About six days left on the 10//22 mag deal. A hundred bucks gets you either ten (10) Steel Lips, or fourteen (14) Hot Lips. Letting this deal slide by would be doubleplusunwise.
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A few weeks back I came into a marginally bubba’d Mossberg 590A1. Thought it was a good deal except that the magazine tube had a drooling problem. Sent off to Mossberg and the replacement parts arrived today. While I was on their website I picked up a couple extra parts like an ejector and a few other things.
Mossberg makes workhorse shotguns. They aren’t terribly noteworthy for anything other than their affordability and their (usually) reputation for durability. When settling on a pump shotgun I went with the Remington 870 simply for logistics reasons. However, the Mossberg is a more than suitable secondary standard for me. In fact, the really are virtually identical in terms of function and reliability. I’d guess that about 95% of the pumpgun market is covered by these two brands with only the Chinese and Turkish copies filling in the gap. (And, dude, if all you can afford is a Chinese copy of an 870 you relly need to re-evaluate your career path since it only takes less than about $200 to buy a used Mossberg at any gun show or pawn shop.
Punched out the receiver pin, dropped out the trigger group, swapped the parts, popped the trigger group back in, popped the pin back in, and it was all done. Took maybe two minutes, tops. Gotta give Mossberg credit for a grunt-proof design.
So…a quick trip to the range to confirm that everything works and this little guy will replace the 500 sitting in the closet, and the 500 will get relegated to tertiary duty as a beanbag gun or something.
I consider the Mossberg the AK and Colt 45 malt beverage of the shotgun world…it works every time…I guess there are situations where these things don’t work every time…rare mechanical failures and keg parties…but damn reliable…
I also went Rem 870 because of the availability of quality aftermarket stuff. The two are functionally equivalent though. I would certainly buy a Mossberg if a sufficiently motivating deal came along.
Many years ago I bought a Mossburg 500. My brothers had 870’s but since I’m left handed and in those days shot left handed the tang safety on the mossy was more user friendly. non of us have ever had a lick of problem with either type. 1 caveat twice I’ve broken the plastic optic fiber front sight on my rifled slug barrel.They are a lot more fragile.
I prefer the safety on the Mossberg, like it better on the tang, IMHO….
I think it’s a chocolate/ vanilla, Ford/ Chevy kind of thing. Both have nuanced pros and cons. Both are good guns that will serve you well.
And if i get a good buy on an 870……I’m all over it! 🙂
Commander Zero, you are a gun snob. ; ^)
There is nothing wrong with the Chinese or Turkish shotgun clones out there. In most cases their quality is better than their American counterparts, especially Remington 870’s. Up here in the great White North, the cost of a new 870 is about double that of a Chinese or Turkish clone, and the clones are usually better made.
Mossberg makes some fine shotguns and for the Maverick label, the price point is nice as well. I own a pump shotgun for home defense and this is where I have an issue with Mossberg shotguns. The issue isn’t performance, it’s cost. Up here the cheapest after market 12 inch barrel conversion kit to make a Mossberg Maverick shotgun useful for home defense costs 25% more than the shotgun itself.
As for buying used that’s OK, but remember when you buy used you are buying somebody else’s problems The savings are nice if you have the skill set to deal with the problems you find but those savings soon evaporate when you need a gunsmith.
Well, I suppose if wanting a shotgun manufactured by a company that I can purchase spare parts from, has a documented history of reliability, and tremendous aftermarket/factory accessory availability and support…..well, yeah…then I guess I’m a snob. I’m also a snob about things like pacemakers, parachutes, life jackets, surgeons, rappelling harnesses, PLB’s, airplanes, and antibiotics….all things that I’d rather have manufactured by top-of-the-line manufacturers and not Peoples Glorious Factory #29. When it comes to things that are rather mission critical, and the mission is me being safe and sound, I don’t mind paying a little extra.
If the Chinese shotgun is half the price of the 870, I suppose its better than nothing. But I’d recommend cutting back on the Molson and backbacon for a month or two to afford the other half of the 870.
Please don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Remington, since the company changed hands a few years back the quality of their 870s are about as good as my clone. :^) The problem is with the currency exchange. Tricked out the way my Chinese clone is, a Remington would set me back around $800 plus and that is way too high for me on my retirement income. As for spare parts, the 870 clone I have has 100% parts commonality with the US made 870s, so there is no issue with getting spares.
Here’s a review of the 870 clone I own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOn4ZiK-dxE
Ive came across one Norinco 870 clone (I think it was Norinco… they may have changed the name for import reasons, but it was definitely a Chinese gun) in the last few years. It was, in my opinion, a bit roughly finished and had some cycling issues. True, it was a used gun and therefore the issues may have had nothing to do with build quality but rather the intelligence of the former owner, but I’d be terribly surprised if replacement parts from Remington would drop into it without problem. My math says $800 Canadian money translates into about $615 US… and $615 US seems rather high for a simple 870. But, living here in the US where the things are made, I suppose I’ve become spoiled and jaded.
Commander Zero,
I also like to buy USA made everything, but sadly that is not the case for antibiotics! The majority of antibiotics are made in Asia and have been for a long time, specifically, China and India. Less than 15% are manufactured here. This has always bothered me for many reasons, (I’ve been a critical nurse for 25+ yrs.) and I have given lectures to large supply chain conventions on Pandemic Readiness, and how the supply chain would be completely interrupted during a pandemic. Also, I have very little trust in China’s good will toward us. In any type of national or global emergency we will be out of luck for nearly all of our first line antibiotics in as little as 3 days! Recently we saw just an example of this with the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico, They manufacture a large amount of our IV fluids and there has been a severe shortage for over a year now, which is just now starting to resolve. The hospital I have worked at for over 20 years usually gets 2 deliveries a day for needed medicines to the pharmacy. As I’m sure you know, nobody stocks anything anymore. This would cripple our hospital systems very quickly. And then getting back to China’s goodwill…..you never know how things can be tampered with!