I have a friend that is not mechanically inclined and I have helped him in the past with maintainance.  I will never buy a 9200 because there are just too many stinking parts in those things, but that is beside the point.  He called me tonight and said that on his evening goose his gun crapped out on him.  Apparantly the bolt won't lock in the open position and it won't eject the shell.  I had him start to disassemble the thing and he said that a piece fell out and he wasn't sure where it came from.  I had him describe it to me, but I couldn't ever remember seeing a piece like he was describing.  I had him send a picture of it to me and I noticed that it is the top half of his bolt lock.  The thing just sheered in half, I couldn't believe it.  (The bolt lock is the large metal piece that fits inside the bolt and is pinned at the back allowing it to move vertically.)  Has anyone had a similiar problem with a 9200 or any other make of gun?  

Bad things happen with ANY brand or model of gun.

Mossberg seems to have a long history of not being able to field a successful semi-auto shotgun.

I can remember:
The Model 712.
The Model 1000. (Previously sold by S&W, and made by Howa).
The Model 5500.
The Model 6000.
The Model 9200.

All of these were made by someone other than Mossberg, all were only offered for a few years at most, and all were failures.

I guess the lesson here is, don't buy a semi-auto shotgun from Mossberg simply due to their track record with them.

Here is a pic, as far as I can tell it is part of the bolt lock.  It is somewhat hard to tell what it is, but I can't think of anything else that it might be.