Sawing the barrel?

[GLOCK22SHOOTER]

I bought a used mossberg 500A from a pawn shop for a really good price.The insides are all in great shape.I detail stripped it and cleaned it.Functions perfectly.The thing is whoever had it before let the bore go to crap.It is rusted extremely bad from about halfway up the bore all the way to the muzzle.From where the rust starts down to the chamber is shiny clean and in great shape though.I dont want to cut it down to 18.5",only down to about 20".My question is,where do I measure from and is this legal?Any help or info would be appreciated.

[salvo]

Yes it's legal to do as long as the barrel is over 18".
Just remove the barrel and measure from the reciever end and measure one more time to be sure, then lop it off.

[epsylum]

BTW might want to use a bandsaw to get a good straight cut and maybe do a little grinding to take the sharp edges off.

As for measuring. Put a peice of dowell in the barrel until it hits the end of the chamber with the action closed. Mark the dowel. this is you barrel length. Figure out how much you want to cut off and mark it from the muzzle down. Jsut double and triple check your math, even if it is easy as that is when mistakes are often made (when you think something is easy).

Have fun.

[Atlasx]

you might try a pipe cutter to make a clean even cut on that barrel unless you have access to a lathe then chamfer the end to clean it up

good shootin'
Atlasx:)

[GLOCK22SHOOTER]

Originally posted by Atlasx
you might try a pipe cutter to make a clean even cut on that barrel unless you have access to a lathe then chamfer the end to clean it up

good shootin'
Atlasx:)

I will be using a band saw for the cut.The pipe cutter is good thinking but the barrel has the raised vent ribbs so thats not an option.If it was a bare barrel I would do so.

[ElevatedThreat]

Barrel length is measured from the breechface, but if cutting to 18" I would measure from the end of the receiver (which will make the barrel slightly longer) and leave about 1/4 inch extra to discourage over-zelous and under-knowledgable police.

Won't this leave you with totally open (as in "none") choke?

-ET

[GLOCK22SHOOTER]

Well it is now officially a 20" barrel,down from 28.We used a benchtop chop saw with a metal blade to do the cutting.Nice straight clean cut,looks professional.We used a chainsaw blade file to knock out and smooth all the burrs down,looks great.The overall look of the gun now is pretty serious.I was going to buy a pistol grip but have decided to leave it just the way it is.All in all I think it turned out just the way I expected it to.

[GLOCK22SHOOTER]

Originally posted by ElevatedThreat
Won't this leave you with totally open (as in "none") choke?
-ET

This is correct but we did a little test and it still performs really well.All the shooting was done from 30 feet.

When we were test firing it saturday we had buckshot,birdshot and slugs.I started out with the weakest to strongest just to test.

Birdshot=not so bad,fairly light load,scattered bb's everywhere,not very accurate.

Buck shot=slightly hotter load,tighter pattern,all bb's in the target.

Slug=my sore as hell shoulder has had enough,target desintigrated,pin point accurate.Great weekend but my shoulder is glad it's over.

[ironmind]

fyi. You mentioned cutting to 18.5" and where to measure. If you want 20" who cares you won't be questioned. It's the 18" mark that gets questioned which is why most guys chop to 18.5". 1/2" safety margin.