Originally Posted by
JDH1
While commonality may be comforting, Variety is the spice of life.
Having said that, depending on the skill level of the shooter, and having worked for a department that allowed officers to purchase their own shotguns from an approved list, it is my belief that it is better to be familiar with the operation of the more commonly found defensive shotguns.
I've posted this story before: I worked for any agency that issued Winchester 1200's and Remington 870's. We also trained with both shotguns, although probably only once or twice a year. Okay, to the story.
One night our shift LT inserted himself a chase and decided he was going to do the rolling roadblock thing. End result was he got nerfed into a Sonic Drive-In, taking out about 1/4 of the canopy, speakers, and menu board. Truly epic. The miscreant, who was driving a pickup truck continued down a residential street with one of my co-workers in pursuit. The pickup was damaged, and came to a stop several blocks later. My co-worker rolled out of the unit with the unit's shotgun, as the miscreant, jumped out og the truck and reached for the rifle which was in the truck. Seeing my co-worker with the shotgun, he thought better of that course of action and was arrested.
My co-worker later told me he had tried really hard to shoot the guy as he was reaching for and had the rifle, but couldn't get the round chambered (Rem action bar lock front of trigger guard, cross bolt safety at rear; Win action bar lock rear of trigger guard, cross bolt safety at front).
Yes, if you want to spend a lot of time training with and shooting shotguns it may not make a difference. I've probably got more time behind Remingtons and Mossbergs than most on this forum. I'm a lefty, and, of course, the Remington's aren't particularly lefty friendly. Yet, all my HD shotguns are Remingtons, simply because that is what I've trained with the most.
Under survival stress, I know, through force-on-force, my default is to the Remington controls. I also know that it just takes me a split-second to recognize 'ain't a Remington' and get with the program. My thought is that my 35 years as a shotgun instructor makes that split-second a little shorter for me then the average bear. But, I'm not going to chance it - I go with the Remington for serious use.
GibsonBanjos, based on what I've just posted, my suggestion would be to get a Mossberg, preferable a 590 - it will be a little lighter than the 590A1 as it has a lighter barrel, a polymer trigger plate and a polymer safety. Don't be scared of the Mossie polymer trigger plates, we had some very high mileage 500's in our training fleet, and polmer trigger plates never gave us any problems. Replace the polymer safety tab with a metal one.
Personally, I wouldn't have a Mossberg 500 up my fourth point of contact if I had room for a sawmill. Hate 'em. The magazine tube has to be removed to clean it, and my experience with them as training shotguns was that we always had troubles keeping them running, even the stainless steel 500's. (I'm a Mossberg armorer, plus a whole bunch of other mfgrs, so I - and my fellow firearms instructors - knew what we were doing.
Long story short - I wouldn't want a 500 as a truck/ATV gun because it is going to get grubby, and you will need to remove the mag tube, and it's a PITA. Then, more than likely, when you replace it, it will work loose under any kind of firing schedule, and you'll start getting light primer strikers, and other fun stuff. If you just plan on shooting 25 to 100 a year through it, though, chances are you won't have problems.
JMO, good luck.
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President... - Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, Volume 47, Number 6, May 1918.
Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party Mao Zedong, 6 November, 1938 - speech to the Communist Patry of China's sixth Central Committee
Bookmarks