mossberg 500 12 gauge pros and cons

[twyacht]

Like the Home Defense color of Black...with just a little silver...

There are others but my 870 is a go to without question.

Shot the Mossberg many times and find it a great shotgun without question.

It comes down to personal preference.

Brand New Lexus? Or a Brand New Mercedes....Both are good and work for their intended task.

[alfsauve]

Pros: Mossberg 500 is EXTREMELY easy to get parts and accessories for.

With the exception of the ghost ring sight.   They've been out of production for months.  Mossberg promised me they'd have them in stores in October, but I haven't seen them yet.

Other than that little glitch...yeah 

[Michael Bane]

Birdshot definitely, so you can keep your neighbors!

I gotta say I'm thinking the Vang safety is a competition tool rather than a Real World option. It's fast as all get out, but you can bump it way too easily.  I shot the Mossberg 590A1 in competition at Blackwater, and I loved it...more than my Vang Comp 870, to be honest. I finished 2nd, but at least I made Intermedia's Eric Poole work for it.

I strongly recommend that every pump shotgun owner learn the "cowboy" style of reloading...the ability to single-feed rounds into the chamber...Blackwater is teaching this (me and Tequila introduced the technique to Blackwater back when we were doing the NSSF seminars)...I do not agree with the Blackwater technique which required you to drop the gun off your shoulder on the reload. Keep the gun on your shoulder when you feed it!

Michael B

[Walter45Auto]

Tell them to load 3 rounds in their gun, then 3 rounds in yours...  They'll shut up in a hurry!

Yup. I once loaded 4 in one push of the thumb into mine just to see of I could do it. 4 was luck though. I've only been able to load 3 at a time after that.

[bulldog75]

I own 3 mossbergs and have no problems with them. Mosseberg is the only shotgun to pass the military torture test. Slug barrel would be fine. Use no 4 shot that way when the doctors open him up it will be useless to try and fix em. No repeat offenders.

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

[While my stats could use a boost with a "new topic", I decided just to resurrect this one.]

Got my OFFICIAL Mossberg ghost ring sights in about 6 months ago.  Yeah-h-h-h-h.

There's no easy way to attach the front sight.   Boo-o-o-o-o-o-o.

I asked a couple of store smithy's and they all said that silver soldering wasn't something they felt comfortable doing.  They'd all done it in gunsmith school, but didn't want to attempt it in real life.  One smith told me he leaves the little post sight in place and uses it as an anchor to epoxy the new sight base to the barrel.

I can do electronics soldering.   I mean the old school stuff, not the surface mount used now a-days.  I got a role of silver solder and finally took the bull by the horns.  I mean how bad can you screw up an 18" Mossberg barrel?

No punch line.  While it wasn't pretty, it's done.   I just need to re-blue the barrel now.   Now that I have one under my belt, the next one will be a little less messy and better quality.   No the bead doesn't run around the eadge evenly, but it's on pretty darn secure.   I pre-tinned both the barrel and the sight before I clamped them together.  

Here's a closeup of the work.  I filed the excess, then fine sandpaper and then steel wool.  I will use a magnet to clear the steel wool shavings before I do the re-blueing.

And it's pretty straight too.  Can't wait to take it to the range to check zero.




So in keeping with the thread.   The less expensive Mossberg 5xx's that don't come with the ghost ring sights will require some gunsmithing to attach.   

[alfsauve]

And I applied blue this week.

Finished product.  I didn't realize the blue wouldn't take to the solder.   Just a little more filing would have done the trick.  But for what it is...a low end 500 bought on sale...first attempt a silver soldering...I like it.   Now to find a place to keep it.   We renovated the living area and I no longer have the coat closet to hang it inside above the door.



What it looks like from the shooter's end.



Overall sights (That's a Streamlight tactical light attached to the tactical forend)




Overall Gun

[Magoo541]

I think you just spent some of my "play" money for me on a set of sights for my 870...

[tombogan03884]

I've been kind of scanning this as Alf did his work . but with out much interest since I did not think I would have anything to contribute .
I just had a flash though when I saw the butt stock.
When I set up my Mossy 500 I put one of those Knoxx recoil reducing stocks on it.
I hated it. It reduced recoil quite a bit, it did what it claimed, but the trade off was that rather than pushing my shoulder, the whole gun slid back in a recoil that I found unworkable.
With that being said, the stock was the collapsing AR type which I found to be MUCH better than the wooden stock.
First, It allowed the gun to be stored in the smallest space while still giving the rigidity of a solid stock,
2) I have rather short arms and I could adjust it to fit me more comfortably than the fixed stock
3) Living up here in the North proper length of pull for me varies from season to season with winter coats, summer Tee shirts and in between, the telescoping stock allowed me to compensate for those seasonal changes.

[TWillis]

The Mossberg is a great gun I really like it. It's one of the most reliable guns you can own if you do your part. The only downside I can think of is when someone mounts a butt stock with a pistol grip on it. You have to break your firing grip to work the safety.
    As far as learning the cowboy action way of loading Michael could you send Jessie Duff  over to teach us. Please Michael Please!!!