Not happy about my new barrel

Well I got my new Mossberg 500 rifled slug barrel today. Lets just say I am not very happy about it. When I took it out of the packaging I notice there where spots of the parkerized finish that were wore down to the bare metal. Lets just say my 14-15 year old field barrel that came with the gun has less wear marks on it. The packaging looks to have been sealed from the factory so I dont think it was a returned item that got sold again.

Then I looked down the barrel and it looked dirty which I kind of expected because they fire a few rounds through the barrels before shipping them out. Well I cleaned and cleaned and the barrel still looked the same and my patches were not coming out very dirty.. hmm something is wrong here. Well then I flipped the barrel around and looked through the muzzle. What the!! I see these weird blob shaped spots. I get my cleaning rod out and run the end over the spot and find out that it is some kind of shallow pit cause my rod just barely catches the edge of the spot. I guess what looks like fouling is tiny pits and then there are the big blob/spot pits. Mossberg said they would send me a shipping label so I could send it in and get a new barrel if this one is messed up. I just dont understand the pitting because I dont detect any kind of pitting on my patches and the spots have a ligher gray color to them almost like a calcified water spot. Maybe from the parkerizing process?

Here is a video but it is hard to tell the extent of the damage in the barrel:

It almost looks like some type of chemical was left on the inside of the barrel. No telling how long it has been on a shelf. I'm with you man, I wouldn't be happy about that either! Glad you're getting a replacement.

Doesn't surprise me. I bought my first Mossberg a couple years back and broke the safety/trigger assembly out of the box. They didn't do right by me, so glad to hear they are helping you.

BTW anybody want to buy a 12ga club? =P

Some guy at the Mossberg factory is watching this and thinking "So that's what happened to that one I accidentally gouged with the reamer!"

EdgarEg wrote:Some guy at the Mossberg factor is watching this and thinking "So that's what happened to that one I accidentally gouged with the reamer!"

Probably alot of truth to that...

You should email the video to mossbergs customer service

Boy, I would be unhappy about that just because of the finish aside from whatever that is inside the barrel. I could have done a better job on the finish with Duracoat and I'm not even an expert or in the business of doing it full time. I've never done a parkerized finish, but Duracoat has some flat black finishes that look nearly identical and it's on there for good.
It would definitely go back in my opinion and if they are anything like Marlin, I'd keep sending it back until I got a barrel that was to my satisfaction.

I find it hard to believe really because I have a 500 in 20ga. and it was flawless out of the box, and never had a minute worth of trouble from it. Maybe I just got lucky?

Yeah this is the first bad experience I have had with Mossberg. I have had my 500 for 15yrs and it has been a great gun and very durable.

Wow this barrel locks like the first work of the trainee.

Update:
The customer experiance with Mossberg was not very good at all. Every time I called up there nobody knew what was going on with my barrel even though I gave them my "repair number". It took calling the customer service supervisor and manager to get any info. A little over 4 weeks later (which I think should have taken less time for a quick barrel swap) they sent me a upgraded fluted barrel, a barska scope, and a Mossberg cap. The scope is a cheapie which I will probably just put on a .22, but I give them props for trying to make it right.

Did they ever offer an explanation of what happened to the barrel to cause it to be like it was when you got it, like maybe a tornado hit the factory that day or something?

EdgarEg wrote:Did they ever offer an explanation of what happened to the barrel to cause it to be like it was when you got it, like maybe a tornado hit the factory that day or something?

Nope, that was another thing that kind of frustrated me. They just said that if the barrel was bad the repair dept would just cut it in half and trash it.

RemMan700 wrote:

They just said that if the barrel was bad the repair dept would just cut it in half and trash it.

hmmmm.....maybe they need to add that step at the end of the assembly line.