New hunter, Mossberg question
 

Hey everyone, I'm 21, a new hunter, and looking to buy my first shotgun for turkey/deer. I was debating between a Remington 870, and a Mossberg 535 shotgun. I have done some research, and read through the forums a little bit here, and so far I havent found any bad press on Mossberg; the gun I am looking at the most. I'm looking to hunt turkey, deer, and possibly duck. I was wondering if any of you had any oppinions, good or bad, on the Mossberg guns, preferably the 535. Any advice or information would help me out great. Remember this would be my first gun, so the price of Mossberg is great for me, hopefully the quality is great too. If this is in the wrong section I appologize, I am new to the site. Thanks!

im a huge mossberg fan and the buck in my picture was killed with a mossberg 500 20 gauge rifled slug gun and a hornady sst sabot. i like the saftey position on a mossberg and my slug gun is a shooter 6 shots in 2 seasons and 2 big bucks, 2 button bucks, 1 doe and the other shot went into one of the button bucks to finish him off because the first one hit him in the spine (i was aiming there) get the mossberg combo but i recomend the 500 its tried and true ask the millions of model 500 owners out there in shotgun only states

I have shot my friends 870 and like it. I have owned an 500C in 20 gauge with an optional slug barrel, and liked it, I have also had an 835 ultramag (early version) hated it.
I replace the 835 with a Benelli Nova and have not looked back. The Nova is just as affordable as the Mossberg, and is of equal or better quality (IMO).

The Remington and Mossberg will kill anything just as dead as any other shotgun, so don't limit yourself to just two options.

JRAMP,

Welcome to the BB from SoCal.


It's all about price value.


Find the guns in your price range that have the features you most perfer.


Go to the store and shoulder each of them.


The one that shoulders like you've owned it for years, is the one to buy !

I had a 870 and didn't like it. Seemed to jam fairly often and needed work right out of the box. Finally got it shooting decent and I say decent not perfect after a chamber polish. I'd get the Mossberg. I will say though I'm just not a fan of pump shotguns at all after owning that one. I prefer the semi auto's.

Over the years I have shot a lot of shotguns (not as many as I want to shoot though) including both of the ones that you are listing as well as the Mossberg 500.

With shotguns, the "feel" is extremely important even though you will be using rifle sights or a scope for deer hunting, so going to a sporting goods store or gun shop to feel them or even better a shooting club were you can "rent" the different types and shoot them would be even better.

I have four shotguns in my gun cabinet...three of them are Remingtons (M870 in 20 gauge, M870Express in 12 gauge, M1100 in 12 gauge with 28"RC barrel and 20" fully rifled barrel with rifle sights).

I found the Mossbergs to be heavier and not as smooth as the Remingtons...I also disliked the tang safety on the Mossberg compared to the crossbolt safety on the Remingtons.

I have a Mossberg 500 Combo. It came with a smoothbore slug barrel with rifle sights, and a 28" bird barrel (improved or modified choke). I bought an additional barrel, a shorter one with the interchangeable chokes, Accu-chokes I think. The 500 is limited to a 3" chamber, but I have not seen a need for anything more than that.

The slug barrel shoots rifled slugs well enough for me to shoot deer out to 75-80 yds no problem. It's really my eyes that limit the range. In my yonger days I could have shot out to 100 I'm sure.

The newer bird barrel allows me to hunt everything from rabbits to turkeys. With the standard full choke I've shot turkeys out to 35 yds with Winchester 3" #5 turkey loads.

The 500 is not the prettiest gun made, but it has functioned flawlessly for me. They are easy to strip down for cleaning too. If I had to complain about something it would be the creep in the trigger. It is not an issue once you get used to it, you basically take up the creep before shooting at deer and turkey, then it breaks pretty clean.

if you have the $$ get a remington 870 wingmaster silky smooth action good quality gun also it looks nice