Strange Mossberg 835 misfires

[mmitchellmoss]

Hi gang, first time poster.

I have a question, which I could take to a gunsmith, but wanted to solicit some free thoughts and/or advice.

I purchased a used Mossberg 835 12ga. The gun appears to be stock and in very good visible condition. I don't know how old it is though (purchased at Bass Pro). The gun was very clean and cycles very smoothly. I did take it down and clean and lube before use, again it was apparently cleaned prior to my purchase as there was no filth.

The issue is kind of strange. If I load a number of shells and fire it, it will fire every time, no problem. However, twice I loaded the gun and walked around with it for a while as I was squirrel hunting. Upon attempting to fire the pre-chambered gun, it would simply click no bang. Cycle to the second round and it worked fine after that. Looking at the rounds that failed to fire, there was a dent in the primer but apparently not enough to set it off. Reinserting the same round it fired fine the second time. In each of these two cases the shells were different manufactures from different boxes.

I'm just unsure what the issue with these misfires are. I don't really feel totally confident with this gun at the moment. I would hate to wait for hours on a gobbler and then have a misfire. Maybe it just needs a new hammer spring (mainspring?), I'm not sure. I also don't know why that would relate to firing immediately vs walking around for a while, though that could just be a red herring. I am just hoping that y'all have some thoughts on the issue.

Thanks everyone,
mmitchellmoss

[rakkin6]

Sounds like you are having a light strikes between  with your firing pin. I know you said the gun was clean. But I would start by taking the action apart and giving everything a good deep cleaning. While you have it apart inspect the spring and firing pin. If this does not work it could be a weak spring which is not expensive and an easy fix.

  Did you happen to shoot a different brand of shell out of it to see if it might just be a bad lot of shells. Sometimes in the manufacturing process the primer can get pushed on to far. I would try either another box of shells from the same company preferably another lot or a different brand altogether.

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[mmitchellmoss]

Thanks rakkin6,

After this last time I did break it down really well to clean an lube again. On the firing pin block (not sure what you really call it) I attempted to drive out the pin to remove the firing pin and firing pin spring, but I was unable to drive it out. There may be something there (malformed firing pin or something) I just can't get it apart, so I may need to see a gunsmith anyway.

As to the ammo, each of the two misfires was with a different brand of ammo. In both cases it was #5 lead shot, but from different manufactures and one was 2 3/4 and the other 3 inch. So, I don't think that it is ammo releated.

Thanks again,
mmitchellmoss

[old3toe]

  You could try taking the charge bar out that houses the firing pin and flushing it out around the pin with some kind of aerosol cleaner/degreaser. Leave it propped up on its end for a while hitting it with the cleaner a couple times a day. Also I've heard of this with 835's several other times and it was usually a gummed up firing pin. Also there has been lots of instances of this happening with certain winchester loads. Two things can cause this which is related to the primer. I think the most common is hard primers in which the metal is way to hard for a standard firing pin strike to set it off. Often times these rounds won't go off a second, third, or fourth try either. The second is out of spec primer seating. Where the primer isn't seated deep enough and "set" into place against the brass casing. Then when the firing pin strikes the primer it uses energy from the pin strike to finish seating the primer before it indents it thus not having enough energy to properly detonate it. These will usually fire on the second try.
This doesn't mean you don't have a week spring or firing pin issue however. I had never had this issue with my 835 and I've had it a while and fired many rounds through it til one day I opened a new box of win super X 3 no 5's. First three shells in the box would not go bang on three or four tries. Weird since I've patterned many of these in 4's and 5's with no issue. So I went on to my next loads I was going to try and everything was fine. It's never happened again with any loads but I leave that box alone. Winchester has been known to turn out shotshell ammo with hard primers in the past based on what I've researched.

[mmitchellmoss]

Thank you old3toe,

So it sounds like there could potentially be a problem with gunk in the firing pin mechanism that maybe slows down the firing pin. I will definitely try to flush it out some more. I wish that I had been able to get the pin out to disassemble it properly and clean everything up and look for damage, but I am just not able.

I have had failures with two different ammunitions, I need to go look to see what they were. One was Winchester something or another and the other was some kind of thing that seemed like a an off brand to me, though I could be wrong. I was like something fast lead or something.

I will certainly look into flushing it more though. Do you guys think that the hammer spring could get weak and need to be replaced? The trigger group looks great and clean but I have no idea. Thanks.

[Old Timer]

I have had this happen to me with a 870. My fault, it happened to be crud around the firing pin that caused a light strike. On advise of a old fella I put some lighter fluid around the pin.  Stood it up right for a couple days then cleaned it. No more problems. Worked for me. Good luck

[mmitchellmoss]

Thanks Old Timer,

Yeah, it sounds like a gunky firing pin seems to be the general idea of what could cause this. I am going to try and flush it out again just to do my due diligence. I have some stuff called Houdini that is used by locksmiths to clean and lubricate crusty locks prior to lock picking them. I'm going to try flushing it with that stuff and stand it on its end to drain. I'll probably repeat that action a few times. I'm hoping that will take care of it in the future.

Thanks again,
mmitchellmoss

[Tom007]

The Birchwood by Casey High pressure gun scrubber barrel cleaner works great, and dries with zero residue. You will see the black gunk pour out of the firing pin hole in the bolt assembly for sure. Couple hits of that will probably help. Good luck.....

[mmitchellmoss]

Tom007,

Thanks for the tip. I've seen that stuff at the stores before. Good to hear how well it works. I'll pick some up.

mmitchellmoss

[old3toe]

  Your welcome. Also when you say you couldn't get the firing pin out, did you remove a tiny roll pin from the charge bar first? There should be some type of retaining pin in it that keeps it all together. I've never had mine apart but there has to be something keeping the small components in place.

[mmitchellmoss]

Hi old3toe,

Yeah, that retaining pin is what I cannot get out. There are actually two pins in the assembly (not counting the firing pin of course). One of them is larger and goes crosswise horizontally across the charging bar. The other is small and at the rear of the charging bar and is vertical. That is the one that I have ready you need to remove. I tried driving it out with a hammer and punch from both directions, but I could not get it to budge.

[mmitchellmoss]

So, as an update, I will buy some gunscrubber and try that, but I tried the Houdini and this is what came out, something but not too filthy.

[DUCKDIGGLER]

I wish you luck with it. I had one....bought brand new. Would misfire on random occasions......with every  turkey shell and field load it tried. Different brands, different lengths it did not matter. First shell sometimes....sometimes second and sometimes third shell.  I tried and tried but could not figure out a pattern to the misfires. It seemed to happen more with Winchester LBXRs but would do it with everything I tried.
Sent it back....retuned....said it was working fine.....trip to pattern board.....same deal.....back again and returned to me a second time....same deal. I couldn't trust it so I traded it away. Damn shame because it had a lot of the features I wanted in a turkey gun.

[YukonC]

I had one too recently and had to sell it. Called Mossberg and all they could do for me is say it's a "known issue" put it on gunbroker someone from CA will pay way too much for it. I replaced it switch a beretta.


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[mmitchellmoss]

Duckdiggler and YukonC,

Oh dang! I hate that you both had this problem and ended up having to part company with your guns. That really worries me that if this continues I will be doing the same. It stinks because I really do like the gun, but if it continues to be unreliable with no clear reason as to why, then that is going to be a deal breaker. Thanks for letting me know that other folks are running into the same thing and were unable to get it corrected. That at least lets me know that there could just be a design problem.

Thanks again,
mmitchellmoss