to make it into a pistol grip. But (and this is just an assumption), because the bolt for the wood stock was too long for the modified grip, the remaining grip was mounted to the gun using only electrical tape. The tape was also permanently depressing the slide release, so you could pump the slide in all states.
Further, the safety slider was missing, and the safety stop was just rattling around inside the receiver.
My FIL gave me the gun and asked me if I could fix it up and get it functioning. So, I took it home and did some research to see what could be done. It is a 20-gauge, and the brand is "Western Field", which I hadn't heard of until now. But, I quickly discovered that it was made by Mossberg, and it is essentially just a Mossberg 500 with a few small differences.
Because of that, finding parts was easy. I replaced the janky modified grip with a raptor-style grip. Because it's only a 20-gauge, I figured the recoil wouldn't be too much to handle with this kind of grip. I also took it completely apart, including the trigger-group (which was really sticky), and cleaned and lubed everything. I installed a new safety as well. The new safety actually didn't work when I first installed it. The hammer wouldn't fire even with the safety in the "fire" position. But, I was able to find the worn part that was catching on the safety block, and after de-burring it a bit, the safety now works perfectly. I am assuming this was the reason the safety was removed by my wife's grandpa...
I also took some steel wool to the rusty barrel (and to a few other parts) to remove the surface rust. Almost 100% of the barrel had been covered in surface rust. The internals did not have rust on them, which was awesome. And, the inside of the barrel was also rust-free. So, though I haven't tested it yet, I think will shoot just fine.
I grabbed some 20-gauge snap caps, and it loads, cycles, ejects, and dry-fires smoothly and reliably.
Anyway, here is a picture now that it's cleaned up and functional.
Last edited: