Mossberg 835 | 500 | 535

A step by step video on how to clean and disassemble your Mossberg 835, 500 and 535 pump action shotgun.

RECOMMENDED GUN CLEANING SUPPLIES FOR YOUR GUN CLEANING KIT

Step One - Make Sure Your Gun is Empty

First and foremost, make sure the firearm is empty. Check both the magazine tube as well as the chamber.

Step Two - Disassemble Your Mossberg 835, 500 or 535

1. Once you are sure it is cleared, go ahead and unscrew the magazine cap.

This will allow you to slide off the barrel. Go ahead and set that aside.

2. Next we will remove the trigger assembly from the receiver. Push the pin out and set that to the side.

Now it’s as simple as pulling on the trigger guard to remove the whole assembly.

3. It’s quite possible either the cartridge interrupter or cartridge stop will fall out once the trigger assembly has been removed. If not, take them out now. There is one on each side of the receiver.

4. You’ll want to push the forearm back so that you can remove the bolt slide.

5. Once that’s out you can simply push the bolt forward through the receiver to take it out.

6. Now you can remove the forearm.

7. The last thing left will be to remove the elevator. This can be a little tricky. Squeeze it slightly and work it out of the receiver.

Step Three - Apply CLP to Your Mossberg Shotgun

Now that we have all the parts we want to clean removed, grab some sort of gun parts tray to put everything in. This will help keep them organized as well as allow them to soak in some CLP.

1. Place everything in the tray.

2. You can release the hammer in the trigger assembly by applying some pressure to it then pulling the trigger, slowly releasing it down.

3. Grab some CLP and give everything in the parts tray a health coating.

The CLP is going to be doing the heavy lifting for you. Its a great way to break down carbon and other contaminants while also lubricating your firearm.

4. Spray some down the bore from both ends of the barrel.

5. Spray a little on the action slide bars as well.

6. Last, spray some CLP inside the receiver.

Step Four - Cleaning Your Mossberg Pump Action Shotgun

We’ll pull out some brushes next and get to work on the various parts in the tray.

1. After waiting ten minutes or so to let the CLP do its magic, give all surfaces of the various parts a good scrubbing.

2. Get inside the receiver as well and give that a good cleaning.

3. After the receiver is clean, you’ll want to pay some attention to the breech end of the barrel as well. That can get pretty nasty so make sure to give that a bit of a scrubbing.

4. Some long stem cotton swabs can be a gun cleaning kit’s best friend. These little suckers allow you to get to areas that just aren’t possible with a gun cleaning cloth. The ones with a pointed end as well as a blunt end are particularly handy. Work on all the nooks and hard to reach areas. Anything that a cleaning cloth can’t get to should be paid attention to with your swabs.

5. Now go ahead a grab a durable gun cleaning cloth. You don’t want to use paper towels here as they’ll tear and you’ll end up doing more cleaning with your hands than with the paper towel. Get what you can inside the receiver. 

6. After that you can wipe down the action bars with you gun cleaning cloth.

7. Then get to wiping down all surfaces and set the clean parts down on your gun cleaning mat for finally assembly.

8. At this point after wiping down the trigger assembly, you can push the hammer back down into place.

9. For the last part of the gun cleaning process we’ll want to clean the gun’s bore. Take a bore cleaning kit in the appropriate gauge for your shotgun. You could pull the kit through the gun while assembled for a quick cleaning, but since we have it disassembled we’ll pull it through this way.

Grab the barrel and send the weight down the breech end of the bore. Pull it through. It should be tight ensuring a solid cleaning. One pull through usually takes care of it.

Step Five - Lubricating Your Mossberg Shotgun

Now we’ll want to lubricate the the parts before reassembly. Give all metal parts a light spray.

If it looks like you went a little excessive, pat down the parts with your cleaning cloth. Make sure to get some inside the receiver as well as a little on the action bars.

Step Six - Reassembling Your Mossberg 835, 500 or 535 Shotgun

1.Ok, let’s get your Mossberg back together. First, take the forearm and slide it over the magazine tube.

You’ll see the two slots in the receiver that the action bars slide into. Line those up and push it in.

It will hit two stops not far into the receiver. Press down on the action bars while pushing it towards the rear to keep sliding it in.

2. Then we’ll grab the elevator and set that back into place. You’ll see here the two holes that you want the studs to fit into. Line those up and it will pop into place.

3. After that slide the bolt back in through the front of the receiver.

4. Now you’ll want to install the bolt slide back into place. You’ll need to drop it through the clearance cut.

Move the forearm to the necessary spot to allow the notches in the action bar to line up correctly with the bolt slide. The bolt will also need to be in the correct spot to properly accept the bolt slide.

Line it up like the example here.

5. After that we will install the cartridge interrupter. Again there is a hole that you will want to line it up with.

6. Hold that in there while you install the cartridge stop next. Line that up in the slot like so.

7. With those in place, you can now install the trigger assembly. The front end goes in first. You can then push the back end into place.

Now insert the pin back into place and seat it.

8. Reinsert the barrel and screw the magazine cap back on.

Check the action and make sure everything is running smoothly. If there’s any excess CLP on the exterior wipe that off. And there you have it, a cleaned and lubricated Mossberg 835, 500 or 535 pump action shotgun.