Louie from United States, IL Public Profile

These are some of the best aftermarket safeties for the Mossberg 500/590 platform. All steel, easy to actuate, great finish, and only ~$15. The only problem is, you need to provide your own #6-32 x 5/16 screw as the anti-tamper screw that on stock Mossbergs will easily strip after taking it off and putting it back on.

To install, take out your old plastic safety (there is no proper tool to take out the screw, as far as I'm aware, try your best with a flathead), and make sure you don't lose the little ball bearing that comes loose as you'll need it later. The ball bearing ensures that your safety will stay locked in place. Once the safety, screw, locking plate, and ball bearing are out, place the ball bearing in its cup (the little hole), place the locking plate on top (the hole in the locking plate should be directly on top of the ball bearing), then place the safety on top of the locking plate, and insert the new screw and thread it in. Yes, it's a pain to install because everything is so small, but this process can be made significantly easier by putting your gun in a vice as you'll have two hands available to work on the gun instead of one. Also, make sure the hole in the safety and locking plate are aligned with the threaded hole in the receiver before inserting the screw. Making sure everything is aligned while your starting the screw is the most difficult part of the process.

A little while back, I bought an SKS off of Gunbroker that came with a bolt and pin in the receiver cover hole that was not original to the SKS design. Problem was, during firing, the bolt and pin would walk loose and would slowly get pushed out to the right everytime the gun recoiled. Thankfully, I realized this before the receiver cover had a chance to fly off into my face. I ended up pushing the pin back in after every 10 or so rounds so that I could I finish off my range session without needing to go home early.

After getting this part delivered to me, I took the bolt and pin off of my SKS and replaced it with this. Worked great! The pictures don't show it, but this item DOES come with a lock pin. Take note that you must use something to retain the lock pin in, otherwise it will just fall out. The receiver cover pin is supposed to be captive to the design of the SKS (it's not supposed to be removed), and the lock pin is what retains it in.

So here's what I did, with the bolt and pin now out, I pushed the receiver cover pin into the receiver cover and tested it for functioning (without lock pin). Went in and out smoothly. I then took out the receiver cover and recoil spring and pushed the receiver cover pin into the receiver just enough to get the hole in the receiver cover pin to be able to be accessed. With the lever facing towards the sky, I filled the hole with JB weld and inserted the lock pin in from the bottom (as that's the way the lock pin needs to be in order f