Old thread, I know, but I just wanted to chime in and say something that I think needs to be said.
For all the assertions I've heard that certain parts on the Mossberg 500 will assuredly break, namely the polymer trigger guard and safety switch, I have yet to see a single verifiable report of any such breakage occurring, nor have I ever seen someone demonstrate the supposedly fragile parts breaking, so I'm beginning to wonder if these assertions are based purely on assumption or otherwise confirmation biased based on limited reports which lack any proof.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that these parts can and probably have broken before, but I cannot find any evidence whatsoever to suggest that such a thing will occur without merely wearing out from decades of regular use or otherwise being subjected to abuse.
Honestly, I actually scoured the internet in search of any evidence to support these assertions of parts failing, but the most I ever found was a few unsubstantiated but otherwise plausible reports of vintage Mossberg 500s from the 60s safety levers breaking in recent years after decades of annual hunting trips.
The trigger guards and trigger group pins that everyone is so convinced will snap right off if the firearm is dropped and the trigger guard hits the ground? I literally couldn't find ANY evidence nor even plausible reports of ever occurring.
If these issues were real and the parts were actually as fragile as folks assert, then surely we would see no shortage of verifiable reports online to serve as proof. Gun shops would be getting in Mossbergs will broken safeties and trigger guards/groups on a regular basis, there would be photographic evidence of it all over the internet from Google Images to YouTube Videos, and even demonstrations of how easily these parts could be broken on YouTube.
I would even be so bold as to presume that a fair amount of the folks who make such assertions about parts breaking on the Mossberg 500 are also the sort who still insist that polymer framed pistols cannot hold up to regular shooting, use silly dated derogatory terms for polymer framed pistol like Tupperware guns, and make absurd, unilateral arguments about how steel guns are better than polymer because the frames will hold up better to deliberate abuse or outright negligence.