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Project Snow Goose

Update. I received 2 more items for the project. A sling and a soft case. Who new they had Snow Goose style gear. Found them on a companies web site call Banded. Looks like good stuff for the hunting crowd. Prices are reasonable and the quality is good.
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I just got done working on my (new to me) very used 500.

The selector was darn near impossible to use to begin with.

I got one of the extended thumb selectors you were talking about and went to work. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to pull the slide all the way back and the piece fell down into the receiver, which ultimately made me do a complete field strip to get it back apart (which I was not wanting or planning to do). Yes, I did call myself a big dummy because I never liked taking them apart.

But I guess it's good that I did because I found a whole bunch of neglected gunk and grime that I wiped out away from the inside of the receiver from years of never being taken apart or cleaned and stored muzzle up letting everything drain into the back of the receiver and building up there into a nice thick semi solid sticky sludge.

After cleaning all that buildup off from inside the receiver, I put everything back together and it was still very hard to operate. So, I pull the slide back this time to lock the piece in place so it wouldn't fall into the receiver (again) and clipped a coil off of the bottom of the detent spring, cleaned the channel out where the spring and detent stays and screw it back on, and it's like it should be now. Very easy to use and slide back and forth. I did also put a dab of birchwood casey gun grease underneath of the selector. I hope I don't end up regretting that later, but it's there and working as it should be now.

Here's a pic after I got done and showing all the gunk that came out of there. It sure wasn't doing the gun any favors.

Thanks for suggesting it.

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John, I’m glad you like the new safety selector. It sounds like you had quite the adventure doing the install. The bright side is that now you have a thoroughly clean and fully functional gun.
 
If I had pulled the slide all the way to the back, it wouldn't have fell into the receiver.

Then again, I would have not cleaned all that junk out of there either. So, even though I messed up, it was better that I did in this case.

The guns fully functional and operational.

All is good with it.

Thanks again for telling me about the selector lever.
 
A cloud with a true silver lining.

John something you said about the gunk draining made me think. One could probably keep long guns easier to clean by rotating them 180 degrees in storage from time to time.
 
It would at least keep all the gunk and residue and old oil from gathering up in the rear of the receiver for sure.
 
It would at least keep all the gunk and residue and old oil from gathering up in the rear of the receiver for sure.
I have my M590A1 that has been stored in the gun safe for a couple of years. It’s been stored muzzle up. I’m going to pull it apart on the weekend and see what the inside back of the receiver looks like. If I see accumulation of gunk I’ll post picks.
 
In fairness, the gun that I was referring to was made in the very early 1990's. I think he said he got it in 1992 or 93.

But, it gunking up inside of there does happen.
 
I would think that the “run off” would happen relatively early in a long term storage situation. The oil/grease/moisture would obey the laws of gravity as soon as you put the gun in the safe. The point is a good one and may be a great tip for those of us who care about such things.
 
Update for those of you that are interested.

I had the chance to take the Snow Goose out this afternoon to our local gun club for a round of sporting clays.

I decided to use a high brass Aquila competition shell (see below) for this first outing to try and ensure good performance. This is the first time the gun has been fired.

I fired a total of 69 Aquila shells and had 0 issues with firing, ejection and automatically reloading. I had a few issues loading but I think this was mainly due to my unfamiliarity with the M930 which I’ll keep my eye on. I had the IC choke installed and hit pretty well with it. I may have to take a look into lengthening the LOP but this is minor.

Our last station I tried (4 rounds) of some low brass Italian competition shells that I have stock of (see below). All 4 shells fired, ejected and reloaded no problem. I even put one of each type in for my last 2 clays and they both worked flawlessly.

I’ll put the gun away for a week or so and let it stew. I’ll take it back to the range again in a few weeks. I’d like to get between 100 and 200 shells thru it before I tear it down for inspection. I hope to try and catch that point when things start to hang up so I can get an initial round count for maintenance. That is with the OEM components. I have some aftermarket stuff on deck that I’ll try at some point for comparative purposes.

The only observation I made was some powder burn signs at the muzzle (typical) and in the hand guard area just above the gas piston/cylinder (typical).

Ammo pics.
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Update for those interested.

It was a beautiful afternoon in western NY. Myself and 2 good friends decided to hit the club and blast some clays. I brought the Snow Goose to get some more rounds through her. I did not clean it or touch it since my last outing.

I mixed low brass and high brass shells (see above post) in my shell carrier bag and just loaded up randomly.
Put 41 rounds through the shotgun and no failures whatsoever.

I paid close attention to loading a shell in the mag tube. I noticed that some shells required significant push from my thumb to get them in correctly. It was inconsistent and I think this is more ammo related. I do have an aftermarket mag follower in there so maybe I test this as a possible cause at a later date. No reason to put the blame on it just yet.

I did one charging handle load (nothing in the chamber and 2 in the magazine, pull the charging handle) and the shell went in but somewhat reluctantly. Again I think this is a “fat” ammo issue.

So I’m up to 110 rounds total with no show stopping issues. Very happy. I’m going to let it sit and stew until my next outing. I’d like to get north on 150 rounds thru it before I pull it apart for inspection. As stated, I’m looking for that point when things start to f up. I know with my Browning semi it’s at the 200 plus round count when I start to see issues.

I do have to say that the gun is very light, maneuverable, and shoulders nicely and I seem to hit pretty good with it. I have some recently purchased Walker Razor Patriot ear pro (highly recommended) and the stock hit them consistently but only lightly and it wasn’t a problem. The noise dampening was great.

The only other observation was the powder burn signs at the muzzle (typical) and in the hand guard area just above the gas piston/cylinder (typical) was a little heavier than last time due to the increased usage.

Please note that this is going to be my winter months “go to” shotgun. All testing that I’m doing now is in summer environmental conditions. I live in in western NY so the winter can get brutal. I can’t wait to put the SG thru similar test once the seasons change.
 
Update for those who are interested.

Myself and a good friend hit the sporting clays course this morning. It was a beautiful fall day here in western NY. I brought the snow goose and put 74 rounds thru her. That’s 184 in total without a cleaning or inspection.

The gun ran flawlessly with no failure to fire or failure to eject. I noticed that there is still random resistance to loading a shell in the mag tube. I will have to look into this. Also on two occasions the shell got caught up in the receiver when I hit the bolt close button. I had not seen this before. It could have been way I loaded the shell and I’ll monitor this as well.

The only other observation was the powder burn signs at the muzzle (typical) and in the hand guard area just above the gas piston/cylinder (typical) was a little heavier than last time due to the increased usage.

My plan is to get one more outing and close to 250 rounds before I disassemble, inspect and clean.

Stay tuned!
 
For those of you that are interested in this thread/review.

We had our annual Thanksgiving day luncheon and shoot today. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day in upstate NY. Nice and clear day with a 44 degree temp and no wind. The sunshine on a few or the stands left black spots on the eyes. I brought the Snow Goose to put some more rounds through her. A total of 62 rounds today with one fail to feed. The fail to feed was on me. Other than the FTF the gun ran flawlessly. Thats a total of 246 rounds with no disassembly, inspection and cleaning.

The only other observation was the powder burn signs at the muzzle (typical) and in the hand guard area just above the gas piston/cylinder (typical) was a little heavier than last time due to the increased usage.

Part of me wants to keep going to find the upper limit, but the gun owner in me wants to pause to tear it down for a thorough disassembly, inspection and cleaning. I must say 250 rounds on a semi shotgun used for sporting clays without hassle is a good thing. My Browning gold fusion is good for 100 to 125 or so rounds.

The pain here is the time. Disassembly, inspection and cleaning of a semi auto shotgun vs. a side by side or an over under. I must say that the semi auto Mossberg is a relatively easy to break down, disassemble and clean compared to most.

I’m curious as to what’s happening inside the shotgun so I’ll do a complete disassembly, inspection and cleaning next week.

Stay tuned!
 
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Quick update. I shot another round of sporting clays yesterday with a friend. I brought the Snow Goose to try and test the upper limits of the shotgun. I put another 63 rounds thru her bring the total to 309 rounds fired with no maintenance or cleaning.
I have a few observations that are telling me that I’m at the point where I need to do a thorough disassembly, inspection and cleaning.

1. While I had no fail to fires I did notice 3 or 4 fail to feed when I drop a shell into the receiver and pushed the bolt close button. The shell was at an angle that prevented the bolt from closing and “pinched” the shell. I’m not blaming the gun on this. I feel it’s more of an issue with properly placing the shell into the receiver. They were all easy to clear. It’s worth noting since it was not happening in prior outings. I’ll monitor this after the gun gets it’s proper maintenance.

2. I had 2 or 3 hard to load issues when inserting a shell into the mag tube. I noted this before when I had the aftermarket mag tube follower installed. I went back to the factory follower and I thought this issue was resolved. Maybe it is and the gun just need maintenance. I’ll monitor this as well.

3. The butt stock started to loosen from the receiver slightly. This was the only mechanical issue I have noticed over the 300 plus round test. I’ll address this during the complete disassembly and inspection.

I plan to completely disassemble the shotgun later today. I’ll post pics and note my observations.
 
For those of you that are interested. I spent about 4 hours last night working on the Snow Goose with Monday night football on the radio for companionship. I did a complete disassembly, inspection and a thorough cleaning, lub and reassembly. This task is one of the drawbacks of a semi auto shotgun. It only takes about 30 minutes to clean my O/U. I’ve attached some pics below.
My comments and observations are:
1. The shotgun was filthy. I cleaned the barrel and gas cylinder 4 times to get it back to an acceptable state. I pulled out the choke tube and cleaned it up as well. The build up on the magazine tube in the gas piston area was thick enough to make it hard to pull the gas piston spacer tube, pusher assembly, forearm retainer off.
2. I pulled the gas piston assembly apart and cleaned it up with a nylon brush and some elbow grease.
3. Mechanically there where 2 areas that needed to be addressed. Believe it or not the magazine tube had worked itself loose. I could unscrew it by hand. This is good since I didn’t want to apply heat to the area to protect the beautiful finish. The other area was the bolt that holds the butt stock to the receiver was on its way to loosening up. I could not unscrew it by hand but it was easy to turn with a socket.
4. The magazine tube cleaned up nicely and there were no scratches. I used scotch-brite to help remove the powder build up. I brushed off the factory loctite on the male threads on the tube and female threads in the receiver.
5. The inside of the receiver was in good shape. No scratches abnormal wear or burrs.
6. The return spring plunger has some minor scratches from the action return spring.
7. The bolt and trigger assemblies all looked good and cleaned up nicely. Some normal wear marks.
8. Other than a thorough cleaning all parts looked to be in good shape.

Once everything was cleaned and wiped down it was time to reassemble the gun. I change out 4 parts. I removed the MCARBO magazine follower and went back to the standard factory follower. This is to address the “hard to load” issue that I was having. I also installed the OR3GUN gas piston spacer tube, return spring plunger and return spring retainer. I’m not sure I need the OR3GUN parts since the OEM parts functioned fine but I’ll give them a try to see if they make a noticeable contribution to performance. I hand tighten the magazine tube and applied some good torque to the bolt that holds butt stock in place.

The Snow Goose is good to go for another 300 plus rounds!

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Update for those interested. Myself and a couple of friends went to the club today for a round of sporting clays. The day was interesting. Temp was 18 F with a bit of everything. Flurries, sun and a slight wind and really cold. I wanted to see how the snow goose performed in the cold. Put 74 rounds thru the shotgun today.
The only thing I could “complain” about was half a dozen failure to go into battery. I put this down to the way I was placing the cartridge into the receiver while wearing gloves and or mitts. No big deal I could quickly set things straight.
This is the first time out since the thorough cleaning and installing the OR3gun hardware. As far as the shooting and the feel of the gun goes I didn’t notice much of a difference. I did notice a different fouling pattern from the gas operating system but in no way did it impact performance.
I’ll run another couple hundred rounds thru it to test durability over the next 2 or 3 months and keep you updated.
 
So you think the fail to feed were user related?
 
So you think the fail to feed were user related?
I’m inclined to think so. I did not notice this issue on the first go around of 300 rounds. Albeit this was in good weather.
This go around was in pretty extreme conditions. All of the fail to loads where very similar. I would drop the cartridge in the the receiver and hit the bolt release button. The cartridge would get hung up immediately on the receiver body and would stop the bolt from going forward. I would tap the front of the cartridge down and the bolt would slam home. Alternatively I would pull the bolt handle back and the cartridge was stuck on the right side extractor. I would fiddle with the cartridge to dislodge it from the extractor and hit the bolt release button to resolve the issue. Understand that all of this was happening with either gloves or heavy mittens over the gloves in order to keep my hands warm.
Other than this issue I’ve got to say that I was hitting clays like a Mo’fkr with the Snow Goose!
 
Update on this project for those interested.
Myself and two good friends hit the sporting clays course today. A nice day for this time of year in Western New York. A slight southerly wind and about 40 degrees F. Interesting that we all brought semi automatic shotguns today. Two Berettas and the Snow Goose. The SG functioned flawlessly and I’m very pleased at how well I can shoot with it. I put about 60 rounds through her today.
I think I’ve figured out the failure to go into battery issue. When loading the first shell into the receiver through the ejection port I’ve always turned the gun 90 degrees so the receiver in generally east west. Then I drop in the shell and hit the bolt close button. This works most of the time. I’d say 80% of the time. The 20% that does not work results in the shell being stuck between the receiver/chamber and the bolt. It’s easy to resolve by pulling the charging handle back a little resulting in the shell retracting a little since it is engaged by the extractor, then thumbing the shell so it aligns with the chamber. Then just release the charging handle and all is good.
What I found was that if I left the receiver generally north south and put the shell into the receiver and hit the button the shell would be properly chambered no problem 100% of the time. This allowed for a faster more convenient orientation for loading the second shell into to magazine tube. Once I discovered this “new way” of loading the gun I stuck with it and all was good.
Lesson learned - I initially adopted a way to load the gun that resulted in some issues and I’ve iterated to a new method that works much better. That’s life in a nutshell.
Other miscellaneous observations. The fouling marks on the white snow wraith pattern near the muzzle and the hand guard (over the gas system) get more noticeable as you shoot more rounds. This is to be expected. The hand guard and the butt stock are still tight and secure. I check the choke before each round and it is also tight and secure.
My plan is to try and get to around 400 rounds before I tear her down again. Stay tuned!
 
Update, for those of you who are interested. I’ve purchased a couple of new aftermarket parts that I’m going to install in my SG. I purchased the SBE SS piston and a Mossberg NiBo coated one piece outer seal ring (JM930 pro outer seal ring). I’m not going to install this assembly until I hit the the 400 or so round count on the shotguns current configuration. Should be some time later this year.
Once I hit to 400 round count I will completely disassemble, inspect and clean the shotgun. Upon reassembly I will include this new upgrade. The SBE website claims that I may get 2000 rounds out of the shotgun before cleaning with the aftermarket parts already I’ve installed (OR3gun). I hope this is the case since cleaning any semi auto shotgun is a PITA! We shall see!
Some pics.
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