Mossberg 500 bird and slug questions

**bmxer0122** · January 24th, 2011, 11:14 AM

Hey I just got a mossberg 500 with the bird barrel and rifled barrel for my birthday !! Is there anything specific I need to do to break it in or anyone have any advice on the slug barrel ( I will be using it for deer hunting hopefully next season ) iv never had a shotgun before so bare with my noobie questions!!

**knight0334** · January 24th, 2011, 11:25 AM

There is nothing you need to do to break it in. If the action is tight, you may want to oil it then work it back and forth to work out any burrs. Just hold the action release control lever/button in and pump the shotgun.

As for the slug barrel, rifled barrels these days are meant for sabot slugs. BUT, you can use standard "rifled"(Foster) slugs with them too. They will see the benefits of the rifling. You may have some minor leading if you continuously use the rifled slugs.

**harold63** · January 24th, 2011, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by knight0334

There is nothing you need to do to break it in. If the action is tight, you may want to oil it then work it back and forth to work out any burrs. Just hold the action release control lever/button in and pump the shotgun.

As for the slug barrel, rifled barrels these days are meant for sabot slugs. BUT, you can use standard "rifled"(Foster) slugs with them too. They will see the benefits of the rifling. You may have some minor leading if you continuously use the rifled slugs.

True this...

Stay with the sabots. You'll go broke on solvent keeping the lead out. Sabots are a little more accurate, especially the Accutips. I can attest to the Accutips being very accurate, but they are expensive. It is strictly a hunting round for us in restricted gun/ammo areas.

**SharpShooter88** · January 24th, 2011, 07:55 PM

You will get the most accuracy out of it using modern Sabot slugs. Keep in mind though, that with that rifled barrel, your shotgun is going to act more like a rifle now with bullet selection than it would with just bird shot. Find a slug that shoots consistantly out of it, and stick with it. I have an 870 Express Mag that I have both barrels for. I used to be able to hunt just about everything you could think of with just that one gun. You my friend, have a great starter firearm.

**bmxer0122** · January 26th, 2011, 09:48 AM

Thank you guys for all the good info! I will probably keep the bird barrel on until it's deer season anyhow. What kind of scopes are y'all running? The kit came with a 2.5x scope that seems pretty nice.

**SharpShooter88** · January 26th, 2011, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by bmxer0122

Thank you guys for all the good info! I will probably keep the bird barrel on until it's deer season anyhow. What kind of scopes are y'all running? The kit came with a 2.5x scope that seems pretty nice.

With a shotgun, the max I would go is 4x. The range on them isn't really great enough to need anything more, and most of your shots at deer in pa are less than 50-75 yards. I had a 1.5-4.5 bushnell buckhorn on mine. I sold that a while back cuz I was hard up for cash and now I have a simmons 4x fixed on it. It still shoots good. I think 2.5 should be just fine on a slug gun.

**harold63** · January 28th, 2011, 10:19 PM

I use a 3x9-40 Bushnell. I borrow it from a 30-30 and reset it to the adjustment I had when I took it off to put back on the 30-30 (say that 10 times real fast). If I can hit a milk jug at 75yds, I figure it is close enough. It stays on 3x when it is on the SG.