Mossberg Silver Reserve firing both barrels

markbxr400 · Jan 25, 2014

Have done a search on this forum and google, but unable to find a good post to help.

I took my neighbor to the skeet range yesterday. He took his Mossberg 20 gauge Silver Reserve O/U that he had won quite a number of years ago in a raffle (so would be out of warranty at tis point). Yesterday was the first time he had used the gun.

First station, with the selector set to shoot the bottom barrel first, both barrels went off simultaneously on the first trigger pull. It wasn't fan firing. We both shot it several times with the same outcome.

When we selected the upper barrel first, it operated flawlessly, shooting to top barrel, then shooting the bottom barrel on the second trigger pull.

But then going back and selecting the bottom barrel first, both barrels would go off every time with a single pull. We intentionally made sure we pulled the trigger firmly and held it compressed for a couple of seconds to eliminate fan-firing as the cause.

We haven't broken the gun down yet to try to isolate the problem, and I wanted to get some ideas from the Mossberg experts on this forum as to what we should look for and do.

He's not interested in getting rid of this gun and buying something else as this will just be an occasional day of fun for him.

Many thanks for any help.

Mark

hopper810 · Jan 25, 2014

Has the stock ever been pulled to give the trigger assembly a good cleaning ? If not I would start there.

oregunner · Jan 25, 2014

The bad news is that I used to have one of these, and it acted similarly. When I took the gun apart, inside the receiver looked like it had been made with a hammer and chisel. The sears were terrible. I called Mossberg about getting new sears, but they wouldn't send me any without having a gunsmith license. I sold the gun for parts, to a local gun store for $75, and was glad to get rid of it. You might get a gunsmith to look at it, if it doesn't get any better after a good cleaning and lube. Good luck. Mark

OldSkeeter · Jan 25, 2014

A thorough cleaning is certainly a good place to start; however, the Silver Reserve...especially the earlier ones...has a very checkered history as Oregunner mentions. They are the poster child for cheap Turkish shotguns. Fortunately, your friend had won it, so is not out more than the price of a raffle ticket.

Even though it is out of warrantee, I would contact Mossberg and ask them to fix an obviously defective gun. They have done this in the past. I doubt they want a defective gun floating around out there. In at least one case that I know of, they have replaced the older Silver Reserve with a second-generation Silver Reserve II that is supposed to be a somewhat better gun.

Good luck.

Oldfarmer · Jan 25, 2014

A good cleaning won't hurt. The simple thing to do, whether the cleaning helps or not, is to always fire the top barrel first. Use it that way until something else goes wrong, then consider the gun cost no more than a raffle ticket and sell it for parts or someone to use as a wall hanger or floor lamp. Do not buy parts for it as investing anything other than the cost of shells is a waste.

markbxr400 · Jan 26, 2014

Thanks. I saw him last night and told him to bring it over and we'd examine and give the receiver parts a good cleaning. He'd already dropped it off at a gunsmith. I'll report back what they found when he gets it back.

Thanks,

Mark

Mossberg Silver Reserve firing both barrels

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