I have fired many shotguns in the past and this would be my firs shotgun that I will be owning.
Here is what I'm looking for.
8+1 capacity
Ghost-ring sights
No pistol grip ( I prefer the more traditional stock)
Good supply of aftermarket parts (follower, mag. extension, side saddle, sling ect)
The use for the gun would be quite wide. I will be using it when camping, target shooting, hunting, and home defense (god forbid). I want to be able to fire all manner of buck shot and slugs through it as well. Basically I want this firearm to be as versatile as I can possible make it.
i will probably get flamed for this but if you intend to use this for hunting or shooting clays, you should
not get a tactical gun with an 8 shot mag, ghost rings, etc. ghost rings are not some magic solution that is good for any situation - they are just
one type of sight that is great for some things (shooting slugs, on bush guns, turkey, etc) but theyre not so great for shooting clays or hunting (unless youre shooting slugs or turkey loads). now heres where someone inevitably chimes in with
'ive been duck hunting for years with ghost rings', but the fact remains that they are far from
ideal for it. there is a reason the simple bead sight has endured for a couple hundred years.
i think you are going about it the wrong way -- one of the biggest advantages of shotguns like the 870 and 500/590 are the fact that they are so flexible and you can adapt them easily to different tasks by simply swapping barrels and/or chokes. both of these advantages will be severely diminished in your tactical gun. im not saying DONT GET A TACTICAL GUN -- so calm down and read on
if you want ONE 'all-purpose' gun, itll be expensive and annoying to adapt a tactical extended mag tube/ghost ring shotgun to all of these different tasks. most tactical guns arent threaded for chokes, and a lack of choke selection severely limits what you can do with a shotgun. getting them tapped for chokes is more expensive than it initially seems (if you can do it - for example Benellis have chrome lined bores and you cant) because not only are you paying for the gunsmiths time (~$100) but youll also have to buy all your chokes, which adds up. for just a bit more than the cost of threading a barrel + buying a set of chokes you could just buy a second budget shotgun that
includes a set of chokes and use that for hunting.
youll find that if you buy a shotgun with an extended magazine tube, you wont be able to just pick up any take-off barrel off the EE - youll have to use barrels that are
also from extended mag tube guns, which are a lot harder to find. so there goes the second advantage of a shotgun. there are tonnes of 870 take-off barrels in the EE as low as $100 each because people buy 870s for projects and get rid of the factory barrel, or buy combo kits with 2-3 barrels and then sell the ones they dont need, so they are a lot more available. barrels that fit extended mag tubes are much more rare.
one advantage to the Mossberg 500 is that you can simply unscrew the 8 shot mag tube from the receiver, screw in a standard length mag tube, and use any barrel. youre looking at about $20 in the states for a used standard length mossy 500 magazine tube+spring. you cant do this with the 870 because the mag tube is brazed in.
but keep in mind that even if you could switch barrels, theres the matter of the rear ghost ring sight sitting on your receiver thats blocking your sighting plane. i suppose you could just unscrew it, but then you lose your zero - are you starting to see how
one tactical shotgun isnt such a great idea?
oh and then theres other little issues that can pop up - i had to fabricate my own magazine plug for my Mossberg 500 Persuader just to make it legal for hunting because i couldnt find one anywhere for the extended magazine.
you would be better off either buying a standard mag tube length bead sight 870 and then picking up all your tactical stuff like 2-shot mag extension, 18" barrel, etc for it,
OR
an even better idea would be to buy
two shotguns: perhaps a 'tactical' 8+1 shot 870 with ghost rings, and then
also grab a Mossberg 500 Field or Field Combo for $250-300 that will suit all your hunting needs. you could squeeze both into your $1000 budget, and it would also give you some firsthand experience in the whole '870 or 500?' debate. yeah a Mossberg 500 Field isnt exactly a 590, but its pretty much the same action. or for a bit more money instead of the mossberg you could get something like a Remington SPR 453.
so before the tactical crowd gets their panties in a bunch please understand im not saying
'dont buy tactical guns', simply that often its more practical and less expensive to buy
two shotguns than it is to adapt one ghost-ring tactical shotgun with a fixed choke into an all-purpose gun.
