Why do some people think that Mossburg 500 shotguns are crap?
I have a Mossburg 500 chambered for 20 ga. and I like it just fine. It is a less expensive gun than many out there but it works just fine and I have no complaints in many years of shooting it. It is less expensive so you will not get the fancy walnut stocks of the more expensive guns. Mossburg uses hardwood for their stocks but not necessarily walnut. They save money by using less attractive wood and just staining it to look like walnut. The wood to metal fit is not what you would find on an expensive gun but it is acceptable. Overall, the Remington 870 is a more expensive gun than the Mossburg and may be a little bit better made but the Mossburg is still quite serviceable. Different people have different preferences and saying a Mossburg is a piece of junk is like saying a Ford is a piece of junk. No, it is not a Rolls Royce but it is quite serviceable even without the heated seats and leather interior.
because they have never owned a mossburg 500 while the 870 is a very good gun the Mossburg is every bit as good I own the 500 Mariner stainless and leave it in the tool box of my truck that’s not the best way to keep a gun because of all the other crap in there to damage the gun but it never fails I pull the trigger it fires.
I think, as someone has already said, it is in large part “Ford/Chevy”. There are significant cosmetic differences as well, that some folks are going to interpret as differences in quality when that can’t truly be logically inferred. For the record, the US Military and thousands of police departments use each. I have been a Mossberg, especially Mossberg 500, fan for a long, long time. There was a time – I don’t have hard numbers, but I believe it was from the mid 1970’s to early 1980’s – when Mossberg quality was down from what it had historically been, and from what it is now. “Innovations” like only one bar between the slide and the lockwork, lower grades of wood, even some use of plastics in standard stocks made for several years of truly crap guns… Most of those issues, interestingly, were not with the 500, but with the lower-price Maverick guns – which look just like 500s, but cost less for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, most of those guns haven’t survived. The plastic stock
