New to me Mossy 835 Ulti-Mag

[Neec0]

First off, hello all! Have been a lurker for a few months now, and finally made a couple purchases recently. One of them is the Mossberg 835 Ulti-Mag 12ga. It must be the older model, because it has the old style camo job on it.

My questions:
1) How can I decipher what barrel is on it? There are no ports like you see on most of the 835's.

2) It has an "issue" cycling. 1st round out works fine and ejects fine. When you rack it for the 2nd round, it clicks. No boom. It would seem to me ( a noob) that the extractors (right term?) are not picking up the 2nd shell from the tube. This happens more often than not. Does it just need a deep cleaning?

P.S. here - I am using Federal 12GA 2.75" 3 DRAM. (the value pack from big box stores locally)

3) Picked up the gun locally used for $299 (unfortunately, it was an impulse buy :banghead How bad did I get hosed? I have seen the prices vary from 175 (used) to 500 (new).


And for those that are wondering, I picked up the S&W M&P AR 15-22 for my wife as my second purchase. That little puppy is a blast to shoot! And accurate enough, that my wife has fun shooting!

Thanks all!

~Nick

 

[MCgunner]

You paid a little much. I've seen 835s for 220 or so in camo. I picked up a 535 (similar, shoots 3.5") a while back for $170 in almost new condition that shoots great. I also have a camo 500 I've been duck hunting with for 20 years now. I prefer Mossbergs as affordable waterfowlers due to ergos, mainly. Brownings are nice, but so is the price.

On the malfunction, it has no "extractors" in the magazine, just a spring and two retainers that release a round into the elevator (I forget what they're called, too) as your action reaches the rear of its travel. It might not be assembled properly or it could be simply gummed up with crud from never being cleaned and used in a dirty environment like the salt marshes I hunt with my Mossies. I clean my guns after every hunt and strip 'em for thorough cleaning and lubing at the end of the season and if and when I drop them in the muck as happens on occasion.

A decent gunsmith should be able to get 'er running pretty affordably if cleaning isn't the deal.

 

[Neec0]

Thanks for the reply MCgunner! I will tear it down tonight and giver her a once over. Anything specific I need to watch out for? I have not clean a shotgun in 20 years probably (my father did most of it when I was younger). Got a video or suggestions on supplies? A link would suffice if you don't want to "pimp" your specific opinions!

Thanks again!

 

[MCgunner]

It's pretty simple. Those things that hold the round in the magazine, the whachamacallits will fall out when the bolt is removed. Don't know of a vid, just pulled my 500 down on my own the first time and it didn't bamfuzzle me. The pins that take it apart are obvious. I am pretty mechanically minded, though, but guns have messed me up before, like the time I was trying to put an ambi safety in my Winchester 1400 and had to take it to the gunsmith to put the trigger group back together. Won't try THAT again. LOL

Someone should come along with a video. They HAVE to be out there, there's a vid for everything.

 

[MCgunner]

A little googling...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHmZzsLSZLE

Watch the part there the ejector and (the name of the whachamacallit) interrupter fall out when he removes the bolt. Don't get all paranoid, it's normal. LOL

 

[Neec0]

I think my "noobness" is showing. I watched that video last night, it shows a 500. I assumed the 835 would be close but different.

Thanks for the link and the confidence! :cheers:

Are there any cleaning supplies I should NOT use? I assume a rod, some pads, a barrel snake maybe, a good lube and a cleaner are all I would need, correct?

 

[MCgunner]

Just general clean and lubing with what you say you have. The 835 is just a bigger 500 action. The 500 doesn't handle 3.5" stuff. There are other differences, primarily a back bored barrel on the 835 and the chokes ain't the same size because of that, I understand.

My 535 uses 500 chokes, isn't back bored, does have the 3.5" capability, sorta splits the difference. I do think the 835 probably patterns 3.5" stuff a little better it being back bored, what that is done for. But, then there are other opinions.... some reading .... http://www.chuckhawks.com/shotgun_mysteries.htm

 

[SHR970]

The two whatchamacallits are the cartridge stop and cartridge interrupter. With the gun upside down so you can look in the feed slot and the barrel pointing away from you and the butt at you..the interrupter is the one on the left side. The one on the right is the cartridge stop. When removed from the gun, the interrupter is the one with a house shaped tab on one side that the other doesn't. Parts are number 42 and 43 in the schematic Numrich 835 schematic

With an empty chamber, load two empty hulls in the magazine (or snap caps....safety first). Load one into the chamber and turn the gun upside down with the barrel away from you. Look at the base of the round in the magazine. The rim should be just past the interrupter but held by the stop. If it is held by the interrupter, that part is bent / out of spec. Press the bolt release and slowly cycle the action when the elevator is almost to the bottom, the stop should move towards the frame and release the next shell. Because you are doing this slowly you will probably need to help the chamber empty out of the gun. If the round in the mag does not go; continue the cycle until the bolt is back in battery. If it is still being held by the stop then that part is bent / out of spec. BTW...both parts have a bend in them to begin with they may be just 'too' bent. Crud built up under them can cause them to not work too.

These parts are the same as on the model 500 and cost about $15 if you need a replacement.

 

[Neec0]

Fantastic SHR970! Thank you for the great info!

I was able to take down the 835 and get it cleaned. What is typical of a used gun, gunk wise? There was all sorts of crud in there. The barrel on the other hand was relatively clean. The bore snake barely got dirty and it only took a few patches to come out clean. But the receiver was another story. There were bits and pieces of junk EVERYWHERE. Is that typical after 75 rounds? Or was this gun never thoroughly cleaned by the GS? I am sure each shop has there own way of doing things, but it was filthy!

Good news is, its all cleaned up and lubed. Action is smooth, and there is no buildup to hinder the stop or interrupter. We will know for sure on Saturday whether or not the cleaning was sufficient.

Thanks again to all that helped! I have found a new, active home for all my questions!

~Cheers

Nick.

 

[MCgunner]

Shooting report please. 75 rounds is NOT sufficient for that much gunk buildup. I'd say, whoever owned this never did a detailed strip and only cleaned what he could get to easily without pulling pins. As I say, I use my waterfowl guns in a rough, dirty environment and I strip them after each season before putting 'em up for a detail clean and there's never THAT much to clean, but I wanna lube everything because it's a salt water environment and I don't want corrosion. Corrosion X goes on the internals with a wee little bit of gun grease on the sides and bottom of the action. I don't get too crazy with grease, mostly just lube to keep corrosion down. Corrosion is my main worry. I also detail strip and clean if I drop the gun in the water.

Normal use, I'd detail strip and clean maybe once a year even if you're using it on the trap range and such year round. You might wanna pull the magazine tube (best done with a strap wrench) and clean it out good.

I bet you just fixed it.

 

[Neec0]

I did clean the mag tube as best I could without wrenching it off. Also took out the turkey rod. There was some rust/gunk/oil buildup in the mag tube cap, but even the spring was relatively clean and rust free. So either this gun never saw the rain, or it was hardly used (and never cleaned).

After a thorough cleaning, it looks new again and I am praying that the cycling issue was resolved. I bet I went through 75 cloth pads (the cheapies from the box stores) and 1/4 can of Rem oil (someone let me know if the Remington Oil is junk, I have CLP and Hoppes 9 as well, but the Rem oil was aerosol and helped clear away some of the hard to reach gunk in the receiver.), 2 or 3 2 x 2 white cotton rags and 3 hours of elbow grease and even a bit of blood! Darn plastic packaging!!!!!

Will certainly give a shooting report upon return Monday. My wife's cousin picked up a Marlin 30-30 that I am excited to shoot and see how it performs...

 

[MCgunner]

Think the rem oil will be good as any. The gunk was likely keeping your "interrupter" from properly functioning, not unusual to have a gun that's rode hard and put up wet to have this sort of problem due to never being detailed cleaned in its whole life.

Turkey rod? You must be talking about the magazine plug, limits the magazine to 2 rounds. That's mandated by federal law for migratory bird hunting, which is all I do with my gun, so I've never had mine out. You can clean up the magazine without removal, just won't get deep down in there, but no matter. I've had mine off ONCE early on when the plug got tangled with the mag spring. Never happened again.

I've not played much with my new to me 535, functioned fine when I got it and I popped some doves with it opening day of central zone in Texas up north of Waco to my buddy's farm, annual trek for the last 40 years. I need to shim the stock down on it, lower the drop a tad, as it was a little rough on my cheek bone. It's got more drop to it than my 500 had, so I thought it might be okay, but it needs a bit more drop. We're in transition, all my tools in storage and living in our travel trailer while we wait on closing on our new home, so it's a project for a later time. No matter, I just bought it because it was a 3.5" shooting gun and it was 170 bucks at the local pawn shop and, well, I couldn't leave it there for less caring and appreciative owners. I have not detail stripped it, yet, but will eventually. Due to my calls and deeks being in storage...:banghead:...I missed out on teal season, but I have the 500 ready when November's duck season comes around. I hope the heck we're in our house by then. :banghead: Dove season just opened here in the south zone, but we don't have many birds in the county, yet. It's always slow in the early season here, December season after deer season is much better. I'm hoping for some birds when we move as I have some acreage there I can hunt.

Don't lose that plug, might need it to comply with federal regulation if you ever go duck, goose, or dove hunting with it.

 

[SHR970]

Keep the plug, some states require the capacity be limited for ANY hunting.

835 uses chokes that are specific to that model. Mossberg calls them AccuMag chokes, others will refer to them as 835 NOT Moss / Win. /Brow.Inv./ Weatherby. Anything short of full choke is going to be steel compatible out the gate. Once you hit full all bets are off; Xfull and tighter are going to be lead only chokes.

If the cleaning didn't do it...refer to the two parts, all you may need to do is tweak them forward of the place they meet the action. What you described is way more than a gun that was uncleaned AND had only 75 rounds through it.

No slugs through backbored barrel....bad idea. If you want to use slugs, get a slug barrel. The Backbored barrels are more or less 10 gauge barrels with a 12 gauge chamber. They even say "NOT FOR USE WITH SLUGS" on the barrel and they mean it.

 

[Neec0]

MCGunner/SHR970 - After checking local regs:

**Methods of Take: Only archery equipment and shotguns 10 gauge or smaller may be
used. For migratory birds, shotguns must be plugged so the combined capacity of the
chamber and magazine is no more than three shells.**

It would appear that ALL migratory birds are regulated. Thanks for the tip! I was planning on keeping it either way, but now I know I need it accessible instead of packed away in a shoe box.

SHR970 - So what does the "AccuMag" boil down to? Just their line of chokes? Or a specific choke? Do all chokes protrude from the end of the barrel? The end of the tube that is in the barrel now is flush to the end of the barrel, And to me seems nothing more than a thin steel tube. Really no restriction or tightening of the bore.

 

[SHR970]

AccuMag is a choke line specific to the 835 and 935 models. The regular Mossberg chokes won't even engage the threads. Standard chokes that fit a Mosssberg 500 also fit some Brownings, Winchesters, and Weatherby's. They show in some catalogs as (especially for after market): Browning Invector / Mossberg Accu-Choke/ Weatherby Multi-Choke / Winchester Win-Choke. These will not work with your gun.

Mossberg brand chokes for the 835 are called AccuMag. Aftermarket chokes will generally say for Mossberg 835, 935. Mossberg chokes are flush mount, after market can be either flush or extended.

Edit to add: Some states like Cali. also regulate in addition to a three round max. with the plug that the gun can not accept more than 6 round with the plug out to be used for hunting. No using a Mossberg 590 with a plug because the mag holds 8 shells.

 

[Neec0]

Well, took out the Mossy this weekend and she was worse than I thought it could get. Had Failure to Feed, on EVERY second shell, plus the shell would not come out of the tube with the next rack like before. It was basically stuck there until you released it manually...

I think I have the issue narrowed down though. It seems that when the elevator is down (extracting the next shell), it is supposed to move the shell interrupter. This is not happening. I am assuming that that small steel "bar" has become out of spec and is not working correctly. If you depress it with your finger, the shell releases normally. So its off to find replacements for both the interrupter and the stop and see if that fixes it. If not, the GS is getting the weapon back.

 

[MCgunner]

Mmm, well, it happens. That gun was apparently not well cared for.

 

[Tinaphps]

It's pretty simple. Those things that hold the round in the magazine, the whachamacallits will fall out when the bolt is removed.

 

[Neec0]

Ya, I had them out in the tear down to clean it. Once I get the parts in, I'll modify the old ones for spares.

 

[SHR970]

Neec0 wrote: It seems that when the elevator is down (extracting the next shell), it is supposed to move the shell interrupter. This is not happening.

Sorry to hear that. On the plus side, you now know where the problem lies and have formulated a reasonable course of action to deal with it. Hopefully it works out to be an inexpensive fix for you.

 

[Neec0]

Yes, thanks for all your help guys!