I bought a NIB 715T about 24 hours ago. Yesterday afternoon, last night, and this morning I watched at least half a dozen "how to" videos on disassembly/assembly as well as read the manual that came with the gun.
This morning I spent three hours trying to disassemble the gun so I could clean out the barrel and mechanisms before shooting for the first time. I cannot get the shell to separate and try as I may I can find no more screws holding the two pieces together. The manual has photos of a different version of the 715T and unlike the videos I've seen I do not have screws holding the barrel shroud together at the edges where the two plastic shells come together, but rather three lateral screws on the sides of each part, which seem to me not to be holding the pieces together but just keeping thin plastic strips in place on the shroud. I took those two lateral strips off anyway and sure enough, the two shell pieces won't come apart. I am able to tell everyone that it looked to me that the main housing area surrounding the trigger/bolt area was free but the barrel shroud would not budge and I wasn't going to force anything. And yes, I had removed the two screws holding the sight "tower" and the short Allen bolt.
Adding to the frustration was that neither the manual nor videos warned me about the spring-loaded catch on the magazine release and being the all-thumbs mechanical guy I am I was panicking until I used a screwdriver to hold the catch back while I reinstalled the mag release (after I had given up trying to disassemble). Would really like to know what I did wrong in the removal process. Does Mossberg regularly issue new model styles while continuing to issue outdated manuals? The gun already is extremely difficult to figure out without running into worthless manual information.
I would greatly appreciate any information anyone can provide. I want to give this new .22lr rifle a fair chance but I had no idea the maintenance would turn out to be so complicated.
This morning I spent three hours trying to disassemble the gun so I could clean out the barrel and mechanisms before shooting for the first time. I cannot get the shell to separate and try as I may I can find no more screws holding the two pieces together. The manual has photos of a different version of the 715T and unlike the videos I've seen I do not have screws holding the barrel shroud together at the edges where the two plastic shells come together, but rather three lateral screws on the sides of each part, which seem to me not to be holding the pieces together but just keeping thin plastic strips in place on the shroud. I took those two lateral strips off anyway and sure enough, the two shell pieces won't come apart. I am able to tell everyone that it looked to me that the main housing area surrounding the trigger/bolt area was free but the barrel shroud would not budge and I wasn't going to force anything. And yes, I had removed the two screws holding the sight "tower" and the short Allen bolt.
Adding to the frustration was that neither the manual nor videos warned me about the spring-loaded catch on the magazine release and being the all-thumbs mechanical guy I am I was panicking until I used a screwdriver to hold the catch back while I reinstalled the mag release (after I had given up trying to disassemble). Would really like to know what I did wrong in the removal process. Does Mossberg regularly issue new model styles while continuing to issue outdated manuals? The gun already is extremely difficult to figure out without running into worthless manual information.
I would greatly appreciate any information anyone can provide. I want to give this new .22lr rifle a fair chance but I had no idea the maintenance would turn out to be so complicated.