My new to me Mossberg 835 make over...

[mastevt]

I recently received an older Mossberg 835 on trade from my neighbor down on the farm.  I got it home, and have decided to give it a good make over.  Started out by tearing it down and inspecting everything.  It was pretty dirty inside.  He may have kept the barrel clean, but the firing mechanism, and such was just a mess.  I was surprised it cycled as good as it did.  Anyways, I had one screw broke off holding the recoil pad on, so I started shopping on the web, and found a pistol grip rear stock that I liked, so it's on it's way.  The metal parts are now all bead blasted and ready to go to Hydrographics to be dipped as soon as the stock arrives.  I like 4x scopes on my turkey guns so I purchased one, and the gun will get dipped to match that camo.  Not sure what choke to use on it, but the JellyHead .660 in my 500 is one heck of a nice choke using heavy 13 #5s.   I might as well ask what you guys like, and recommend.  Here's a few pics before the tear down.

[Spurcollecta]

.660" would probably be a bit too tight for a 835 unless you plan on sticking with lead but I look forward to seeing your finished product

[allaboutshooting]

Hopefully, in the next few days I'll publish "Part 2" of my evaluation of the new Mossberg 835 with the Matthews Harmonic Dampner Recoil Reduction System. In that article I will discuss various chokes that I tried with some different shotshells. It might be helpful to you in making a selection.

Thanks,
Clark

[mastevt]

Hopefully, in the next few days I'll publish "Part 2" of my evaluation of the new Mossberg 835 with the Matthews Harmonic Dampner Recoil Reduction System. In that article I will discuss various chokes that I tried with some different shotshells. It might be helpful to you in making a selection.

Thanks,
Clark

thank you!  I read your first article this afternoon.  Good read!  Being new here on the site, I look forward to reading and learning..   No so much in the field to sight it in, and test different loads.

[jerf]

Get a indian creek .675.

[RAY]

Very cool gun. Looking forward to the dipped pictures! Would you be able to add truglo sights to use under your 4x scope?

[SumToy]

A very good gun to build.  I would run something in the 675 rang.  (SumToy, TruGlow, Stardot and some run the PG)

Hope you have fun with the build

[mastevt]

Very cool gun. Looking forward to the dipped pictures! Would you be able to add truglo sights to use under your 4x scope?

I don't think so.  The scope mount is a  weaver style rail, which is on back order right now, It mounts to the 4 screw holes on top of the receiver, which I'm guessing would block your vision of the sites on the end of the barrel.   I'm not worried about that, I prefer the diamond reticle of the scope than sights anyways.

[davisd9]

I am a big time 835 fan for turkey hunting. It is my go to rig and has been very good to me.  The particular 835 I have now I bought Summer of 2011.  I have made a few modifications to it as I have gone along.  I am a believer that if you modify a gun it needs to be for functionality and not looks.  I have a scope with one piece mount, a ATI pistol grip that was dipped to match, and a tactical safety.  Since you are planning on using a scope then I highly suggest the tactical safety as the scope will hover over the safety and make it a little more difficult to put the gun back on safe.  Did not cause an issue when taking it off safety, just putting it back on. 

Here are a couple post I did in the past that may be helpful to you as you build your gun:

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,38870.msg389572.html#msg389572

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,27094.msg288173.html#msg288173

[surehuntsalot]

good luck with your new "toy"