Mossberg 590 a1 won't chamber shells

[jedinerd]

Well, first things first please excuse any misuse of terminology as this is my first shotgun and I am relatively new to firearms. I bought my first shotgun on consignment from our local gun store, greta's. Upon hindsight I guess buying a consignment gun with as little expertise as I have was a poor choice. I took my new shotgun, a mossberg 590 a1 12 gauge out to the range today and discovered that it had a small problem. If i load shells into the feed tube and operate the slide the shells do not get fed into the firing position. If I reach in through the slot on the bottom and push the two bars on the sides apart two hooks end up on the other side of the flange on the striking surface of the shell, and then when the slide is operated the shell ends up in a firing position, but successive operations of the slide do not chamber the remaining rounds, and each time i have to push the two bars apart slightly releasing the round. Please feel free to correct my terminology and i can take pictures of any of the parts if necessary. Any idea whats wrong? I tried using 2 3/4" shells and 3".
Regards,
Jedinerd

[professionalcoyotehunter]

I would really need pics to help describe what you are talking about. Sounds like you have a shell broken off in the barrel stopping it from loading.

You can also go to Mossbergs website and look for problems with the 590A's

[Gunaria]

Try taking everything apart, clean it and put it all back together again. If that doesn't work you may have some faulty/worn out parts in it.

[Argonaut]

Spend a few bucks with a real Gunsmith and have it done right....Or spend weeks sending it back to Mossburg

[bohoki]

yea if you dont know what you are doing find someone who does even if we had the exact solution you probably couldnt do it from our text instructions

i hope your day wasnt ruined you could have just fed them one at a time through the open port and treat it like a single shot
sure it turns a $400 gun onto a $100 gun but at least its not a $0 gun

i have seen mossbergs have their fingers excessivly bent and i helped someone at a range once by taking off the trigger guard and bending a couple pieces back into proper alignment and it worked for them but that takes a bit of skill and knowledge of what needs to be done and how much

[Bobotheclown]

I vote taking it completely apart, cleaning it and putting it back together. That's what I did with my mossberg when I bought it. You really learn a lot from doing it.

[M1A Rifleman]

It sounds like something is not installed correctly to allow the shell to release from the mag once the slide is racked. The are two fingers on eaither side of the mag tube that hold a shell in the tube. When the slide is racked back these are supposed to release to allow a shell to drop into the loader.

[jedinerd]

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-4/151161/2109036

There are some pictures. The ones that say image not available can be seen by clicking the broken thumbnail.
Thanks for the advice everyone. If the pictures expose anything please do tell... i think i am going to try and find a manual for it and see if i can't take it apart and clean it. I'll need to learn how anyway.

And yes i did feed the shells in one at a time. I was shooting up at angeles and was able to plink the front row of animal targets with the buckshot i had.

[Argonaut]

Mossberg

I vote taking it completely apart, cleaning it and putting it back together. That's what I did with my mossberg when I bought it. You really learn a lot from doing it.

My gunsmith buddies get a lot of guns in boxes through the door from people with this attitude. If it is simple they can usually fix it while you watch. If it is your first (or only) gun, make it works correctly at first so you can learn to shoot it.

[Hayashi Killian]

I know the internals on the 500 and the 590 are very close, so it sounds like your elevator is damaged or bent. Disassemble it completely and remove the elevator, make sure it's not bent or worn anywhere. If it is, try straightening it and reassmbling it. If it's damaged, get a replacement elevator and install it, they're simple tools and probably only a few bucks.

[Bobotheclown]

My gunsmith buddies get a lot of guns in boxes through the door from people with this attitude. If it is simple they can usually fix it while you watch. If it is your first (or only) gun, make it works correctly at first so you can learn to shoot it.

Then it's a good thing I'm fairly mechanically inclined. It may take me a while, but I tend to be able to put together things I've taken apart. It also helps to have the manuals/videos/diagrams pulled up before working on things.

Hell, I've taken apart and and reassemble a old glenfield marlin 60.

[Argonaut]

Some people build airplanes too........I would rather fly them

[GraveTrain]

+1 for dissembling your shotgun. You can step by step videos on youtube. The same instructions should be for the 590 and the 500. You may also want to visit shotgunworld.com and ask there. It's all shotguns all the time. Good luck.

[butch952]

Dissassemble and reassemble your 590, it appears in the photos that the right side shell catch "the hooked flang thing" may not be correctly seated into its channel you should be able download manual from mossberg online good luck.

[an actual gun]

I can almost for sure tell you what's going on, except it's difficult to pinpoint what you mean by "bars." It sounds like the cartridge stop and cartridge interrupter have got an out-of-spec inward bend to them, but it could also be your elevator. Try taking it apart, cleaning, and putting back together--it could be dirty or assembled incorrectly. Worst comes to worst, it's about 30 bucks worth of parts at most--but a gunsmith should be able to tune those parts back into spec. It is not a terribly difficult job to do but I would not undertake such a task without experience and familiarity.