Mossberg 500 Misfire

A

AlexM

Inactive
I've had my Mossberg 500 JIC Cruiser since April of 2009 and it has worked flawlessly up until last weekend. I had several misfires involving either unstruck or lightly struck primers.

I clean it regularly after shooting and gave it a thorough cleaning last weekend when it failed to fire and nothing. What's peculiar is that I could get it to fire about 90% of the time if I cycled the action forward very slowly. I could rack the slide back quickly, but it would not fire unless it was returned forward slowly.

I'm not a gunsmith, but I'm fairly certain the problem is with the bolt/firing pin. The firing pin seems to have some play, at least 1/4", where I can pull it to the rear of the bolt (see pictures below). The result is that the tip of the firing pin comes away from the face of the bolt such that the firing pin has room to "angle" itself. If the firing pin is struck when angled, it doesn't move forward properly, and catches on the bolt. The "holes" that the firing pin fit through are not tapered in any way, so if the pin is off by a half a millimeter it will catch and get stuck. This is my theory anyway.

I've included a couple of pictures to hopefully demonstrate. Note how the firing pin is able to move so far to the rear. Is this normal? Has anybody had a problem like this before? The gun is still under warranty so I could take in, but I'd rather fix it myself if I can, or, rather than pay the money for the shipping and wait X amount of time, maybe I can just get a new bolt assembly (any idea on price?). Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex
 

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Simple failure of the pin at the back of bolt. Simply drift out the old, and drive in a new one... note the extended protrusion of the firing pin to rear...
Brent
 
Thanks, glad to hear it's not something more serious. And taking that pin out is as simple as using a punch and hammer to drive it out? When I was taking a look at it earlier I tried giving it a tap but it seemed pretty rock solid and didn't want to mash anything up.

Thanks again,

Alex
 
Should it be popped out from bottom to top, or top to bottom (bottom being the underside of the bolt of course)? Or does it matter?

Thanks,
Alex
 
I don't think it matters. In your case, I would push the firing pin in as far as you can and look in the firing pin hole to see if it needs straightened etc. If it is bent or if it is a clean break. If you do not trust your skillset, take the bolt to a 'smith... shouldn't cost much. Mossberg will likely send you one for free or next to it if yer polite on the phone... ask for tech though so you know you are getting the right pin.
Brent
 
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