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boing · December 24, 1998, 08:09 PM

michael-
I had the same problem with my Mossberg 500 home defense gun. Being sort of a tinkerer, I disassembled the safety switch to "see what was inside." A couple of weeks after I had done this I found the safety would engage when I racked the action. At first, I thought the bolt was coming back to bump the safety into partial engagement, but some experimentation proved this wasn't happening.
My current theory is that as the slide is pulled all the way back, the whole gun jerks backwards, including the safety switch. But since I'm compensating for this backward movement by holding on to the gun (and not holding on to the safety), the inertia of the safety switch carries it back to a partially "on" position.
This is what I THINK is happening with MY gun, and if so, it indicates that something may be loose in the safety switch assembly. I'm pretty sure I put all the parts back together, and in the right way, so I'm not sure what the root cause is.
Since I couldn't fix the problem, and this is the gun I rely on to defend my home, I removed the safety switch altogether and put the parts in ziploc bag. I don't want that pesky switch to engage at a critical moment!!
If you find the reason your safety is engaging, or if anyone else knows, please post it here!
-boing
P.S.-What's Latin for "Beware of what you tinker with"?

[This message has been edited by boing (edited 12-24-98).]

December 24, 1998, 08:09 PM	#14
boing Senior Member Join Date: December 24, 1998 Location: WNC Posts: 1,072	michael- I had the same problem with my Mossberg 500 home defense gun. Being sort of a tinkerer, I disassembled the safety switch to "see what was inside." A couple of weeks after I had done this I found the safety would engage when I racked the action. At first, I thought the bolt was coming back to bump the safety into partial engagement, but some experimentation proved this wasn't happening. My current theory is that as the slide is pulled all the way back, the whole gun jerks backwards, including the safety switch. But since I'm compensating for this backward movement by holding on to the gun (and not holding on to the safety), the inertia of the safety switch carries it back to a partially "on" position. This is what I THINK is happening with MY gun, and if so, it indicates that something may be loose in the safety switch assembly. I'm pretty sure I put all the parts back together, and in the right way, so I'm not sure what the root cause is. Since I couldn't fix the problem, and this is the gun I rely on to defend my home, I removed the safety switch altogether and put the parts in ziploc bag. I don't want that pesky switch to engage at a critical moment!! If you find the reason your safety is engaging, or if anyone else knows, please post it here! -boing P.S.-What's Latin for "Beware of what you tinker with"? [This message has been edited by boing (edited 12-24-98).]