They have sold over 5 million 870s for a reason, I think it is the standard for all pump action shotguns, everyone else is playing for second place. I know the mossbergs are popular on here and a lot of people have them but i have never liked the feel of them. I'm pretty biased though, I grew up shooting remingtons so anything else feels "weird". I bought the remington 870 express turkey shotgun a couple years ago (3" mag, plain old wood and blued steel) and it shot like a champ right out of the box. I would encourage you to check it out unless you really have your heart set on a black one with the 3.5" chamber. I think I paid like $260 for mine and it comes with the remington super full which throws a pretty wicked pattern for a factory choke. That will have you ready to hunt at well under your $600 limit.