*Cleaning a Pump Shotgun*

 

By Eli

04 May 2003

 

Disclaimer- Neither the Alpha/Rubicon nor I assume any responsibility for any firearms "accidents" or mishaps which you may have. Practicing weapons safety is YOUR responsibility.

Before you read any further make sure that your weapon is unloaded and SAFE. If you are unsure how to do this read LOADING AND UNLOADING A SHOTGUN.

In this article I am going to show how to disassemble and clean a Mossberg 500A. The 500A is very similar to a Remington 870. Most pump shotguns I believe will disassemble similarly and all need to be cleaned just as well.

You might not think you need to clean your shotgun on a regular basis. I thought mine was fairly clean until I opened it up. Inside I found debris from the field and paint chips from the wall. Imagine that!

Start by removing to barrel. The magazine tube end cap unscrews, this is what holds the barrel on. Unscrew it. The barrel probably will not come off. Pull the action bar about ¾ of the way back, you will feel the barrel loosen, then it will come right off. It will need to be in the same position to put the barrel back on.

 

End Cap

Barrel Off

Now comes the fun part, we get to pull the guts of it apart. REMEMBER the order in which the parts come out and how they come out!!!!! Or you may sit there for hours trying to figure out a Rubix shotgun, whahahahhaa ;o)

Right above the trigger guard there is an indented pin. Use a small pointy object and push it out, it will come out either way. This releases the trigger mechanism.

Trigger mechanism out

Remember the tangs that hold the round in the tube? Those are it.

The next thing that comes out is the firing pin mechanism.

The firing pin group

The piece that is in the middle comes out of the bottom where the trigger mechanism was. The actual piece that contains the firing pin (top most object) slides out through the hole where the barrel goes. After these two pieces are removed you can pull the action bar out. The last thing to remove is the carrier.

Carrier out

Now you have a really expensive club ;o)

Now we start cleaning-

Bore brush

Using the correct size brush run it through the barrel a few times. Then squirt a little bit of bore cleaner on it and run it through a few more times. This scrapes the worst of the residue out. Then use a patch with bore cleaner and do the same thing. You will need quite a few patches, but you’ll have a nice clean barrel when you’re done. Another trick- I use toilet paper until the worst of the crap is out of there, then I finish it off with patches.

Dirty Patch

When the barrel is clean, squirt some rust preventive lubricant on a patch and run it through the barrel a couple of times. Also be sure to clean the breech end of it (where it goes into the gun).

For the rest of the cleaning I don’t recommend toilet paper because it leaves little fuzzies on the parts. Use cotton balls, Q-tips and patches. A toothbrush is an excellent tool for scrubbing them.

Trigger & firing pin mechs

 

Firing pin mechs

Clean these parts EXTREMELY well with the bore cleaner. These small moving parts are what really counts, if they don’t work, gun don’t work. Once they’re clean and wiped down, put 1 drop of the rust preventive lubricant on each end of the firing pin, a little goes a looooong way. On the trigger mech put a drop of oil on any moving parts, you will probably have to gently wipe off any excess.

When she’s cleaned up all nice and purdy it’s time to put it back together. Reassemble the guts of it in the reverse order you took them out. Use a drop of lube on the moving parts REMEMBER that the action slide bar needs to be about ¾ to the rear to get the barrel back on. When it’s back together, make sure there are no extra parts lying around…not good.

Cycle the weapon a few times to ensure it functions. There will probably be some lubricant leak out in a few places. No big deal (unless you saturated the parts…which is a no-no), just wipe it off. Load a few DUMMY rounds, chamber, shoot, and chamber another round…only do this with DUMMY AMMO!!!! NEVER WITH LIVE AMMO!!!!! This just ensures that everything’s working correctly.

When you’re done, if you’re really lucky and have done everything right you’ll have this-

 and it will work-

and it’ll be much much cleaner.

With that I’m going to bed, it’s 0140 hours and has been a long day, I wish you luck. Practice makes perfect.

Safety Slogan- Like Be Safe and Stuff

Eli


All materials at this site not otherwise credited are Copyright (c) 1996-2003 Trip Williams. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for personal use only. Use of any material contained herein is subject to stated terms or written permission.