please help a dumb newbie

[floydpink]

Hi.

I have fairly good knowlege of handguns and own a few semi autos and carry a Smith J Frame 38.

My friendly range employee has me eyeing a Mossberg 500 shotgun and has offered to take me into one of the 2 rifle lanes and let me shoot it and decide if I want to buy it, which is cool. He has sold me 2 handguns and I consider him a likeminded friend.

Anyway, I have NEVER owned, shot, or had any experience with a shotgun, but am under the impression it would make a nice addition to my home defense plan and shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

I tend to go a little overboard with my handguns and love to learn how to take them apart and probably overclean them.

Is a shotgun somthing that will be reliable with little care?

Thanks for anything you can add.

[inSight-NEO]

Is a shotgun somthing that will be reliable with little care?

In my opinion, yes; particularly when speaking of pump shotguns. Semi-auto shotguns would, of course, probably require a bit more maintenance.

As with any other weapon, it just requires good cleaning and a light application of lube (how much depends on storage/handling/shooting habits).

[hogdogs]

I made a thread complete with pics of my 500 20 gauge and it's first tear down 18 plus years after purchase and it was utterly flawless 100% of the time with unknown thousands of rounds. Literally would spray a paper towel with WD-40 or similar and poke it through the bore with a dowel. Then spray the action and shake out excess:o I felt ashamed to be telling folks the benefits of the 500 while totally dogging my mainline defense weapon... So I finally tore it down.:D
Brent

[flippycat]

It sounds like the range employee is steering you in an excellent direction on a Mossberg 500 for a first time shotgun owner.

They are extremely reliable and make for a highly versatile shotgun.

[OLNfan]

Im glad your going to expand your collection! Good choice to with a mossberg. I would just like to say you could give it no care and it still will shoot like a [sic] king. Iv herd of people having flaws on their shotguns but every one I know, including my own shotguns Iv never had a problem with. Iv had a mossberg 500 for a year now and iv only taken it apart once to give it a good cleaning. Generally I just run my cleaning rod through the barrel spray gun lube on my action, and barrel etc. clean as much crud as a I can with out taking it apart. Its not that its hard, I just dont have to. I also have a Ithica and I havnt even taken that thing apart yet to give a good cleaning and again flawless just from little care. Mind you im not putting maybe 100 rounds a month through them. I havnt been trigger happy with it for a while partly cause I just havnt had the funds too.

[Dustin0]

The 500 or remingtion 870 are the do all of the shotgun world. Bang for the buck they very hard to beat.

[Dingoboyx]

When I bought my (2nd hand) Rossi hammered coach gun, it had beautiful clean bores. After shootin' about 50 shots, I brushed the bores and checked them. The bores looked like crap..... I brushed and brushed, then brushed again..... still looked awful :barf: I went back to my local gunshop, tail between my legs and asked what the heck I had done?? The gunshop dude just laughed and went out the back, came back with a can of WD40 and some toilet paper. He plugged the end of both barrels with the paper, sprayed a shootload of WD down the breech end and blocked that end too, then upended the barrels backward and forward to run the Wd all up the inside of the barrels. He did this for 5 minutes or so, then unblocked one end and poured out the WD. Then he pushed the plugs thru with a rod and voila.... clean as a whistle. Evidently, the plastic from the wads beds into the inside of the barrels, WD40 eats the plastic (but not the steel of course) and releases if from the steel :D pushing the plug thru once done, pushes all the plastic debris out :D

I reccommend WD40 and bog paper as +1 cleaner for shotties :D

HotDog is my hero :D

Muzza

[OLNfan]

Interesting iv never herd of a issue like that, but I am very eager to one day end up purchasing a stage coach lol Glad I know what to do now.

[snowdog650]

Is a shotgun somthing that will be reliable with little care?

A buddy of mine is a huge duck hunter. He's got like 8 shotguns ... some very nice (i.e., Benelli and Beretta semi-autos) ... and some average ones (i.e., Rem 870 pump, Rem 1100 semi-auto). He goes through thousands of shells a season.

All he has ever done to clean them is spray WD-40 down the barrel (from the receiver side) and stand them on their muzzles on an old towel to drain.

Not what I would recommend at all ... but he has never had any problems with any of his shotguns ...

So ... yes ... shotguns are reliable ... especially pump-action ones.

[Dingoboyx]

Your mate who is a huge duck hunter.......

I would luv to shoot some huge ducks, but we only have normal size ducks around here??

Are they good eating??

hehehehehehehe :D

Gawd I am Soooooooo funny :D

Muzza

[Dingoboyx]

You have proved to me, that you are not a DUMB newbie :eek: You are a SMART newbie, because you are asking smart questions ;)

Keep it up dude

Muzza

[Katrina Guy]

welding process's, hose clamps, fusings of different methods including super glue, a flashlight on the end, a sword on the end, extra shotgun shells on the stock, GPS located would be nice add on as well in case your flashlight on the end of the barrel konks out you'll always know where you are in the house in the dark, I'd advice one of the small motorcycle rider's new compact size CB radio's on the stock as well, could come in handy, one never knows.
Just some ideas less you want to succumb to what's known in shotgun circles as P.J.S., Plain Jane Shotgunner.
(PS-don't add any crap on your shotgun new guy).