Persuaders aren't hunting guns, they don't have choke tubes, as V pointed out. There are no replacement
barrels for the gun since it's a designed and intended security/guard/combat shotgun. The mag tube is
long to hold that many shells and that mag tube stops you from using any other barrel type.
If you want to or need to later on, however, you can use all the common 500 barrels by switching your mag
tube for a 500 tube. The 500 tube holds five and fits all the hunting barrels on the market.
If you decide to switch mag tubes, grip the end of yours ONLY on the last 1/2" with some pliers padded
with paper or leather to prevent scratching it....and when you replace a mag tube on a Mossy, only snug it
as tight as you can get it with your hands. Use no tools to retighten it.
That little bit of mag tube to barrel gap fit makes no difference, but if it bothers you, you can loosen the
mag tube a hair to close it. If you don't want to loosen the tube, use a disk of rubber.
The mag tube
simply holds the barrel onto the gun. There's no stress on it as it fires. The barrel has a square cutout at
the base that the bolt lock fits into to seal the breach. It's a steel to steel fit that can't wear out.
Mossy receivers are forged and machined from aluminum block for that reason....there's no stress on it so
there's no need to make it out of steel.
Mossberg 500's can handle *all* 3" magnum shells you can buy on the market. There is no need to baby it. The military likes it, so it'll stand up to anything you can put through it.
Mossberg barrels have a detent ball system in the barrel take down screw assembly, the part that screws
into the mag tube. It can NOT come loose on you any more than any other weapon with a detent ball
system can. If anyone is loosening barrels through use, then the ball system was removed by someone.
When loading the Mossy, push the shell forward into the mag tube til your thumb is inside the tube. That
guarantees you pushed it past the shell stop and interrupter. Once you get experience with the weapon,
you'll know when it's right and when it's not. If you short load it, you only pushed the shell in til it hooked
on the lifter. If you ever pump the gun and the shell hits the floor, you short loaded it.
The Mossy shell lifter/elevator stays up and out of the way at all times except the pump cycle when it's
loading a new shell from the mag tube. That means you can load it on the fly and it won't grab your thumb.
That also means that the empty hull is going out the ejection port as the new one is hitting the
lifter....which means jams are incredibly hard to accomplish on a Mossy 500. It's a *very* reliable design. You can't get hulls/shells stuck in the action no matter what you do.
All the parts are factory finished....it has NO semi-finished parts like Remington Express guns do. It
takes no breaking in to work smoothly. The chamber is polished so there's no hard extractions etc.
There's no part on a Mossy that can break that can't be changed inside of two minutes. It requires no
gunsmithing of any kind. If it ever breaks a shell stop....and in over twenty years of servicing them, I have
yet to see a broken shell stop....it can be replaced in less than two minutes by you.
Col. Plink....the diffs are the trigger guard cross bolt safety on the Mav 88 instead of the receiver Mossy
500 one....and your forearm is a one piece that can't be changed as it is. You can't install an aftermarket
forearm on yours as it is. But, and this is the important part, all the parts on a Mossy can be used on your
gun since it's virtually identical. You can replace your one piece forearm with a Mossy 500 metal tube
forearm and then you'll be able to use all the after market forearms designed for the 500. Mossberg has, for the past year, installed that one piece forearm on the Mossy 500 security guns. Duelist's gun may, in fact, have a one piece, too. The one piece forearm, the action bars are riveted directly to the forearm plastic. On a Mossy 500, the bars attach to a steel tube that the plastic fits onto.
Badger...."Left-handed shooters and those with poor safety discipline prefer the safety" where it is on a Mossy for one reason and it has nothing to do with discipline. They prefer the Mossy safety because they CAN USE IT WITHOUT MOVING THEIR HAND. Working a Remington crossbolt left handed has absolutely nothing to do with discipline or being able to see it. Lefties *DO* have to shift their hand on a Remington and a Mav 88 and that's why the Mossy safety is preferred.
Great gun at a great price, Duelist! I think you're going to like that gun a lot! If you have any questions, feel free to ask, bud!
richard
