Short stock on a 500

[Lonnie Jaycox]

Help,
I have a 500 Mossy that I like due to the ease of use for a lefty. I think the standard stock is too long for me--I cannot shoot it properly and it hurts. (I shoot my o/u with heavy loads just fine and tolerate recoil well, the mossy does not mount the same at all.) I checked the LOP against my o/u and found it longer. Now this thing has a plastic stock and a rubber pad--can this be shortened or is it easier to find a shorter stock--who makes them and where can I find one.

Thanks in advance.
Lonnie

 

[Dave McC]

I don't have any experience shortening synthetic stocks, but a utility grade wood stock should be easy to locate. W/o changing the pitch, you can shorten it until it feels right, shorten it another 1/4" and see if that feels better. Then, take it and the synthetic stock to a smith and tell him to make them match.

A suggestion, use light loads to try this out. That eliminates one thing that may interfere with your ability to judge whether or not it works for you at that length.

Also, shortening a stock oft moves the POI a bit higher. Repattern to check afterwards...

 

[CQB1]

It can be done

I too find the Mossberg LOP to be a bit too long. In fact, I like a very short LOP on all of my shotguns. The buttstock on the Mossberg in this image has been shortened by 1.5".

I did it myself and am happy, but not thrilled, with the results.

With the recoil pad removed I used a miter saw to cut the buttstock down and finished it off with a belt sander. I then fastened the recoil pad to the stock, scribed the new buttstock dimensions onto the pad, removed it and used the belt sander to remove the excess material down to approx. 1/10" from the scribe line. This is a very difficult process since you have to consider the continuation of the stock lines onto the pad. (Much easier done with a recoil pad jig, but I have a fair bit of experience with belt sanders and managed to pull it off.) This came out okay but revealed what made me happy, but not thrilled with results. It seems there is a steel insert in the recoil pad's base. While sanding the pad down, a bit of this steel insert became exposed at the toe of the recoil pad. A little blackening compound camouflaged it. But, it's annoying nonetheless.

A much easier solution is to buy the factory reduced LOP "Bantam" stock which comes in wood or synthetic versions.

 

[nedfig]

I also found the LOP too long on my Mossy. Unfortunately, at the time I was doing it, they didn't offer the youth stock in synthetic. So I did the EXACT same thing as CQB1. I too was not thrilled, but happy. I would rather have purchased the proper factory short stock.