[hornady]

On a Mossberg 500 you can indeed over tighten the barrel nut. I have seen Mossberg with as much as a ¼ inch gap between the barrel nut assemble and the magazine tube, that guys tried to close up with pliers. When all that is needed is the mag tube unscrewed enough to make a good fit. If you read the owners manual to the 500 it states hand tight. Yes you want a good tight fit, but the mag tube may need adjusting to get this.

 

[mightyjoeyoung]

Hand tighten can and does include a pair of channel locks. And while extremely difficult, yes you can strip the threads on a mag tube (as I posted already), but you would have to machine tighten it...tighter than could be hand tightened. That or you started it already cross threaded...
Further more...You should never...ever have to back out the mag tube to get the barrel nut to tighten up correctly...period. If you ever were to encounter that...which I doubt, the gun was built on a monday morning, by a hung over chimpanzie after a weekend bender. Even then, the gun should have been sent back to be fixed and not altered. The mag tube is made to be screwed ALL THE WAY INTO THE RECEIVER and not backed out. I have NEVER seen a 1/4" gap between the barrel nut and the barrel lug on a mossberg 500 and I have sold at least 200 of them. In fact, even on the WORST brand of shotgun we carried, I haven't found that. Gotta call bs on this one. I have litterally set up so many guns for customers I don't dare try to count and have never seen that before. Have I seen poor fit and finish?...you bet, but have I ever seen a barrel not fit to the degrre even close to what you say on a proven brand of shotgun that has had millions made since it was introduced?...not once ever.

 

[hornady]

Well BS right back at you, you have not worked on many 500 if you have not seen this. And in what gun smithing manual states hand tight is with a pair of vice grips. As far as setting guns up for your clients, what kind of clients are buying Mossberg 500 combos and then taking them to a shop to change the barrel. If you are using vice grippes to work on firearms I would not want you working on anything I own.

From the Mossberg web page.
Tighten screw finger tight only, DO NOT use pliers or a wrench to tighten the take down screw a little space between the magazine tube and the take down mount is normal.

 

[mightyjoeyoung]

Never said I haven't seen it. I also know that when shooting slugs, as should everyone that shoots slugs, that the tighter the barrel is to the receiver, the BETTER it will shoot. I also never said tighten the nut till you twist the mag tune into a twizzler. So you can stop putting words in mouth as far as that goes. What I said is hand tighten then add ONE CLICK with channel locks with a piece of leather in the jaws to protect the metal. And genius, the work was done on guns purchased at the store...and I have never had one complaint but I have had an awfull lot of return customers and new referrals. You go and think what you want but I am telling you...from a lot more experience than you have, I gaurantee it, if you can move the barrel on a slug gun (like by finger tightening) you will not get groups like you will if the barrel is tight. If you think the barrel will shift by hand, imagine what it does when you put an ounce of lead down it at 1600 fps! Again, and you check with ANYBODY that shoots a lot of slug guns, the barrel needs to be TIGHT. NOT just finger tight. EVERY SINGLE high end, purpose built slugger will have their barrels secured as tightly as possible and, like mine, even have the barrel pinned to the receiver. No, the 500 might not be a "high end" gun but I have had a lot of customers come back and say how happy they were when their guns went from so so shooters to virtual one holers after following my instruction. I have personally seen barrel lugs snap off at the solder weld when only finger tight shooting heavy loads...even on $1500.00+ guns. You go ahead and think small...doesn't bug me one little bit.

 

[hornady]

Seems odd you calling me small minded and you being the one dishing out the personnel insults. I don’t care if you do something for 40 years, if its wrong time changes nothing still wrong. Putting undue stress on a barrel will not and can not improve accuracy. Yes a good fit matters but not pulling down on an unsupported take down mount. You are boring me so rant on I am done with this subject.

 

[mightyjoeyoung]

Finally.