Review of Cavalry Manufacturing Mossberg Shotgun Safety
I am reviewing this using the following criteria:
# Price
# Ease of installation
# Ease of use
# Durability
# Other
~The Cavalry Manufacturing Safety cost me $42 plus shipping at Brownells. This price is a little steep compared to other safeties available for the Mossberg 500/590 shotguns. Only taking the price into consideration (not what you get for the price) I would give the safety a 1/5. As there are no other safeties on the market that offer similar features for a competitive price this category is a little iffy. When looking at what you get for the price I would give the safety a 4/5.
~The screw on my Mossberg 500A’s safety was made so that it could be screwed in, but not out. This made getting the stock safety off a bit difficult, but once it was off the Cavalry Manufacturing safety went on easy. If you are interested in replacing the safety or any other small part on your Mossberg I suggest that you watch a few disassembly videos first. It is a pretty simple design, but you don’t want to mess anything up. I ended up getting the old safety off by using a flat head screw driver and just pushing down kinda hard while backing out the screw. *NOTE* DO NOT LOSE THE BALL BERRING AND SPRING WHEN REMOVING THE STOCK SAFETY *NOTE* After I got the Stock safety off the new one was on and I had performed a function check in about 3 mins. I give the Cavalry Manufacturing safety a 5/5 on ease of installation.
~If you read my review on the ATI collapsible stock (or you have a pistol gripped Mossberg) you know that it is difficult to utilize the safety while keeping your firing hand on the grip. The sole reason I shelled out $42 for this safety was to fix that problem. As you will see in the pictures below I installed the safety with the curved part facing the rear of the weapon. The safety will probably mount either way, but given that I wanted to be able to stretch my trigger finger up and push the safety forward, I wanted the curved part facing back. At first the safety was a little difficult to disengage with my trigger finger, but after a few times your finger gets used to it and it smoothes out a little. Reactivating the safety is easily done by bringing the trigger finger up to the front of the safety and pulling it back. I have fairly normal hands and I was able to do all of this with the web of my hand still touching the rear of the pistol grip on the ATI stock. On ease of use I would give this safety a 4.5/5.
~The safety is made of aluminum, and despite what the pictures bellow and the pictures on Brownells show, the whole safety is black. The finish on the safety seems to be durable, but I have not (and probably won’t intentionally) thrown it in the dirt to see how it holds up. With a little blue loctite on the screw during installation there should be no worries of the screw coming undone during firing. For durability I give the Cavalry Manufacturing safety a 5/5.
~Other impressions on this safety are that they could have filled in the middle of the safety a bit. The sides are great for use with a pistol grip, but if someone wanted to install this safety on a sporting stock Mossberg they would probably find the safety to be a little uncomfortable to use. As far as other impressions, I give this safety a 3.5/5.
That is a total score of 88/100. That's an B, so it passed my qualifications.
Overall, If you are running a pistol gripped Mossberg 500 or 590 and know you will need to be using the safety (Most, if not all, professional shotgun classes require the shooters to use their safeties) I would recommend this product.
Now for the Pics!
Here is the whole shotgun with the safety installed:
A shot of it a little closer, still from the side:
Here is a close up of the safety from above:
I am reviewing this using the following criteria:
# Price
# Ease of installation
# Ease of use
# Durability
# Other
~The Cavalry Manufacturing Safety cost me $42 plus shipping at Brownells. This price is a little steep compared to other safeties available for the Mossberg 500/590 shotguns. Only taking the price into consideration (not what you get for the price) I would give the safety a 1/5. As there are no other safeties on the market that offer similar features for a competitive price this category is a little iffy. When looking at what you get for the price I would give the safety a 4/5.
~The screw on my Mossberg 500A’s safety was made so that it could be screwed in, but not out. This made getting the stock safety off a bit difficult, but once it was off the Cavalry Manufacturing safety went on easy. If you are interested in replacing the safety or any other small part on your Mossberg I suggest that you watch a few disassembly videos first. It is a pretty simple design, but you don’t want to mess anything up. I ended up getting the old safety off by using a flat head screw driver and just pushing down kinda hard while backing out the screw. *NOTE* DO NOT LOSE THE BALL BERRING AND SPRING WHEN REMOVING THE STOCK SAFETY *NOTE* After I got the Stock safety off the new one was on and I had performed a function check in about 3 mins. I give the Cavalry Manufacturing safety a 5/5 on ease of installation.
~If you read my review on the ATI collapsible stock (or you have a pistol gripped Mossberg) you know that it is difficult to utilize the safety while keeping your firing hand on the grip. The sole reason I shelled out $42 for this safety was to fix that problem. As you will see in the pictures below I installed the safety with the curved part facing the rear of the weapon. The safety will probably mount either way, but given that I wanted to be able to stretch my trigger finger up and push the safety forward, I wanted the curved part facing back. At first the safety was a little difficult to disengage with my trigger finger, but after a few times your finger gets used to it and it smoothes out a little. Reactivating the safety is easily done by bringing the trigger finger up to the front of the safety and pulling it back. I have fairly normal hands and I was able to do all of this with the web of my hand still touching the rear of the pistol grip on the ATI stock. On ease of use I would give this safety a 4.5/5.
~The safety is made of aluminum, and despite what the pictures bellow and the pictures on Brownells show, the whole safety is black. The finish on the safety seems to be durable, but I have not (and probably won’t intentionally) thrown it in the dirt to see how it holds up. With a little blue loctite on the screw during installation there should be no worries of the screw coming undone during firing. For durability I give the Cavalry Manufacturing safety a 5/5.
~Other impressions on this safety are that they could have filled in the middle of the safety a bit. The sides are great for use with a pistol grip, but if someone wanted to install this safety on a sporting stock Mossberg they would probably find the safety to be a little uncomfortable to use. As far as other impressions, I give this safety a 3.5/5.
That is a total score of 88/100. That's an B, so it passed my qualifications.
Overall, If you are running a pistol gripped Mossberg 500 or 590 and know you will need to be using the safety (Most, if not all, professional shotgun classes require the shooters to use their safeties) I would recommend this product.
Now for the Pics!
Here is the whole shotgun with the safety installed:
A shot of it a little closer, still from the side:
Here is a close up of the safety from above:
