Mossberg 500 blows up!

[DaveH]

A friend of mine recently went to GA to do some hog hunting. Before heading to the woods, he and his brother were doing a little target shooting with slugs. Right after his brother had shot, my friend was handed the gun and he loaded a slug and took a shot from the hip.

It's a good thing he chose to do that this time because the entire left side of the barrel blew out. His left thumb was nearly blown off and had to be re-attached at the hospital. The gun is ruined and his thumb's future is uncertain at this point.

I've never owned a Mossberg 500 (I have an 835), but I have been very impressed with another friend's 500 and how it patterns with turkey loads.

Anyone ever hear of this happening with Mossberg 500's? Any idea what could have caused it?

[HeviShot]

Ouch!

Never heard of that happening b4, but in general, not fond of Mossbergs.

Hope everything works out as far as his thumb is concerned.

[gandilamont]

Well on my Mossberg 835 it says on the side of the barrel "NOT FOR USE WITH SLUGS". So before he gets to hiring lawyers he might want to look at the remains of his barrel and see if it says the same thing!

[HeviShot]

Can't use Slugs?

I'm honestly scratching my head over here. Im not familiar with that model(835) but what could the reasoning be?

Does Mossberg offer a specific slug gun? I was under the assumption that it was your average shotgun and could handle anything its chambered for.

I know for a fact my Uncle used to shoot slugs out of his 500 b4 he sold it, I wish he still had it so I could call him up and he could check it.

[gandilamont]

Ya, 835's are not for slugs unless you buy a slug barrel. 500's are probably the same way. i dont know why but I assume because the barrels blow up. LOL!

[gandilamont]

Maybe it's because they are overbored and ported. Must have some adverse reaction to slogs.

[HeviShot]

Wow, learn something new every day huh?

I'll have to tell my Uncle he was lucky

[rjhans53]

500s are usually good guns, you don't suppose maybe the previous slug didn't exit or maybe the wading didn't clear, I know its a long shot, just wondering out loud

[TurkeyStalker]

500s need slug barrels...

[bigbulls]

A 500 doesn't need a slug barrel to fire foster type slugs any more than any other shotgun out there. You can fire a slug out of any modern smooth bore barrel and not do any harm what so ever. You can fire sabot slugs as well but you will not get any kind of accuracy.

The 835's must have a dedicated slug barrel installed because the bore of the 835 smooth barel is .775" inside diameter vs. a standard 12 ga barrel being .729" inside diameter which is also the diameter of the 12 ga slug. If you fired a slug in the .775" barrel it would rattle down the barrel and probably damage the barrel, gun, or you.

Now on to the original post. For a shotgun barrel to split down the side like that it......... 1) was previously damaged in the area of the split. 2) had an obstruction in the barrel such as the previous slug not exiting due to an under charged load. 3) your friend fired a double charged load. 4) The shell was improperly assembled when loaded.

Any of the last three can send the pressures inside the barrel high enough to split the barrel. A shotgun barrel is only designed to hold in about 10,000 - 15,000 psi.

It is an incredibly remote chance that the barrel had a manufacture defect but that possibility is extremely remote.