birddog3412; The US Militarydid not require changing out most of the internals on the 500. They only required changing the trigger guard to metal, and that was to satisfy a requirement for the US Army's Mil-Spec 3443E test, which the 500 had already passed before they implemented the metal trigger guard requirement. Besides if you dont want to use something that the armed forces uses dont buy an 870, or Winchester 1200, 1300, or a Benelli M4, Ithaca 37, etc etc.

To the original poster....for $800 you should be able to find quite a few used higher end shotguns. If you look you should be able to find a nice used Ruger Red Label, Browning Citori, or SKB. I do believe that quite a few people have had pretty good reviews on some of the Veronas as well.
If you are going to be shooting many sporting clays/trap etc.I would highly recommend going with one of the higher end models just because they are built more for volume shooting.