Mossberg 590 in military service

I had both in my possession as a unit armorer in the early 90's. I have to say that it was a dead heat, both the 590 and the 870 were fantastic. The 500's that were issued as a stop-gap until 590's could be procurred were not so good, but still functional. When I grabbed one out of the rack for myself I picked a 590, the only reason being the safety is where it belongs. Believe me when I say I was extremely hard on these guns to see which one was 'the' one; the 870 and the 590 were stellar, the 500 only presented problems when outright abuse occurred. With my experience I prefer the 590, with the 870 a half a hair behind and the 500 a distant third.

I used the M590 in Marine Corps Security Forces for 2 years. They are a heavy duty shotgun, but we experienced many failures with the safety. Usually the the safety switch would get very stiff to the point you could hardly move it. We were really hard on them, and I prefer the skeletonized lifter to the 870. However, my 870's have never had a malfunction and the safety works every time.

I used the M590 in Marine Corps Security Forces for 2 years.

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REALLY! I was in Kingsbay for 2 1/2 years ( stop loss / stop gain). The only problems we had with our 590s was the sticky safety and basic upkeep ie replaceing worn out parts. After i got out I went out a bought a brand new 590A1 and its worked flawlessly for 500+ rounds.




Edit: This aint the same Mick from 1st plt. ( or was it 2ed plt. ) that i'm thinking of is it.

I was at K Bay from March of 99 to March of 01. Spent alot of time at Trolley's and Torpedos. 2nd Plt. Was Sgt. Davis or Capt. Jones still there.

2nd Plt. That is probably me. I ran around with Sigman, Hill, Marko, Best, Moeller, Turanno, McLemore

LOL Torpedos LOL what a dump. I went there once or twice. I was with 3rd Plt 1st sec. from late Jan of 00 tell end of May 03 and i went by the name of Lcpl King at that time.

What a small world, So whats up mick?

Well "dump" is a strong word, but I know what you are talking about. We definitely had a good time, and even the loudest drunk Marine could not get kicked out of there. I had a blast in Georgia. I went to V1/2 at Lejeune and went to Okie and Guam.

(Back to the stotguns) I still think the M590's safety is tempermental when put in harsh conditions. Most civilians would never abuse one enough to notice. It is really a matter of prefference. I am sure the Mossberg's lower cost was a significant factor in our military's choice.

A lot of people just keep it cruiser ready (empty chamber full tube) and pump it before they need it... so the temper tantrums of the safety don't matter as much. I have done this with 870s and Novas too.

I'm not sure why Mossberg hasn't done something with that safety . The reason for hard working on the safety is typically the detent ball riding too high and loose as the staking of the spring tensioned ball fails. It causes binding between the safety button and the reciever as the ball tries to roll out of its position.

That along with the cracked and broken plastic buttons on the civilian model 500's is the most problematic area of the 500 series gun.

Why Mossberg allows that to continue is one of the reasons they sell fewer shotguns than Remington.

How much heavier is the 590A1 over the 590, and which one is in military service?

The military uses the A1. I dont think its much heavier than the typical civilian model 590, AFAIK the only difference is the metal triggergaurd and safety, vs the plastics on the base model 590.

The Mossberg site also lists the A1 as having a heavy wall barrel...not sure if they mean a bull barrel or what. Does the military version have Speed Feed stocks?