Thanks.......My new 500

[orvpark]

I just wanted to say thanks for all the info posted here. Thanks to all the reading I have done the last week or so, I decided to put my pistol in the safe and pick up a shotgun for home defense.

I went shopping and decided I'd rather spend $300+ on a different gun than something that would live under the bed. I decided on a $100 budget and started hitting pawn shops. I found myself a rather beaten Mossberg 500A with a real crappy spray paint camo job and walked out the door for $100.

I went home and stripped the gun down and decided to rid myself of the hideous paint, and try my hand an shortening the 24" barrel. A can of brake cleaner later I had a spotless, beat up gun. Functionally it was flawless, I shot 50 rounds through it at the range of various ammo. I should have took some pictures before so you could really appriciate the after.

I lopped the barrel with a portoband, and filed it smooth to a nice 18.25", measured with a dowl down the barrel, action closed, trigger pulled.

After I stripped it, I smoothed down most of the imperfections and taped everything off I didn't want painted. I shot some self etching primer on it, followed up by a few light coats of some duplicolor truck bed coating from about 24" away. I figured since I already had it, it would keep me in budget and do the job just fine. At this distance it smooth out pretty good, but still gave it a little texture.

I did end up blowing my budget in the end by installing a glow bead I picked up at Wal-Mart on clearance a few months back for $3

What do you think?



Next up, I think I am going to shorten the stock a bit so it is a little more wife friendly.

 

[MAX100]

Looks like you did a good job on it. There are some deals to be had in pawnshops and it looks and sounds like you found one.



GC

 

[mnrivrat]

Good way to have a very capable firearm without having to inflate the budget. I've done this a number of times over the years and always been happy with the outcome.

A little elbow grease and a little imagination is all it takes. Hats off to ya !

 

[foghornl]

Mossbergs are good solid serviceable shotguns.

I remember you posted you wanted to stay at a low budget number, but for the stock (before cranking up Mr. Bandsaw again...) have you looked at the Hogue "Over-molded" stocks with the shorter L.O.P. ? ?

Might be just what you want, or maybe even ordering the "Bantam" stock direct from Mossberg.

 

[orvpark]

Nice stocks indeed, I have several Hogue pieces on various guns but I'd rather fire up the saw and save my money for .223 and .40 ammo.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Nice looking gun. It's a good example of how you can come up with a good house gun for not much money, if you shop around and are willing to invest a little elbow grease.

Now we need a range report.

 

[orvpark]

Will do, I'm waiting on some low brass buckshot/slugs to show up. I blasted some cans rapid fire at 30-40 yds no problem with some 7.5's just to give it a feel. I'm thinking about taking it to shoot skeet Tuesday just for fun

 

[orvpark]

Range Report

Well my under the bed ammo finally showed up. I bought some 1200fps Remington Managed-Recoil 2 3/4" 00Buck and the same with a 1 oz rifled slug.

First off, I fired side by side with a standard 00 buck and the recoil difference was dramatic. I have shot a 12ga for 15 years hunting everything and I (a 150lb-er) am sold on this Managed Recoil. The slugs feel like low brass birdshot, and the 00B is much gentler than standard 00B. I thought this stuff may be a little pricier than standard stuff, but shipped from Sportsman's it was still under $5 a box so I bought 5 of each for testing/general use.



Now to the paper......

I set up some pistol targets printed from Midway's site and measured off 30' and 60'. A two shot group at each distance was good enough for me to see what I needed to see. This is a 100% smoothbore gun intended to defend at close range. I think anything up to 100' I could put led on target but beyond that I need to grab a rifle.

Here's slugs at 30', the other large holes are from the wad I suppose.



And at 60'



8 pellet 00 buck at 30'



crap I guess I didn't take a picture at 60' of the 00B but it was all on the paper but 1 pellet.


The only way I could be happier with this gun is if I would have only paid $50 for it

 

[Dave McCracken]

Good job!! Remember shotguns need regular exercise.....

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Excellent range report. Thanks for posting it.

 

[rantingredneck]

Nice work.

 

[Blue .45]

That was $100 well spent. I paid three times that much for my 500 combo and I still think it's a good value. Congratulations on a great find. Thanks for the report.

 

[jpatterson]

I was also eying a beat down 500 with a "camo" spray paint job the other day and didn't even consider trying to remove it. Thanks for the idea! Hope it's still there