Dependable pump shotgun

DynoDan1 said:

It goes BOOM every time I squeeze the trigger and that's good enough for me.

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Hard to beat success.

entropy said:

Considering I can buy a new one at Walmart for $159, I hope your decent price is around $100.
They are your run of the mill basic pump. I have not fired one, so you're one up on me, but they seem a decent gun for the price. I'd pick it up for a placeholder until I found an 870, but any working shotgun at that price is not a bad deal.
Hey what's up with your avatar? Copycat.

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Can't buy guns of any type, even air guns at the Walmart's in my town. Not even slingshots!

Colorado has become that conservative? It's been so long since I've been in ours that I don't even know what they sell in that department. They did still have guns as I remember.

Conservative???
I think you are very confused as to what conservative means!!!
Walmart's across the country, not all, but most, removed anything gun related a few years back because of an incident at one
of their stores. The one's here even banned the customers from carrying guns on their person.
I carry mine (concealed w/o a permit by the way) everywhere there isn't a metal detector even if there's a sign that says I can't.
I am a firm believer in the adage "better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it".
And more importantly I have the GOD given right to arm myself.

DynoDan1 said:

I think you are very confused as to what conservative means!!!

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I didn't mean conservative in a political way. I meant conservative as in selling anything questionable. Like I said I very seldom patronize Walmart. I'm more of a general store kind of person and thanks to large chain stores there are getting to be fewer and fewer of those. My gun dealers are small privately owned operations.

DynoDan1 said:

Conservative???
I think you are very confused as to what conservative means!!!
Walmart's across the country, not all, but most, removed anything gun related a few years back because of an incident at one
of their stores. The one's here even banned the customers from carrying guns on their person.
I carry mine (concealed w/o a permit by the way) everywhere there isn't a metal detector even if there's a sign that says I can't.
I am a firm believer in the adage "better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it".
And more importantly I have the GOD given right to arm myself.

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Just to remind people in 2019 a gunman murdered 23 people in an El Paso, TX Walmart with an AK.

Cvans said:

I didn't mean conservative in a political way. I meant conservative as in selling anything questionable. Like I said I very seldom patronize Walmart. I'm more of a general store kind of person and thanks to large chain stores there are getting to be fewer and fewer of those. My gun dealers are small privately owned operations.

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I will patronize almost any store, be it Walmart, Target, Amazon mom & pop stores etc. for 3 reasons.
Price, availability and service.
If "they" have what I want at the price I'm willing to pay then "they" will get my money.
It's called Freedom!.
When you wrote "Colorado has become that conservative?" You did indeed come across as implying a political perspective.
"Selling anything questionable" exists within the realm of liberalism, for example....GUNS!!!

Only shotguns I've ever owned for the last 20 years or so is my old Mossberg 500 and it has never let me down. I have customized it to fit me and I keep it clean.
Was going to buy my Dad's Browning but to me it was too bulky and heavy.

Thinking about adding an 870 so following this!

elktrout said:

The reason I listed the original post is that my Browning A500 semi may be done forever. It needs a $20 part, a breech block buffer, which neither I nor my gunsmith can find anywhere. Without it, the action will be battered into oblivion. If any of you know of a source for A500 parts, please advise. I believe the lack of parts availability is because the gun was only made for a few years.

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Replacement Breech Block Buffers seem to be available from several outlets. All of them may be the Jack First version, which appears to be a new reproduction, but with a reputation for quality.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/332907462346

https://www.sapoussm.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=358067

https://jack-first-gun-parts.myshopify.com/products/browning-a500-breech-block-buffer-864-14048

Another link to the same part at Jack First: https://jackfirstinc.com/browning-a500-breech-block-buffer-864-14048?search=a500 breech block buffer

For guns that aren't produced anymore, I check Jack First first (first first) ; yes they are more expensive sometimes than Numrich. You always get a brand new part, sometime made of better material than the original.

elktrout said:

Time to buy a pump shotgun. It will be field gun with 24-26 inch barrel. I have seen that Benelli SuperNovas have reliability issues. Still, it looks like a great gun. What are your recommendations between the Benelli SuperNova, Winchester SXP, and Remington 870? I want it to be totally reliable, easy to completely strip and clean, and durable. Thanks.

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The best 870s are Wingmasters. Really. You might also consider the Mossberg 500

entropy said:

870. The WIngmaster is better than the Express, older better than newer. The Win. Models 12 and 97 are reliable, if one goes over them first. (Remember the M12 hasn't been made for 56 years, and the 97 for 63 years)



M1014 Benelli. Nothing wrong with A-5's, but the M1014 (M2, & M4 also) is very reliable (the Marines aren't using the A-5) , and lighter. The 1100 is also a reliable gun, but needs lots of maintenance to keep it that way.

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The 97 is one of my favorites, but parts are near unobtainable. Sadly, these great guns do wear out eventually.

Refer to my post above yours. I did a 97 for my wife's uncle last fall. The hammer was following when closing the bolt, the most common repair. I got the trigger, sear, and sear spring from Jack First. Brand new parts made off originals. Dropped right in, I did smooth up the sear surfaces ever so lightly.

The parts for that repair are on pgs. 5&6.

https://jackfirstinc.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=400_468_71&page=5

I have a 1951 870 Wingmaster that I shoot a few times a year. I had to replace the firing pin around 20 yrs ago. I also have a 1955 870 Wingmaster Magnum that sees regular duty at the trap range. The forestock cracked and I replaced it with a high grade set of Wingmaster wood that someone took off to make a gangster shotgun.
Grab an older Wingmaster before all the idiots chop them down into 'tacticool' guns.

The problem with Novas/Supernovas is the price and availability of parts/accessories. The problem with all pumps is that they all work roughly as well as each other, so bringing a non-870 to market means competing with 70 years of built up economy-of-scale of the 870 ecosystem, with unclear real benefits when it comes to the actual firearm.
In terms of reliability/durability, Supernovas probably belong in the same class as "military" shotguns like the 590A1 and BPS. Absolute tanks.

I have 6 870 Wingmasters 12ga, 3" 12ga, 16ga, 3 -20 Ga, made from 1953 to 1988 1 870 Express .410
NEVER had 1 of the break a part or fail.
I have a Marlin 240 12ga 3" 1981 vintage. My primary duck/goose gun. Heavier than 870, built like a tank. Awesome gun, rarely seen.
I have a Savage 67E 3" 12ga. Bought at pawn shop, well used. It lost a button bolt from side of receiver that holds action. $10 part, I need to get ordered.
I have 3 Moss 500, 12, 20, .410. All fully reliable

Conclusion, there is very little that differentiates any pump gun from another. Estethics is one difference. The 870 Wingmasters LOOKS , FEELS, IS QUALITY.
Browning BPS is twice + the price of a 870.
Mossberg a distant second. Everything else are tools that work. IMHO
WIN 12 and 97s are wearing out and parts could be problematic. The new models are clunky. Have not liked the ones I have shot.

Find a pump that you like and fits you. You will not be wrong. Find an 870 Wingmaster, you will never be wrong.

An older 870 is a great gun so is a mossberg 500. I have bought both from pawn shops in hunting configs for around 175-200, of course this was pre mexican beer virus.

DynoDan1 said:

Well since my brother has offered to sell me his Stevens 320 for next to nothing, I'll stick with the Stevens for now.
It goes BOOM every time I squeeze the trigger and that's good enough for me.

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That's good. I'm in the midst of doing a review on one, and it stopped going boom reliably at the 325~ round mark. Normally you just need to make sure to blue loctite the screws that hold the shell stop/shell interrupter to the trigger group. Then they run fine. My example seems like it's having a timing/feed angle issue.

Mossberg pumps are all great values.

I'd get a 590, but an 88 or 500 are both solid choices. If you have deeper pockets, a 590A1.

Pretty much all my shotguns have been Remington 870 or patterned off the Mossberg 500. Sticking with those or clones of them like the Maverick 88 is what I recommend to my students. Turkey is the big name on firearm imports right now and one of their big games is shotguns. I haven't personally tried any as I am dubious of the source and what reliability may come with the low cost.

herrwalther said:

Pretty much all my shotguns have been Remington 870 or patterned off the Mossberg 500. Sticking with those or clones of them like the Maverick 88 is what I recommend to my students. Turkey is the big name on firearm imports right now and one of their big games is shotguns. I haven't personally tried any as I am dubious of the source and what reliability may come with the low cost.

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The Turkish guns seem to be trap shoot (pun).
Some are outstanding values and quality. Some are junk.

Grandson picked one up, for use on the HS 4H skeet team. 2 years and a couple thousand shells, no problems. I don't remember what model he bought, it is and O/U. The coach recommends that particular model to all new members. The LGS stocks them and gives 4H shooters and awesome discount.

Everything I heard about Mossberg 500s prior to owning one was that they were cheap crap that would jam on you. I got one from about the same time period where everybody was complaining about the jamming and mine never jammed once. Not once, and I fed it all kinds of steel-based junk shotshells. Meanwhile, I had an 870 Express I bought new with a synthetic stock that would FTE every time I fed it steel-base. I didnt care for the recoil from that stock on the 870, so eventually got rid of it. I got rid of the 500, too, thinking that I "needed" something "better". I can't speak from experience about all the pumps now out on the market but most of the 500s and 870s I owned in the past were solid performers that did everything I asked them to do with no problems. I can say that an Express that sits up awhile likes a drop of 3-in-1 oil on the lock latch and each action bar every now and then. I will put a drop right where the bar goes into the front of the receiver and I'll pump the daylights out of it to work it in. Otherwise, they can get kinda stiff.
I had a Winchester 1200 pump I got as a kid and I'd never want another. YMMV.

Showman said:

I had a Winchester 1200 pump I got as a kid and I'd never want another.

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If I were lucky enough to have gotten any sort or brand of a repeating shotgun as a kid, I would have thought I'd died and went to heaven