Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting mossberg 835

I have 2 other 3”rated 12ga a Winchester 1300 and a savage 24 223/12 the 835 still kicks more with 3” loads than the other 2

I know how many of each we had come in to the shop for repair and what needed fixing and the 1200 has more issues/weak points than the Mossy no doubt about it. Of course the car owner/driver always knows more than the mechanic. Had both over the years and prefer the Mossberg for several reasons. The most important being I simply shoot it better than any other pump and I've owned about all of them. The only two that remain in my safe today are the BPS and 500. I sold my last Wingmaster {had three 12's and three 20's} and Ithaca 37 a couple years ago. I simply didn't use them anymore and hadn't in years.

I find the 1200's overly muzzle heavy, flimsily built and I hate the safety location.. I kicked mine down the road years ago and good riddance. If your primary criteria for judging the quality of a pump shotgun is a tight forearm they're a gem.

Disassembly of the BPS is a breeze compared to a Model 37. Hardest part about a BPS is holding the cartridge stops in when putting the trigger group back in. It helps to have 3 hands. Otherwise, it's pretty easy.

I agree with Yoder about the Winchester 1200/1300. My dad gave me his 1300 slug gun years ago back when USRAC was making them. I let it go. But it was super accurate and very reliable. It was my first experience with a pump that opened the action upon firing. I swear, that was an accident in the design but Winchester called it a speed feature. The Benelli Novs/Super Novas do it, too. It works well and lets you shuck em fast.

Nice. Don't sell it, you won't likely get another.

If your buddy had durability issues with a Nova or Super Nova, then he did something to it. The receiver is actually steel inside that plastic. That's the reason the receiver is sto thick. There's steel inside. It's an ultra-robust shotgun. If the SHTF, it would be on my short list of guns to have.

Any shotgun used hard can have parts break. The Nova/Super Nova are no exception. The upside is they are easy and inexpensive to fix and there is very little you can't do yourself if you have some various size punches. It's like a Glock in shotgun form.

37's are dead simple so long as you aren't a dunce and don't mind removing a few screws. They aren't as bulletproof/durable as many seem to think. Contrary to pupular belief, they all end up coming in for repair sooner or later when they see enough use, including 37's and 870's.

The universal problem with the Mossberg 500 with a wood forearm is that the wood cracks. The forearm used to be tubular. And they cracked along the top, lengthwise, completely from one end to the others. Mine did it. Others I've seen, including wood "retro" models - all cracked, even new in the store. Not always in the same spots. But Mossberg 500 wooden forends are crackers. I have no idea why, but its hard not to notice. If you have a Mossberg 500 with a wood forend without a crack on it somewhere, you have a rare gun.

When you have to remove a butt stock to disassemble a receiver, it immediately becomes a PITA.

And no, they are far from bullet proof. They tend to develope timing issues, with cycling a shell out of the magazine onto the ground, or feeding a new round before the spent shell has been ejected causing quite a jam. Have had it happen on two of my guns and had to send them to Ithaca for work.

And swapping barrels isn't as easy as just swapping barrels on a 870, 500 or BPS. To do it right, you have to loosen the yoke, swap the barrel, tighten the mag cap against the stud, then snug the yoke back up against the barrel. Failure to do this will result in having a hard time getting the barrel off and on it the yoke is tight, or having a newly installed barrel twisting left or right after its mounted. They yoke has to be snug. Not overly tight. When you switch a M37 barrel, it does require a bit of "fitting."

The M37 is an old design and is not without its issues. But it is supremely well made and the new ones from Upper Sandusky, IMO, are better than any that were produced in the past.

You guys talking about removing the trigger group from a BPS brings back funny memories of trying to put one back in. Lol, I was pretty exasperated, just like everyone else, I'm sure.

I've had several 500's over the last 45 years in 12, 16 and 20 gauge. I've shot the living piss out of them and nary a crack in any. It isn't something I've seen with any regularity unless you're talking the paper thin section on the barrel side/top of the forearm tube on the old style {pre 96} forearms and a crack there is of no consequence/concern to integrity. Cracks elsewhere are most likely caused by shooting/pumping with a loose retention nut or gross over tightening of the retention nut. There is absolutely no reason for it to happen any more often than on an 870 as they use the same type of retention design. I have a 12 gauge from the 60's in the safe and no cracks. No cracks in my 1997 crown grade either and it has endured much use and abuse. A 500 will generally hold up to more use with fewer problems/breakdowns than a 37 or 1200.

I did it once. Took a lot of beer.

After that it was a flush with brake cleaner. Hold the gun ass end up and let all of the junk flow out. Spray with Remi gron Dri-Lube and go on.

I've taken mine apart and put back together many times and never found it terribly difficult.

I use CLP.

Benelli wouldn't support the parts that were required to fix it when he took it to gunsmiths. I can't tell you details, but parts were not replaceable.

Odd. The Super Nova seems to be popular in practical shooting competition and there are websites out there showing you how to replace the parts that sometime fail after many thousands of rounds. Every part save the receiver is available for purchase. https://www.midwestgunworks.com/benelli-nova-supernova/parts.html

They're good guns or they wouldn't be pretty much unchanged since 1961. But they have their fair share of issues like every gun. The triggers universally suck. It's like pulling the hood latch on car. Cracked plastic trigger guards are fairly common. Mil-spec guns, and some commercial 590s have metal trigger assemblies. Cracks in the forend wood are fairly common. I've seen a number of 500s with broken safeties - they can crack across the screw hole. And double feeds, like with the M37, are not terribly uncommon. And that magazine tube is impossible to extend without replacing the entire magazine and barrel. The 590 fixes that.

Nonetheless, it's a good workaday gun. There's enough slop in them to be reliable without much maintenance. The safety is in the right place. It's got dual extractors. So it gets a lot right.

In terms of the Winchester 1200, it might be noted the 1200 was accepted into military service 10 years before the 500, without modifications except for a heat shield and sling swivel studs. The 500 didn't pass reliability testing initially and needed material modifications, ie a metal trigger assembly due to excessive cracking in the plastic assembly, in order to be acceptable. In fact, the 1200 has a significantly longer military service history than the Mossbergs.

We grew up hunting with them in a shotgun only county for deer. As bad as the 3 1/2 federal 00 buck was, it was nothing compared to the 3 1/2in federal 2 1/4oz no6 I shot at turkeys. Sold two to a guy and when he drove off, I just remember thinking "sucker". He got a good deal, i was glad to see them gone. Wonder how his shoulder is doing. Patterning that thing was a hoot, you'd start flinching by the 2nd shot and just start laughing with your buddies. We had the very first 835s that came out 1990ish. Recoil pads have come a long way since then.

I graduated to a xtrema2 for turkeys and a backup duck gun. It's a sweetheart.

Very good friend still uses the 835 he got a very long time ago for turkey, very effectively too I might add. One time, a bird came in uphill from him and over his left shoulder. He twisted around, got the gun up, and killed the turkey. Only thing, butt ended up on his bicep, not in his shoulder, his right arm was the most colorful yellows and purples from his shoulder to his wrist! Lol!

Maybe they have improved the design since the early days knowing a crappy pump could kill future sales of an expensive auto when the guy upgrades..
My friend went to a browning so that marketing model may be proven.