Sipsey Street Irregulars: Praxis: Maverick 88 Fail-to-fire Fix.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Praxis: Maverick 88 Fail-to-fire Fix.

I have long been a fan of the Mossberg 500 shotgun. Readers may recall that back in early January I had a perplexing, intermittent failure-to-fire problem with an almost-new Maverick 88 that I picked up for a song (probably because the owner knew that it had problems but didn't tell me). For the uninitiated, the Maverick 88 is a less costly to manufacture, simplified version of the Mossberg 500 shotgun. As I wrote at the time:

Some months ago I got an inexpensive used Maverick 88 for my daughters' apartment at college. Having stripped the thing, the trigger group (indeed, the entire weapon) seems near new with little usage, but right now, even with a variety of ammo, it is failing to fire 3 times out of 20. If I remember right from my old Mossberg 500, the rear of the firing pin ought to be able to be depressed (using your thumb) by pressing on the back so that you can, without pain, make the business end of the firing pin peak out the front of the bolt face. Either the pin is binding or the spring is too stiff because I can't do it without pushing it against a solid object. Anybody else had this problem? What fix did you use?

That problem has now been solved. As I suspected at the time, the factory firing pin spring was far too stiff. In fact, even calling it a "spring" may be a misrepresentation. Rarely have I ever seen a spring less springy. Replacing the spring turned it into a 100% weapon.

I also did one other thing at the time to upgrade the Maverick -- I replaced the cheap Maverick slide bar & forend assembly (which is made all in one piece as seen above) with an older, stronger and much more reliable Mossberg 500 slide tube & bar assembly. (See below, without forend.)

My gunsmith had an extra one (minus fore grip) laying around and he charged me just $10.00 for it. We went ahead and swapped it out after replacing the spring, and even though it had no fore grip on it, it still worked perfectly. Now all I have to do is find a new Mossberg 500 foregrip that I like.

3 comments:

Curly Howard said...: Thanks for following up. I learned something (a low bar to be sure, but still appreciated.); February 22, 2012 at 6:45 PM
Anonymous said...: So the famous MV wanders into "GUNZ 'N Z HOOD" where I work and wants his shotgun fixed..What I wonder is why a real gunsmith does not have Mouseberg parts?? It is the most common shotgun, is it not?? You readers should have seen him installing his own parts...while I waited on the Homeies....Next time, a video of this!!

Dale; February 23, 2012 at 12:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Great write-up! answered a lot of my questions as a new mav88 owner.

Does the length of the slide assembly matter in fitting on the mag tube/receiver? because I know there is a difference between field- and security-type shotgun fore-grips fitting onto slide assemblies.; October 23, 2012 at 4:11 AM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Praxis: Maverick 88 Fail-to-fire Fix.

3 comments:

Blog Archive

Followers