wel i am buying a shotgun i was looking at the maverick and mossberg 500 here is what i found the maverick is a 500 the diff is the maverick is a cheaper gun madewith cheaper parts thats what the guy at gander sad they have the mossberg 500 black systhatic for 199.00 the maverick is like 20 bucks less the safty is on the trigger not on the back of the reciever the barrels can be either 500 or the 88from what i have been told the 88 is a good gun just made with cheaper parts my thought at first thought was it was a 500 with a differnt gun so they could sell it cheaper but not from what i was told the guy at gander said for te little extra go with the 500 as that is my plan next friday