Smoothing out a Maverick 88 action

[John in WI]

Hello Folks,
A while back I bought a Maverick 88 for use as a full time HD shotgun. I've gotten it out a few times and put probably 100 rounds through it. It seems like a solid, no frills shotgun (which was what I was looking for). But I have to admit, the action is rough!

Tonight I field stripped it and hosed it off with carb cleaner until it was perfectly clean and dry. Then I put on a nice coat of Remoil. And I've been cycling the action in shifts for most of the night. Probably worked the action 100-150 times now.

What I'm noticing is that the are substantial "shear lips" on the action bars. They are a little wavy and the bluing is wearing off. Also, the elevator is developing scratches from rubbing up and down in the receiver, and the magazine tube bluing is wearing off where there is a seem in the tubing and general roughness.

I realize the solution is to shoot the heck out of it--and it will cure itself. But is there anything else I can do to speed up the process? I've been reading that some people put valve grinding compound on the moving parts and wear them in, but that seems awfully aggressive to me.

Or should I just cycle it another 200 times, clean it and re-oil it, and call that good enough?

I realize it's never going to run as smooth as a nice broken in Winchester and that's ok--but I'm sure it can do a lot better than this.

Edit: Not complaining about the loss of bluing--just using it as an indication of what is wearing against what. Kind of like using Dykem to look for wear points.

[gzig5]

Just make sure all metal to metal contact surfaces are well lubed and cycle the heck out of it. Shooting it isn't going to make the action any smoother than cycling. If you are dry firing you might want to use snap caps. I don't know anything about that action, but some are prone to broken firing pins if dry fired too much.

If you know what you are doing and where to put it, comet cleaner is sometimes used as a mild abrasive. Don't just indiscriminately apply abrasive and run the action or you may wear surfaces that weren't meant to.

[izzyjoe]

it's the same as a 500 mossberg, which are pretty smooth working shotguns, i'd tear it down and remove any burrs, you can polish the action bars and any metal to metal contacts. that should slick it up, there ain't much to them.

[Chicken Thief]

Remember the action is alu so be gentle with the "grinding"!
Polishing the wear areas might be a better way to smooth up the action further.

[SteelToeSeth]

I love mine even though it is a bit rough when compared to other 12 gauges. However, for the price and durability you can't beat it! I polished up parts of the internals ($.25 trigger job esque) and it helped a bit, but overall . . . just put a lot of rounds down range and you'll eventually notice a difference.