I would have given the same advice on the 870 combo, but I bought one about 6 years ago. The bluing (or whatever it is on newer Rem's) seems terrible to me and the stock and foregrip seem cheap as well. To me, that indicates the whole gun is probably cheaply made. I had a similar problem on a Rem ML (turns out it's not manufactured by Rem, but Rem was willing to slap their name on it). So, I'm pretty much down on Rem lately. For the money, I think it's hard to beat Benelli (I own a Supernova and love it). I have friends that love their Mossbergs, but don't have any personal experience with them.