Defect

The Howa (Mossberg, Smith & Wesson) 1000 shotgun is a neat sporting gun. But it had a stupid defect. It had a gas piston buffer made of rubber. The gas system was supposed to be run dry: self-cleaning like the US M1 Carbine, also manufactured by Howa for Japanese Self Defense Force (Army), export to Thailand, and for sale to the small number of Japanese big game hunters in a sporter version. Run dry, the Model 1000 rubber gas piston version was fine. American users tended to run the gas system wet with oils or cleaning solutions that attacked the rubber gas piston buffer. I acquired a Mossberg 1000 dirt cheap because the gas piston buffer had dissolved into a tar-like gum from use of common gun cleaning solutions and the piston was beating the heck out of the end of the magazine tube. I cleaned the gunk out of the tube (it dissolved and cleaned up with Hoppes No 9 cleaning solution and paper towels). I installed a gas piston buffer made of material impervious to cleaning compounds or oils (even tho' I run it dry as the designers intended) and have had no problems since. A good sporting gun, sabotaged by an oversight. --Naaman Brown (talk) 18:19, 27 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]