Mossberg 590 - First Impressions

[Bruce Layne]

My wife and I have 128 acres of wooded land and we went there today to celebrate our anniversary. I took my new 12 gauge Mossberg 590 (50668) shotgun. And they say romance is dead. It isn't, but I winged it and it's gonna be limping for the rest of its days.

My wife shot her .38 revolver enough to maintain proficiency. It's an annual thing. She could defend herself if she had to do so.

I didn't shoot the shotgun a lot, but I did run a variety of ammo through it. I had tipped up a heavy water soaked log that was 12-13 inches in diameter and about three feet tall. I tacked a smiley face target on it. My wife had shot 19 rounds through her .38, and the smiley target was looking a bit sad. I put up a new target and shot it once with 00 buckshot. It looked a lot sadder. At 20 feet, the 00 patterns were 5-6 inches. The deer slugs did a LOT of damage to the next targets. If I aimed more than 2/3 of the way up the log, it'd tip over backwards. The 12 gauge obviously packs a serious punch.

I shot a couple of rounds of cheap #7 shot loads. Thee were the $15 hundred packs at Wal-Mart. There were an awful lot of impacts in the eight inch smiley face, making him look like he had measels. At 20 feet most of the shot fell on the paper, but it ran off the paper on all sides. This is a 20" cylinder bored barrel. I guess if I wanted to shoot skeet or trap, I'd have to get a longer barrel with a choke. That'd look funny, a tactical black parkerized pump shotgun on the range shooting skeet.

The buckshot and slug loads kicked like a mule. My shoulder isn't sore, but it would be if I had shot more. I'm ordering some sorbathane (very shock absorbing material) to make a shoulder pad to absorb and distribute the kick a bit.

I couldn't be happier with the Mossberg's performance. Some guys on this forum maligned it a bit for accuracy and reliability compared to their beloved Remington 870s, but I'm glad I bought the Mossberg. It came with the high capacity and tactical stuff I wanted right out of the box. And the action is very smooth, easily fed a variety of shells, and seemed like it was well designed and would be quite reliable. I feel that I can depend on this simple and reliable weapon for home defense.

The most impressive thing is the power. My 10 mm with hot loads packs a punch. People hunt black bear and even polar bears with the Glock 10 mm. But it's way down on the power curve compared to the 12 gauge. Just for rough comparisons, the 10 mm ammo uses 6.5 grains of Universal Clays powder. The 12 gauge uses about 25 grains, almost four times as much. The difference on the target downrange is pretty damn obvious. The impacts were very violent, throwing off large chunks of wood.

I felt well defended with the 10 mm, but I think I could hold off the Bolivian Army with the 12 gauge. Sometimes, too much is just right.

For my money, the Mossberg 590 12 gauge was a good purchase. All I added was a sling. Out of the box, the magazine holds 8 shells, and the Davis SpeedFeed synthetic stock holds four more. Unlike the reports of others, I had absolutely no trouble with shells falling out of the SpeedFeed stock under the heavy recoil. I suspect the recoil will be the limiting factor on second shots, and I doubt the pump action will slow me down to any significant extent compared to an autoloader. I like the pump action because it's simple, effective, reliable, and low cost.

[ACP230]

I'm very happy with my 590.
I took it out and shot some hand-thrown clays with it last week. (My son threw them for me.)
I missed some, but the gun wasn't to blame.
I'm looking forward to doing that again soon.

[Dave McC]

A couple things....

590s are good shotguns, if not my first choice. Triggers oft need some work, but that's true of many new firearms.

Shotguns transfer an awesome amount of energy to a target. That's why they are so effective.

Instead of sorbothane, work on your form. The old thread, "Proper Mounting Techniques" has some things that will help.

A chokeless barrel works for skeet. A few rounds will be fun and good training also.

HTH....

[Hawgleg44]

My first experience with the Mossy 590 was on the PD. Before that, I always shot Remington 870's, Ithaca M37's, Winchester M1897's and several other single and double barrelled shotguns. I've always been a skeet and sporting clays shooter and a shotgun is definately my favorite king of gun.

The 590 that I was issued had the 18" barrel, Speedfeed stock and ghost ring sights. I really don't like the ghost rings and found them much slower than a single bead. I was playing around during down time at qualification one day. Someone brought along some #8 birdshot and I was mounting the gun sideways so I could look down the side of the barrel and was hitting hand thrown empty slug hulls.

After my experience with mine at the PD, I started looking for a good deal on one. I finally found one, sold used, but NIB. It was pre-owned, but the previous owner traded it before he ever shot it. It was the one with the 20" cylinder bore barrel, heat shield, bayo lug and bead sight. Just what I was looking for, other than the Speedfeed stock. I'll end up ordering one from Brownelle's for it. I figure I can spend the cash on the stock when the gun was only $275, tax and all!

Although the 590 may not be as "refined" as the Remington 870, I like them better. In fact, I just bought a Mossy 500A1 with a 28" Modified barrel, kind of beat up, off the bargian rack at the local shop for $85. That's going to be my new bird gun.

I'm not saying that I'm going to sell off my other shotguns. All my Ithacas, Winchesters, Remingtons and Franchi will stay with me. I'm just saying that I'll be using the Mossy more.

[jailbait]

For the 590 owners looking to mod it out or for those looking to buy:

I own a mossberg 590. It's a good solid gun. I've never had a problem out of it. Originally my 590 had a 22" barrel and only held like 3 +1. With the long barrel on it, the recoil was not that bad. I never had a problem out of it in the two years i've owned it.

Since then i've done a few mods to it. I pulled the wood thing out of the magazine so it now holds 6 +1 (definate plus). I also shortened the barrel to a 18" barrel with a bead front site (available through your local dealer or through mossberg's website. It's about $75). The 18" Barrel makes it kick like a mule, but with it pulled into your shoulder good and tight, it makes clearing a really easy task. I also added the SpeedFeed 4 butt stock. BIG MISTAKE. Don't like it. It's harder than the original stock, and the gap between the trigger housing and the stock makes for poor finger placement. SpeedFeed makes a buttstock for the 590 that actually holds 3 shells in the buttstock, and i think that's the one that i should have gone with. I also have a sight mount on it (the previous owners doing) that originally held a red dot optical sight (ran the PO about $450). While i'm normally a big fan of scopes, i found on the 590 it SEVERELY decreased the accurracy big time. The bead sight on the new 18" barrel is much better and provides a quicker target aqcuisition (sp?). I'm a two eye shooter with my shotgun. I find that using two eyes is alot better for clearing and what not.

Btw, i use my shotgun in more of a tatical item than a hunting one.

[Featherstone]

I have a 590 also,I love this shotgun,I have used and abused this thing and its held up like a champ.

I have done real well on a skeet range with it and alot of Berreta guys were shocked that my riot gun could do that.

I have a total of 12,025 shells threw it and it looks great and shoots like a dream,It stays by my bed and keeps me warm at night

I have would not hesitate to recommend this fine shotgun.

[Lightsped]

I am very happy with my 590A1. I forget what the differences are with the A1, but my gun has been perfect. It has the ghost rings, heavy duty barrel, bayonet lug, 8 or 9 round mag tube (I forget which), etc....

[Kharn]

My A1's my apartment defense gun.
The 870 stays at my parents' as my defensive gun there.

I like'em equally, they both have their uses.

Kharn