Upgrade the forend on my Maverick 88 or upgrade the shotgun?

[phatcyclist]

I bought a Mav 88 when I was 19 or 20 and I've had it about 8 years now. I've put thousands of rounds through it and I'm about to have a failure. The cheap forend with the riveted action bars is about to have a problem, one of them is wallowed out pretty good and it's only a matter of time before I have a failure. Now, it's about $85 all together to upgrade to the older 500 style with a metal tube and a slide-over forend, but is it worth that? I like the shotgun, but putting $85 into it to fix this problem seems a little steep, and no I don't want to spend $30 on another forend like this as it will fail later. I figure the shotgun is worth about $150 on the used market, maybe $125 trade-in. Is it worth moving that $85 into another shotgun or fixing this one up? I like this shotgun, but it's crazy to me that a forend on a $300 500 is $85 worth of parts.

 

[Charlie]

If they only last about 8 years just ask yourself if you are going to keep it another 8+ years and if so, you're getting closer to the $85 forend.

 

[phatcyclist]

I wouldn't mind keeping it for another few dacades, I like the controls on the shotgun and it was well used before I got it.

 

[Charlie]

Get the older 500 style with a metal tube. It'll cost more later!

 

[phatcyclist]

Went ahead and bought one off gunbroker. A few more pieces and I'll have a complete forend.

 

[Nasa]

Easy to replace the fore-end. Just get an action slide tube and fore-end nut from MidwayUSA.com. Cheap. Then you can use any fore-end for a 500. The Maverick is exactly the same on everything except for the pinned fore-end on most models and the safety on the trigger assembly instead of on the top rear of the receiver. All other parts are inter changeable including the magazine tube. I have both. The bolt, stock etc is the same. Even the trigger assemblies are interchangeable. Going one way the Maverick will not have a safety, going the other, the 500 will have to loose the rear safety in lieu of the safety on the trigger.