shotgun for a poor man.

[dooodstevenn]

Hey guys and gals, i've been looking into some shotguns but im on a very strict budget and indecisive, and im hoping this will help. anyways, this is what im looking at:

benelli nova - i really like this shotgun, but its a little pricey, can i justifiy the price of this over, say a mossberg 500? also like being able to chamber a 3.5 in shell

mossberg 500 - i like this gun, cheap, proven, but does not appeal to me aesthetically, but yet again it is a shotgun it just needs to go bang all the time.

mossberg 590- i dont know too much about this, but this seems to be a hefty version of the 500, with plastic parts being replaced with some kind of metal

remmington 780 - same as mossberg 500, but i dont really like fighting the elevator to get a round in the magazine tube, before these were the work horses (from what ive read) but now i hear alot of people say remmington has let themselves go when it comes to QC.

remmington 887- for the price i thought this was a good inbetween of a plain jane and a nova, but from what ive read these 887 have alot of problems. so this is probably a no go.


what i want: nice aesthetics (but not a must, especially if it will burn a hole in my wallet)

-reliability

-ability to mount a scope

-availability of upgrades and add on's as i please

-good fit and finnish


from what i'm seeing from the strict budget i have the 780, 590 or 500 are the way to go, but the 500 i hear has some trouble when it comes to fit, and remmington has been going down the hole. and there are so many other pros and cons between the two like saftey placement, aluminum vs steel recievers, saftey placement, etc.

i will be using this for hunting, and would like to make it as versatile as possible hence the wanting of a scope mount, as well as interchangeable chokes, from what ive seen at big 5 the mossberg 500 combo has a fixed choke.

the max i'd like to spend is 400 after tax and fees, but if there is a good deal out there, im willing to stay home and eat top ramen for a week or two

[mcisniper]

870, 500 or 590. Cant go wrong with any one of the three. Played with the 590 and 870 in the Corps. No issue with either; I like the 590.

Michael

[RomPirate]

How strict is your budget?

What are you looking for in a shotgun?

Why do you need a 3.5" in shell?

[Kodemonkey]

Got to second RomPirate's question; "what's the need for the magnum round"? For home defense, I'd be looking at lower power 00 buck like the Federal Law enforcement ammo.

870 or the 500. Both are good shotguns. Honestly, any in your list are good choices. You need to shoulder a few and find which one speaks to you. Reliability in a pump action comes more from training then from engineering when you are talking about the class of shotguns you listed.

[dooodstevenn]

my budget is 400 max after tax and fee for background check, i don't really need a 3.5 shell, but its nice to have. i guess i can cut that out, especially on the budget.

as for reliability, i agree all are good but i really don't think the 887 is unreliable because of handling and training, but rather because of engineering. that said, im not too sure about the new batches of 887's theyre sending out

[dooodstevenn]

also the 590 has a 20in barrel with a 8+1 capacity, a heat shield, and bayonet mount, versus the 500 combo with a 5+1 nothing else but has a 28in vent/ribbed barrel (i think sights are different too?) for field and hunting would i need a higher capacity mag with a shorter barrel and heat shield?

and are the 590 or 500 security/field barrels able to switch out chokes? i keep hearing different things from people, some people say its a fixed choke, but some websites say they can use mossberg acu-chokes

[axhoaxho]

Another alternative, for strick budget, to consider would be the Maverick 88 (which is a less expensive Mexican-made version similar to the Mossberg 500.)

Recently a friend of mine bought a Maverick 88 from a local gun store for less than $200 including taxes and fees. She is good at bargaining, and that helped too.

Regards,

[dooodstevenn]

Another alternative, for strick budget, to consider would be the Maverick 88 (which is a less expensive Mexican-made version similar to the Mossberg 500.)

Recently a friend of mine bought a Maverick 88 from a local gun store for less than $200 including taxes and fees. She is good at bargaining, and that helped too.

Regards,

thanks for the advice, but i prefer to stay with name brands, just in case anything were to happen to it, i would have easy access to replacements and what not

[KandyRedCoi]

maverick 88 + plenty of ammo and some extra money left over for upgrades that u "might" need/want

/thread

[DavidR310]

What are your plans? Hunting, skeet, self defense?

[DavidR310]

Btw, maverick is made/assembled by mossberg in the U.S., not in mexico. It however uses parts from mexico to help with costs. Lastly, some parts are interchangeable with the mossberg such as the barrels/chokes.

Maverick to Mossberg like
Natty light to Budweiser

[mikey357]

thanks for the advice, but i prefer to stay with name brands, just in case anything were to happen to it, i would have easy access to replacements and what not

For a budget shotgun, the first thing that came to mind was the mav 88. Its the same as the 500 but with a different trigger group. Its basically still a mossy 500, all major parts the same.

[Travis590A1]

Remember there is also a difference between the 590 and 590a1. The 590 retains most of the polymer pieces where as the 590a1 only has 2 polymer pieces (stock and forearm). Other than that the a1 is all steel and heavy duty aluminum. With that being said I own a benelli m3 convertable, a remington 870, a mossy 500 and 590a1 and they all have served me well and done the job.

[dooodstevenn]

my main use for this shot gun would be to hunt, the mossberg 500 they have at big 5 looks perfect, but from what i remember seeing, that 28in vent/ribbed barrel is a fixed choke barrel.

[dooodstevenn]

at this point, making a decision is way to difficult for me, as i already am very indecisive. so here is a list of what i NEED not WANT and im hoping you guys can give me a straight answer.

-durability
-reliability
-interchangeable chokes
-ability to mount a scope
-cheap but still durable and reliable
-easy access to parts/upgrades
-some what idiot proof field stripping/cleaning
-little to no work before shooting out of box

let me explain that last one, i was about to pull the trigger (poor pun completely intended ) on a 870, but again the hit or miss of remington QC as stopped me. I was reading up on some problems the newer produced 870 express was having, and people were reporting stiff actions, and poor ejections. In response to these problems, some have said that remington has been building the 870 express today the same way they did 20 years ago when everyone swore by them, but now they are not polishing the internals enough, so there needs to be a break in time. they also suggested you clean out the entire gun with some remoil, and that you would possibly need to take some 0000steel wool and some oil and polish the inside of the chamber? (dont really remember what, but they said it was obviously rough feeling). with this said I would not like to deal with that as i am a bit paranoid about not being able to return my stuff and lose my hard earned money, but if i know for sure some steel wool and oil is all it takes to get a 870 working like it did out of the box 20 years ago, i have no problem with that. but if there is no definite solution to a definite problem, i would rather have out of the box durability and reliability