Well I took the plunge!
I went to Cabela's to "window shop". (Bad idea)
I had planned on holding several different shotguns but the general consensus from you all was that Remington 870 was probably the way to go.
I looked at a new 870 combo, and it felt fine, and it was $490.
I then went to the used guns and saw a SWEET FULL camo shotgun and I hefted it up and it just felt sweet! I looked at the tag and it was a Mossberg 535 ATS. The tag said $330, and it still had all the stickers a new gun would have. I put it down and then went looking in the "bargain cave". As a weird coincidence one of the first things to catch my eye was a scoped / rifled barrel SPECIFICALY for the 535 ATS. This was the ONLY barrel for sale in there and it was listed for $130. I am the guy that was stuggling to find a way to get a decent setup for shooting deer AND turkey for under $500!
The guys in the gun area at Cabelas in KCMO are AWESOME. In fact I never even asked, but the salesman OFFERED to take $20 off the gun as he was writing me up! I asked about the history of the gun and he said it came in yesterday from a guy that wanted to trade up, and he never put a single round through it!
So I ended up with a Mossy 535 ATS in SWEET camo, and a scoped/rifled barrel for $460! That's pretty good I think!
The only pisser is some dipwad sales dude sold me rifled slugs instead of sabot rounds for a rifled barrel. I know... I shoulda checked more closely!

Now I just need to go kill something!!!

Thanks again for all of your patience with my stupid newby questions..... there are plenty more where that came from!

Don

Cool beans dude. I hope it is a shooter for you. Tom.

Now you will prob need mounts and a scope for the barrel. I know it came with them and i really doubt you could have found just the barrel for $130. My 835 barrel was almost $200 itself. I would atleast change the mounts out on it and you will prob get a season or 2 out of the scope. I had a Bushnell 3x-9x on my Mossberg 835 shootign slugs and it destroyed the scope. Shotgun recoil from 3" sabot slugs is slightly harsh.

And congrats on the pickup. THats a great deal.

That oughta be just the ticket for you. And I agree, the saboted slugs would probably work better out of your rifled barrel.

Not bad at all. If you plan to hunt deer this year, I would remove and remountthe scope to be sure all is tight. I would also use the lok-tite compound that is made to allow later removal of screws.

I think a lot of scopes "fail" because of loose mounts, not recoil.

Sounds like you got a pretty good deal. What was in that 870 combo? I'm assuming a rifled barrel and the regular one? That sounds extremely high for a 870. I paid $350 for my express super magnum although it was a few years ago they seem to be around that price now. I overpayed for mine back then but no where had the 3 1/2" version in wood that I wanted so I just payed extra from the local gun shop and they ordered it for me.

congrats, i love my Mossy 835! it's by far the best shotgun i ever shot.

Glad you finally got exactly what you want! Congrats. If you are on a tight budget,wait on a scope till you can afford a good 1,then it'll be on there for life.

Ya I bought a 535 ATS turkey gun and love it so I hope this one works out for you.