What About the 590?

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RatDrall

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I hear a lot, especially here, about the 870 and how many rounds people have put through one. What about those with Mossberg 590s and 500s?

Who has the most rounds through their Mossberg, and what kind of trouble did you run into along the way, if any?
 
I can't say for sure how many rounds have been through my 500 12 gauge but i have to say that they do hold up well over time. My gun is one of the first 500's because it has the single slide bar (no its not a maverick) and a different style safety switch (it is on the tang but the screw and actual slider is different) along with a different stock. Which places it around the sixties to the early seventies from what i can tell. By now the action is as smooth as butter so i have to assume that it has been well used. It looks a little beat up but after cleaning it up it looks great and functions better than ever.
 
The 500's and 590's don't get talked about much. There's not much to say, they just work. People get really worked up about the 590A1's but, meh, it's just a 590.

I've only had my 590 for about a year and ~500 rounds but I've had no issue.
 
I own one of each, the 870 stays in the truck and the 590 is for home defense. Both are great guns, but I prefer the 590.
 
I do own a 870, and used to own a 500. I put around 100 rounds through each, every week, for years.

You have nothing to worry about with either gun.
 
I can't begin to tell you how many tens of thousands of rounds I have thru Mossberg 500's. 590 not as many but they are the beefed-up version. 870? Too many problems for me. I just replaced the broken firing pin on one I toyed with for Trap and now that one is a sorta tactical HD gun instead.
Al
 
Roughly 300 rounds (not many) through my 590 with only one failure. The failure was due to the stock spring, which became mangled. I replaced it with a Wolff spring (at roughly 20 rounds) and have had no problems since. The 590 is a solid shotgun. I have added several "A1" parts, in addition to a few tweaks, and this gun has essentially met all of my expectations.
 
The US and other military have been using both the 500 and 590a1for awhile. My shotgun fires and functions very well. Solid built. Admittedly round count isn't real high yet.
 
IMO the 590 is overpriced. You can get a really nice police trade in Beretta 1200 or 1201 semi auto (Which is essentially a re-branded Benelli M1S90) for less money, that IMO, is way more gun.
 
IMO the 590 is overpriced. You can get a really nice police trade in Beretta 1200 or 1201 semi auto (Which is essentially a re-branded Benelli M1S90) for less money, that IMO, is way more gun.

Mossberg cleverly prices the 500/590/590A1 line between $265 and $600. Hard to argue with the cheapest 500's, but at the upper end you're getting really the same functionality for twice the price.

The mid-priced 590 line does have one nice thing, the mag cap is the easy-screw-off type. Worth another $125? Dunno, but it makes cleaning easy.
 
ive had mine for a little while now (mossberg 590)
havnt had a hickup yet
havnt been counting shells but id have to say at minimum 1000+ rounds at maximim under 2000 but still its chugging along like its supposed to with no signs of wear or tear

the magazine spring is a little funky when i took it out to clean the tube but its still strong and functions without any hang up

when i detail clean the gun thats the only part that concerns me because it just looks wierd
its bent a little in an odd way at one end and i was afraid (the first time i noticed it) that it would jam the tube up but ive run at least 350-400 rounds through it in that condition with absolutly no ill effect
 
I have the cheap 590 with heavy accu choke barrel . I use it to shoot fun clays. It has at least 30,000 rounds thru it. No problems with it . The shell follower looks like it will be the first thing to wear out.
 
I used a 500 for sporting clays for a while, and I wore out two plastic trigger groups. The mounting tab sheared off twice, rendering the gun unusable. I had to replace the trigger group with an aluminum unit, which I guess is standard equipment on the 590/A1. So for the regular 500, I'd say it's NOT durable with lots of rounds, unless you upgrade with a metal trigger group housing.
 
Wrightd,

Are you saying that the plastic trigger housing wore away and broke? How many rounds did it take to get to this point?
 
Has anyone had trouble with extraction in a 590?
Mine does not seem to like to have a shell loaded through the ejection port. Works good loading though the mag tube, however.
 
Yes, that's exactly what happened. Didn't "wear out", the plastic tab that secures into the receiver sheared off. Happened twice. Replaced the thing twice before I discovered the aluminum one. Round count ? Lots. This was sporting clays. Round count is high. So I'd avoid the plastic trigger group housings for a shtf gun. My guess is that the military standard of a bazillion rounds was done with a Mossberg gun with a metal trigger group housing.
 
From a functional and reliability standpoint, the 500 is comparable to a 590 and a 590A1.

There are a few fairly minor differences between them (barrel thickness, safety button material, trigger guard material, etc.) but from a personal use/HD standpoint, they are all relatively comparable. Get whichever one trips your trigger and shoot the begeezes out of it. You'll be fine with any of them. For a long time.

In my experience (I have both 18.5" 6-shot 500 and 20" 9-shot 590 models), I much prefer the 18.5" models as they are much more nimble and handle in-house much quicker and easier. The 20" models are better as hunkered-down, fixed-position models, as they are not so nimble, but have greater capacity. From a reliability/longevity standpoint, any of the 500, 590, 590A1, 870, 1200, 1300, etc. models will serve you with comparable reliability and longevity.

I swapped my 14.25" LOP synthetic furniture set for a 12.75" LOP Bantam wood stock set (which I refinished in oil finish) on my Persuader and it's the cat's meow now...

500_Out_R.jpg

Here's the 590 set up similarly... but man, the 20" 590 is a beast and much less nimble around the house (especially with the 14.25" LOP factory synthetic furniture) than my 18.5" 500... I removed the heat shield on the 2-" 590 because it was un-needed/un-wanted weight and complexity

590_Bantam3.jpg
 
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I had a 500 a long time ago and the trigger housing also broke as the other poster describes.

And i never abused it beyond firing a lot of 3" magnum through it.
 
I'm wondering if the polymer used in the trigger guard has been improved in recent years. It's pretty rare to hear of a polymer trigger guard breaking and they're used on Mossbergs, Remingtons, Rugers, a great many guns. I'm not saying that some folks haven't broken them in the past or that they're unbreakable, but I think that for most users, the polymer trigger guard just isn't going to be an issue. The 870 Police models use polymer trigger guards now as well.
 
maybe dhart is on to something as mine isnt but about 3 years old

ive put a good number of shells through mine (alot of it magnum) and no signs of ill effect

whatever floats your boat tho the aluminum replacement isnt that expencive anyway
 
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