Mossberg 500 - major problem!

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dirksterg30

New member
I've got a Mossberg 500 Persuader that my wife bought for me in December 2005. I haven't used it much (I don't think I have more than 300 rounds through it, all 2-3/4" buck, slugs or target loads).

The only work I've had done is have gunsmiths install XS tritium ghost ring sights on it. The first gunsmith screwed & loctited the front sight ramp on it. After the screw broke & the ramp flew off under recoil, I had another gunsmith silver-solder the ramp on it.

The shotgun worked fine until this Saturday, as I was patterning 00 buck out of it. After 2 rounds of Winchester Military grade buckshot, this happened:

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Anyone ever seen this before? Thoughts? I've notified Mossberg, but they haven't responded yet.
 
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Scattergun Bob

New member
dirksterg30

Sorry to see your broke Scattergun. I have had this problem a few times when I over-heated the barrel installing ramped sights. It is a problem with mossy extended mag guns. Of course, not being there I can not say that it was a overheat problem. My advise is to take it back to the gunsmith and see what he says. If he is a stand up guy he should fix it.

By the way, did you refinish after he sweated the front ramp? If not it does not look like the barrel was severely overheated, sometimes a few seconds of heat makes a difference.

All is not lost, your baby can be fixed. :)

Good Luck and Be Safe
 
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mikenbarb

New member
I have seen alot of this before and if their wasnt enough heat, flux, solder or cleaning involved. It will happen. It could be a number of things that can cause this but it seems to be too much heat from the previous work. It also looks to have weld joint embrittlement and low weld adheasion that would be caused by either one piece being too hot and the other not hot enough. Their are different types of silver solder and alot dont know that and just but over the counter stuff. It should be at least a 95% for anything to do with guns.
You may also have the cap too tight and stressed the weld and with all factors involved, It let loose.
I would bring back to the smitty and ask him to explain why it happened and see what he says. Ask him if he used anti heat sink compound to keep the heat out of the lower joint. I bet ya he didnt.
 
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Sidewinder6

New member
Someone who is comfortable with proper silver soldering can clean this up and repair it like new. You will probably have to refinish to have it look new. If your not concerned about that, you can probably get some do it yourself stuff from Brownells. Keep the faith. You should be OK unless there are some other comlications.
 
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Mike215

New member
Aw man i'm sorry. I can't help you there but, i own a mossberg 500atp, kinda like a persuader but made in the 70's. That sucks man. I hope you get it fixed soon :(
 
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zippy13

New member
Sidewinder6 said:
Someone who is comfortable with proper silver soldering can clean this up and repair it like new.
Click to expand...

That someone should be the fellow who sloppily silver soldered the sight ramp and for free. But, can you trust him again?

Let's all hope that this is your last shotgun FUBAR.
 
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dirksterg30

New member
Mossberg update

UPDATE:

After talking to the gunsmith who sent the gun out for soldering, he said they have seen a few Mossberg barrels like this recently (including barrels without any aftermarket work done to them). I called Mossberg again, and they had me send it in. Mossberg didn't admit fault, but they sent me a new barrel free of charge. Initially, they weren't going to send me my old barrel back. It seems they do not have the ability to remove a soldered-on sight ramp. :mad: After I spoke to a manager and complained about it, they relented. I got a brand-new barrel, and the last few inches of my old barrel, including the sight.

Now I've got to find someone to remount the ramp & sight on my new barrel.

Help me decide here - would you have the ramp soldered onto the new barrel (by someone else this time), or have it screwed & loctited down?
 
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zippy13

New member
I personally wouldn't want anything soldered on...
Glad you got it worked out though.
Brent
Click to expand...
+1
What was wrong with the original sight? If you must have the XS tritium ghost ring sights, this time you might consider using an epoxy instead of soldering.
 
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dirksterg30

New member
+1
What was wrong with the original sight? If you must have the XS tritium ghost ring sights, this time you might consider using an epoxy instead of soldering.
Click to expand...

Actually, I originally had another gunsmith screw & loctite the sight on. He didn't do it right, as the loctite gave way, and the screw broke off. After that experience, I wanted to have it soldered. I guess I'm just having a run of bad gunsmithing experiences.

What's a good epoxy for this application?
 
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hogdogs

Staff In Memoriam
Oh I noticed it but thought it would be rude to say that was a punny yoke and that you oughta be a comodian...

I am leaning towards the possibility that the barrel lug was over torqued as possible factor looking at the failure pics. Yes, the solder job may have also contributed...
Just an observation...
Brent
 
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mikenbarb

New member
The solder joint was done shotty and I can tell by looking at it in the pics. If you look close, you will see weld joint imbrittlement and caused by improper heat of the two parts being joined. This application needs to be silver brazed with the propper alloy and be certain that BOTH parts are at the proper brazing temperature or it will happen every time. I have seen lots of weld joints fail due to the wrong working temp of the parts.
 
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