"Short" & Sweet Mossberg 1 hour Modification Project

71Chevelle427 · Mar 16, 2021

My son acquired this mid 80's model Mossberg 500A from a member here.
Was a backup hunting shotgun with a semi-camo homemade paint job done sometime in the past.

It was bought strictly to be turned into a Home Defense shotgun.

It had 26" barrel, now cut down to 18.5" and a quick "rub" of the wood, LOL.

I also did a 4 color camo paintjob on it, but it doesn't really show up in the pics for some reason...Looks "camo-ey" in person though.

Turned out pretty nice, for zero money, and about an hour's time today. Would have just went plain black, but since I had the camo paint, and I haven't been repaid for the shottie loan yet, I figured it was my call, lol.

Oddway Otts · Mar 16, 2021

Nice!

rob b · Mar 16, 2021

looks good

Uncle Duke · Mar 16, 2021

Lookin good! Good luck with it!

Just by way of mention, the camo in your original photo may well have been factory applied.

Mossberg at one time had a Woodland pattern, and a pattern that they called OEM Camo. Both were sort of crude by today's standards. Hard for me to pin down the exact timeline, but late 80's or early 90's is what I recall.

I actually won a Model 500 with the OEM camo pattern, which is why I recognize it. Basically blotches of green, tan and black, the full length of the shotgun. Both the stock and the forend on mine are synthetic, but a furniture swap at some point may account for wood.

44man · Mar 16, 2021

Nice job!

byf43 · Mar 16, 2021

Niiiiiiiiiiice!!!!!!!

:thumbsup:

71Chevelle427 · Mar 16, 2021

Thanks guys.
Uncle Duke, this (when I got it) was a very simple one color offset...basically a half dozen stripes.

It took me longer to figure out how to put it back together, then to "mod" it, lol

rouchna · Mar 16, 2021

I love it. I did the same thing with a Maverick 88 I was able to pick up for next to nothing. Cut it down to 19” to match the rib and then painted it black. I hope it serves your son well.

Docster · Mar 16, 2021

Looks good. How will cutting the barrel down affect the shot pattern at 20-20 feet?

71Chevelle427 · Mar 17, 2021

rouchna said:
I love it. I did the same thing with a Maverick 88 I was able to pick up for next to nothing. Cut it down to 19” to match the rib and then painted it black. I hope it serves your son well.

Thanks. Mine didn't quite line up how I hoped, with one of the ribs. It would have been 20 and a half-ish to go to the next one, or 18-5/8" to go where I did, and still able to fit my tubing cutter. I would have much preferred a smooth barrel to start with, but I'm pleased with how it ended up. I'm sure he will be too.

Docster said:
Looks good. How will cutting the barrel down affect the shot pattern at 20-20 feet?

Thanks. At only 20 or so feet, (and I may be wrong), but I can't imagine the 18.5" barrel make any pattern difference over a 25-26' barrel. All my shotguns have 18.5" barrels, and none have chokes, (except the Citadel I modded last week) . They are all "open barrels", or whatever the term is, just like this one is now. :thumbsup:

I would have liked to find a factory, 18.5" barrel, but I sure couldn't find one, for a realistic price. All the actual "gun parts" vendors that I could find, were sold out, usually with no backorder available, on $120-$150 barrels. There is some gougers on Ebay that, I guess, hoarded a bunch, and are offering them for $299...Pandemic Political Panic or not, an old Mossberg 500 (to me), is still a $300 shotgun, so I'm 100% NOT the guy who's going to pay $300 for a barrel.

Looking forward to the next project....
No idea what it'll be.
Have one I am trying to acquire...Guy I work with, has an old 500 that he's had since he was a kid. He hasn't shot it in 40+ years, lol.

Biggfoot44 · Mar 17, 2021

As mentioned above , I would have gone to even with the next rib post , even if 20.5 in , but that's me .

As to expected patterns, you have to look at it in context :

1. In the absolute , would IC or Mod give better patterns than true Cylinder ? Well Yeah , duhh .

2. Will true Cylinder buckshot patterns be plenty adequate @ 25 Feet ? Absolutely .

Jd2020 · Mar 17, 2021

The exception is the federal flight control wad that’s meant for cylinder bore. Reports are that it patterns worse (pattern opens up sooner/less even) with any choke.

71Chevelle427 · Apr 16, 2021

Not nearly as nice as bigred's Mossy project, but the faux camo just wasn't working for me... :sad20:

Stripped it down again, and used some Black Cherry stain on the furniture, and re-painted the entire shotgun with Matte Black grill paint, which is made to withstand high heat, obviously. So, now I have like 12 bucks invested, lol.
Offered it for sale since I'm not a huge Mossberg fan, but had no interest, so I guess I'll keep it. I'm now "casually looking" for a true 18.5" barrel to replace the cut down version, although this one is kinda growing on me, like the rest of the shottie is.

Turned out much better than the camo look above, IMO.

"Short" & Sweet Mossberg 1 hour Modification Project

The #1 community for Gun Owners of the Northeast

Member Benefits:

71Chevelle427

Ultimate Member

Attachments

Oddway Otts

Active Member

rob b

c@r collecting

Uncle Duke

Ultimate Member

44man

Ultimate Member

byf43

SCSC Life/NRA Patron Life

71Chevelle427

Ultimate Member

rouchna

Defund the ATF

Docster

Ultimate Member

71Chevelle427

Ultimate Member

Biggfoot44

Ultimate Member

Jd2020

Active Member

71Chevelle427

Ultimate Member

Attachments

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Latest threads

Forum statistics

Share this page