Barrel and Sight Interchangability on a Mossy

[22HM77]

First off, I'd like to say that I have basically no experience whatsoever with shotguns. That being said, I'd like to eventually get one for hunting and home defense. I'm kind of thinking I'd like the Mossy 500 or 590 8 shot variety with the 20'' barrel for home defense, but I'd also like a 28'' field barrel for hunting. Can I buy the base 8 shot 500/590 shotgun and then pick up any old (Mossy) 28'' field barrel and expect it to work, or must they come together as a package?

Additionally, can ghost ring sights be easily removed from the receiver and front sight base? I'm not sure if I want ghost ring sights on the home defense configuration yet, but if I do, they must be removable so that I can still hunt with the shotgun. (On that note, how do people generally like the ghost ring sights?).

 

[JHK94]

You can easily swap Mossberg barrels; they don't have to come together, as long as you buy another barrel fitted for the model you get.. The barrel just unscrews and you pull it out by pushing the forearm up. I have multiple barrels, and it takes all of 2 minutes to change them.

 

[RandKL]

Can I buy the base 8 shot 500/590 shotgun and then pick up any old (Mossy) 28'' field barrel and expect it to work

Yes, you can, HM. The Persuader will have the 7 shot mag tube, though, while the 500 field barrel will fit to the 5 shot tube....but buying the extra mag tube is about $15 and takes all of two minutes to switch, as JHK says. If you buy the 7+1 Persuader (the eight shot), and buy the second 5+1 mag tube, too, you can use a *lot* of different barrels on the 500. That's the beauty of the 500 system.

The back ghost rings remove easily from the receiver....but if you don't want ghost rings, just buy a model without them in the first place. You can always add them later if you want.

rich