Hey guys,
Here's the deal.
About 6-8 months ago I bought a Mossberg 590 (20", 8+1 capacity). It is purely for home defense. It is stored in a vertical holder of sorts near my bed (except for when I leave the house of course, it goes in the safe).
I read up on the subject and decided to leave it cruiser ready. 8 rounds in the tube, chamber empty, hammer down. I was mildly concerned about the mag tube spring but after reading 8000 posts on this board I felt confident it wouldn't be an issue.
Well, recently I decided to unload it, clean off the dust, re-lube and throw some new rounds in the tube to prevent them from bulging (none were, btw). However, I noticed something.
When I first loaded the shotgun right after I bought it, the 8th round in the tube was pretty tough to get in. Then when I did it again recently, it was MUCH easier. Every round cycled properly when clearing the shotgun, put putting the new rounds in the tube was 100x easier. The spring felt dramatically weaker.
I talked to Mossberg and they said not to leave the shotgun loaded, as the spring will wear out. Which seems to be true, from my experience.
So which is it? I know enough about springs (big car enthusiast) to know that they should not wear out from being stored like that. Unless perhaps by loading 8 rounds I was over compressing the spring? Should I perhaps only load 7 for storage? Or perhaps the spring is just some cheap piece of crap that's not even heat treated properly (which appears likely)? Should I just get a Wolff spring and call it done? I'm worried that the shotgun is going to stop cycling properly if I keep it stored like this.
Dope
Here's the deal.
About 6-8 months ago I bought a Mossberg 590 (20", 8+1 capacity). It is purely for home defense. It is stored in a vertical holder of sorts near my bed (except for when I leave the house of course, it goes in the safe).
I read up on the subject and decided to leave it cruiser ready. 8 rounds in the tube, chamber empty, hammer down. I was mildly concerned about the mag tube spring but after reading 8000 posts on this board I felt confident it wouldn't be an issue.
Well, recently I decided to unload it, clean off the dust, re-lube and throw some new rounds in the tube to prevent them from bulging (none were, btw). However, I noticed something.
When I first loaded the shotgun right after I bought it, the 8th round in the tube was pretty tough to get in. Then when I did it again recently, it was MUCH easier. Every round cycled properly when clearing the shotgun, put putting the new rounds in the tube was 100x easier. The spring felt dramatically weaker.
I talked to Mossberg and they said not to leave the shotgun loaded, as the spring will wear out. Which seems to be true, from my experience.
So which is it? I know enough about springs (big car enthusiast) to know that they should not wear out from being stored like that. Unless perhaps by loading 8 rounds I was over compressing the spring? Should I perhaps only load 7 for storage? Or perhaps the spring is just some cheap piece of crap that's not even heat treated properly (which appears likely)? Should I just get a Wolff spring and call it done? I'm worried that the shotgun is going to stop cycling properly if I keep it stored like this.
Dope
