Mossberg 500/Maverick 88

A

adbramsay

New member
I know the guns are different but are made of the same basic componentry, what are some of the problems that are inherent with these guns? Are there any reliability problems? Any parts break or bind?

I have found my mossberg 500 to be unstoppable, any shell, never a failure to fire, nothing and at 5000+ rounds that is impressive, but I maintain my gun.
 
the maveric 88 is basicly the cheeper copy of the 500, my cousin has one and its just as good as any 500 I have seen
 
I think they are really tough. The 500's sometimes have a plastic safety button that can get brittle and break, I have seen a total of 1 and the gun was about 20 years old.

They do make a metal replacement If it's a concern.
 
The Maverick has a crossbolt safety instead of a tang safety, but they're mostly similar.

I'm not aware of any particular problems other than plastic tang safeties on the 500 breaking.
 
The only issue I had was not cleaning my trigger group for 10 years and the safety got stiff to operate and the trigger pull climbed way north of 10 pounds...

Brent
 
Jimbo, have you thoroughly cleaned the bolt/firing pin assembly? Verify the firing pin is moving free? The older guns are single spring and easier to verfy free motion. The newer ones also have a pin return spring and are a little harder to verify.

if it is not just dirty, it may be a bad firing pin spring... collapsed or broken.

But the trigger group also has to be clean and lightly lubed to have full power primer strikes...

Brent
 
Yeah, I thought that might be the propblem, so I cleaned it .... no change. Bought a used Winchester 1200 ..... it works well.
 
I have to say that for the ammount of Maverick 88's that we sell at our store it is truly amazing how few come back for non functioning. I have seen some Mavericks that look like they were stored in a duck pond and still fired. I know one guy who found one buried in his back yard, serial number on it and everything, turned out to be a stolen gun; anyway, we cleaned it up replaced the trigger assembly and it fired, guy kept it. I have to say that they are some of the most durable guns I have ever come across. In fact they have the best track record here in the Bahamas, the worst are the Winchester 1200s, and the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500 seem to be the most reliable, only downside is that the 870 express seems to only like expensive ammo, as it will occassionaly jam with cheap ammo, ironic since the express is the economy line of guns, the wingmaster will cycle anything!
 
only downside is that the 870 express seems to only like expensive ammo, as it will occassionaly jam with cheap ammo, ironic since the express is the economy line of guns, the wingmaster will cycle anything!
Click to expand...
It is apparent that remington don't put the care into chamber sizing and finish on the express that they do on the wingmaster... the cheaper ammo seems to expand into the fine gouges not polished out more than the better quality ammo.
One feller on here actually was told by rem on return of his gun "Reason for hanging shells... Chamber smaller than allowed tolerance..." or some such wording.... (and in this case it was actually a wing master with the small chamber diameter)

Brent
 
hogdogs, What was even worse about that partiular Wingmaster was Remington gave it to its owner to replace another Wingmaster that had been sent bact for repairs at least twice to Remington and they still hadn't fixed the original gun.
 
I have a Mossberg 500C I inherited from my father-in-law on his passing. I don't think he put even a box of ammo through it before he died because of his failing health. I own other guns (rifles & revolvers) but this is the first shotgun I owned in many years. It's the 20 gauge model and I've enjoyed taking it out and shooting a few clays with it in the desert on my forays. From my research I've concluded the Mossberg 500 line is a bargain basement line of guns with their price and features. They get the job done just fine for what they are built for. I find it puzzling that Mossberg also caries the Maverick 88 line as well and can make it cost effective for them. They must do it though or they would stop it.

Cary
 
The main thing that saves mossberg money on the 88 is the crossbolt safety in the trigger group. No machining for the tang safety and the assembly is quicker with the drop in TG than assembling the safety parts in the reciever... even with various jigs and automation that is still a several step task...

Brent
 
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