Wanted to convert another old Mossberg 500 12ga hunting shotty into a security 12 but guess what, there ain’t no barrels online. I looked. Couple places said they had some, but they lied. Back order twilight zone.
Had some old plain take offs (pretty dang old) from a few 500’s with steel safeties (told ya) that I’d already reblued and put up. Two 28in modified choke and a 30in full (which I elected to keep intact due to being a little harder to find)
Keeping in mind, I wanted them to take the place of a 18.5in security barrel, I measured twice. Then I placed a straight edge on top to mark a spot for the bead, using the original bead as a landmark for....top (dead) bead center and knocked a punch mark in it for the pilot bit. All good, cut it slowly (cut a second, cool a second) with the chop saw. A hack saw would do fine if you take care to square everything up. A tubing cutter would likely not work well, but might be the ticket for marking the barrel squarely for the cut.
Then a drill and cone shaped abrasive stone for the inner and I made a plug for the barrel so I could spin it with my hand drill while trimming the outer edge of the cut and bevel the muzzle.
Little blue right quick.
Drill the new bead hole.
Mossberg 500 beads have 5-40 threads. They also have a 5/32 inch hex shoulder built in. If you wanna salvage one like I did, briefly put the torch on it and it’ll break free with the socket just using finger power. Be careful tho, it’s hot.
When using a tap this small, be aware that it’s apt to break with very little pressure, so cutting oil of course and once you get it going and it starts to bind, reverse a half turn, then turn forward til it binds again, then repeat. Run at least half the tap, unless it hits the other side of the barrel first.
I like red loc-tite. One drop and tighten the bead in the new spot. A tad tighter than finger tight. I used a 1/4 inch drive but babied it.
And that’s all there is to it. I have about 45 minutes in the entire job.
Had some old plain take offs (pretty dang old) from a few 500’s with steel safeties (told ya) that I’d already reblued and put up. Two 28in modified choke and a 30in full (which I elected to keep intact due to being a little harder to find)
Keeping in mind, I wanted them to take the place of a 18.5in security barrel, I measured twice. Then I placed a straight edge on top to mark a spot for the bead, using the original bead as a landmark for....top (dead) bead center and knocked a punch mark in it for the pilot bit. All good, cut it slowly (cut a second, cool a second) with the chop saw. A hack saw would do fine if you take care to square everything up. A tubing cutter would likely not work well, but might be the ticket for marking the barrel squarely for the cut.
Then a drill and cone shaped abrasive stone for the inner and I made a plug for the barrel so I could spin it with my hand drill while trimming the outer edge of the cut and bevel the muzzle.
Little blue right quick.
Drill the new bead hole.
Mossberg 500 beads have 5-40 threads. They also have a 5/32 inch hex shoulder built in. If you wanna salvage one like I did, briefly put the torch on it and it’ll break free with the socket just using finger power. Be careful tho, it’s hot.
When using a tap this small, be aware that it’s apt to break with very little pressure, so cutting oil of course and once you get it going and it starts to bind, reverse a half turn, then turn forward til it binds again, then repeat. Run at least half the tap, unless it hits the other side of the barrel first.
I like red loc-tite. One drop and tighten the bead in the new spot. A tad tighter than finger tight. I used a 1/4 inch drive but babied it.
And that’s all there is to it. I have about 45 minutes in the entire job.
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