I am looking for a cheap home/camp protection gun. I have a nice 12g semi and a descent 20g OU. I want something light and handy. I went to the pawn shop looking for a cheap 20g and found one, $100. It had a lot of character and I almost bought it. I am planning on cutting down the barrel... I didn't buy it. For $100 should I go for it? It has a 26" barrel and I was going to cut it down but I feel guilty doing it for some reason. I talked myself into thinking the OU would suffice. I've dropped $3K on guns and ammo the past two months. I was afraid i was buying another dust collector.
Old Mossberg 500 20g
- Thread starter pinetree
- Start date
Bill DeShivs
New member
The Mossberg 20 would be a fine HD gun. I would have no qualms about cutting it off.
One thing to look for, and forgive me if I am remembering this wrong because it's been well over 30 years.
Way back, again if I remember correctly, the 20 ga Mossberg was constructed with only 1 action bar as compared to the modern Mossberg which has dual action bars.
I had one and shot the %$#@! out of it for about 10 years. There was a skeet range near us and dad reloaded so it was cheap fun. I don't know how many days that gun got a couple of hundred shells run through it by me and my friends.
In all that shooting only 1 thing ever went wrong and that was with the single action bar. Mind you the fact that it had only one bar did not seem to effect how well it worked so long as things were not worn to much. But after a while, all be it a LONG while, the notch in the bar that linked to the bolt carrier wallowed a bit and it gave me some trouble.
Replaced the bar and she went thousands more with never another problem.
So what one thing I would look at, unless the gun seems to not have been shot that much in which case you can bet that it will be a winner, is the notch where the bar catches the carrer. Make sure it's square........
If it's a newer one with dual action bars just buy it as they are very reliable and cheap to fix if you break them.
Way back, again if I remember correctly, the 20 ga Mossberg was constructed with only 1 action bar as compared to the modern Mossberg which has dual action bars.
I had one and shot the %$#@! out of it for about 10 years. There was a skeet range near us and dad reloaded so it was cheap fun. I don't know how many days that gun got a couple of hundred shells run through it by me and my friends.
In all that shooting only 1 thing ever went wrong and that was with the single action bar. Mind you the fact that it had only one bar did not seem to effect how well it worked so long as things were not worn to much. But after a while, all be it a LONG while, the notch in the bar that linked to the bolt carrier wallowed a bit and it gave me some trouble.
Replaced the bar and she went thousands more with never another problem.
So what one thing I would look at, unless the gun seems to not have been shot that much in which case you can bet that it will be a winner, is the notch where the bar catches the carrer. Make sure it's square........
If it's a newer one with dual action bars just buy it as they are very reliable and cheap to fix if you break them.
deputy tom
New member
$100.00,you should go get that gun asap.tom.