Personally I would go with the Mossberg 835. I've shot several 500's but I never liked one, they all felt like they were going to fall apart on me and I thought they were ugly. And all my friends have 870s and they've had plenty of jamming problem's and I have yet to have a problem with my 835. I've hunted with it during a rain storm and it slipped out of my hands and fell in the mud. I ended up rinsing it with water from my water bottle but I couldn't get a lot of the mud out, but I hunted with it anyway and ended up shooting a limit of ducks. WhenI got home I cleanded and oiled every part on the gun. And another plus is it's easy to take the action apart.


take-em