Mossberg 590A1

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hg123

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Hello everyone,

I was looking to get another shotgun, right now I have a cheap Canuck pump action but was looking to upgrade. I am sold on the 590A1 however i'm confused as to which version to buy. I am looking to enter some dynamic shotgun shooting competition or will be doing some tactical type shooting. I saw a few versions of the A1. Such as the XS, SPX, 14 inch vs 18.5 inch vs 20 inch, retrograde, tactical, mil-spec m-lok... etc etc lol. I just feel kind of overwhelmed. This will be my one and done shotgun in terms of using for "tactical" or dynamic shooting competitions. If anyone has any advice or can share their experiences, I would sincerely appreciate it.

Thanks.
 
I have the 590A1 with the 20in barrel and just the plain old bead sight. Item #51660. I have a personal preference to the bead sights, but besides that the pro of it being a pump gun is the tube can fit 8 shells. Additional bonus with this model and the SPX is being able to mount a bayonet... questionable utility but nevertheless it hits the "cool" factor. This model is also more front heavy due to the longer barrel and has a fixed cylinder choke (not sure if the other Mossberg 590A1's are all fixed though).

I did find the length of pull on the standard mossberg stocks to be quite long, I ended up getting a Magpul SGA stock and that really helped me get the right LOP.

I don't have much experience with any of the other models, but I'm sure others will chime in.
 
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Hey, I have the 590A1 Retrograde and I really like it, but wouldn't recommend it for 3 gun or competition shooting. It's just darn heavy.

The ghost ring is nice for slugs, but any kind of active pop-up target games I believe a simple bead sight would be better?

Pros: wood furniture, magazine capacity, parkerized finish on steel, sights, bayonet mount, indestructible barrel, and the reliability of the platform (it will cycle, it will go bang, it will cycle, it will go bang...)

Cons: aside from the reliability, all "cons" can be the pro's. Wood furniture dents, mag capacity=heavy, park finish can be oily, bayonet can be regarded as useless, barrel is heavy...

If the zombies invade, or I were relegated to just one shotgun, it would be either an 870 Wingmaster or the 590A1...if I were competing, I'd run an Italian semi auto Benelli (M4). Pump guns are fast, but not semi auto fast. Even Jerry Miculek runs semi-auto's, and if anyone doesn't need to it would be him.

The 590A1 is as solid as a ball bat with a pointy thing on the end after a high count magazine is empty...but it's not a competition gun, or if you compete with it, understand that others with semi's will outshoot you.

({edit} thought of another big con, or pet peeve.)...afterthought, the Mossberg has sharp receiver edges where shells are loaded. I haven't actually cut myself on it, but its sharp enough that I just might. I had no idea about what they were talking about whenever the old adage "it's like putting your hand in a box of razor blades" was cited, then I got the 590A1 and all became clear. I believe I'm going to take a file to the receiver and knock that edge off. And that pisses me off because it's not a cheap shotgun. I shouldn't have to take a bloody file to the thing.
 
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I use the 590A1 9-shot Magpul edition. Comes with excellent XS ghost ring sights, pic rail, and sling attachments. Stock comes with spacers and cheek pieces. Forend accepts m-lol accessories. It’s not light. Bad ass and a best value IMHO.
 
I went with a 20" 590S. It's lighter than an A1 as it doesn't have the heavy barrel. It comes with a cylinder choke which I've switched fir a modified.

It's designed to run shorty shells as well as 2.75" & 3" shells. It can hold 13 shorty shells in its magazine.

The LOP was too long for me so I shortened the stock.

It has an MLOC forend so I added a pic rail at 9 o'clock so I can mount a light on it.

It's a good generalist SG.
 
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This is definitely going to help me with my decision. I think I'm leaning towards going to go with a 18.5 milspec. Seems like that might counter the weight issue a little bit. It comes with the mlok forend with sights too. I understand a pump puts me at a disadvantage compared to semi auto but for the shotgun competitions I plan on joining itll be in the pump category!
 
hg123 said:
This is definitely going to help me with my decision. I think I'm leaning towards going to go with a 18.5 milspec. Seems like that might counter the weight issue a little bit. It comes with the mlok forend with sights too. I understand a pump puts me at a disadvantage compared to semi auto but for the shotgun competitions I plan on joining itll be in the pump category!
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I’ve been using an 18.5” 590 Retrograde in competition for the last two years and it has been fantastic, you obviously won’t be able to run with the top semi auto guys but I still place in the top 10 regularly and beat a surprising amount of the semi auto guys so yes you can be competitive with a pump. I run a plus 1 extension so I have an 8 shot capacity, you can get longer extensions but I’m personally not a fan of the tube sticking past the barrel. I run a Delta Wave safety and a TruGlo fibre optic on it and for me it’s perfect, light, fast and fun. At the end of the day, when the results come out I compare myself to the other pump guys and don’t really worry about the semi guys. If you choose to run a pump more power to ya, enjoy and believe me, there is a lot of satisfaction in running a pump well :)
I find the 590 quite easy to speed load also, and with a bit of practice quad loading is not hard at all
 
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I'd go with the 590S 20" optic ready If you ever want to shoot matches this will be the best pump to get (I've had a Benelli Nova Speed). I prefer the 590 as an everything pump shotgun.

If you want to shoot open and bypass the learning to load a shotgun tube part you can buy a 590M and have a reliable mag fed.
 
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I have the Ontario bayo on my a1. I did need to remove a vey small amount of material on the mounting lug to get it to click in. Very easy to do.

DSCN9737.jpg
 
Warden70 said:
I use the 590A1 9-shot Magpul edition. Comes with excellent XS ghost ring sights, pic rail, and sling attachments. Stock comes with spacers and cheek pieces. Forend accepts m-lol accessories. It’s not light. Bad ass and a best value IMHO.
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Same here. Love the damned thing. I didn't know it was heavy for gun standards. LOL
 
geologist said:
I put an O ring under my barrel cap to shim the cap forward into my OKC M7 ring.
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I dont think a O ring is a good fix solution. I would modify the bayonet instead. The best bayonet for 590/590A1 is a surplus M7. They fit just right and stay secure. Problem with Ontario bayonet is the distance between the ring and the pommel is a tab too long compared to surplus M7 bayo. I saw a video on youtube showing the o ring trick. A guy commented that he used the o ring and the barrel became loose firimg and damaged the receiver where the barrel should sit. The O ring voided the warranty and mossberg didnt want to repair it. I heard about people using a metal washer between the magazine cap and the barrel ring. Better idea than a rubber O ring but still, in my opinion, better to modify the bayonet,not the shotgun. I use a surplus M7 on my 590A1 retro and no problem at all.
 
I have had a few of these now, and my favorite has been the SPX. Once I got away from 3 gun stuff and just stuck to tactical shooting, I opted for the 14" barrel, had CSC put a proper ramp sight on it to match a rear ghost ring, and threaded the barrel for rem chokes so I could put a breacher on it. It's now my favorite shotgun ever and one of my favorite guns at all time. If I ever live in a world with no 12ga shells, I can use this as a club/prybar/fence post pounder
 
jory said:
i have had a few of these now, and my favorite has been the spx. Once i got away from 3 gun stuff and just stuck to tactical shooting, i opted for the 14" barrel, had csc put a proper ramp sight on it to match a rear ghost ring, and threaded the barrel for rem chokes so i could put a breacher on it. It's now my favorite shotgun ever and one of my favorite guns at all time. If i ever live in a world with no 12ga shells, i can use this as a club/prybar/fence post pounder
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csc?
 
svt1940 said:
I dont think a O ring is a good fix solution. I would modify the bayonet instead. The best bayonet for 590/590A1 is a surplus M7. They fit just right and stay secure. Problem with Ontario bayonet is the distance between the ring and the pommel is a tab too long compared to surplus M7 bayo. I saw a video on youtube showing the o ring trick. A guy commented that he used the o ring and the barrel became loose firimg and damaged the receiver where the barrel should sit. The O ring voided the warranty and mossberg didnt want to repair it. I heard about people using a metal washer between the magazine cap and the barrel ring. Better idea than a rubber O ring but still, in my opinion, better to modify the bayonet,not the shotgun. I use a surplus M7 on my 590A1 retro and no problem at all.
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My OKC M7 when the butt latch is attached to the bayonet lug on the SG places the bayonet ring too far forward of the magazine tube cap to seat ie. there is a 1-2mm gap between the front end of the cap and the rear side of the bayonet ring.

I don't see how modifying the bayonet would address this issue of the OKC M7 bayonet ring being too far forward.

Perhaps putting on something like a gasket material, sticky on one side, on the forward side of the cap would work. At least in my case, YMMV.
 
geologist said:
My OKC M7 when the butt latch is attached to the bayonet lug on the SG places the bayonet ring too far forward of the magazine tube cap to seat ie. there is a 1-2mm gap between the front end of the cap and the rear side of the bayonet ring.

I don't see how modifying the bayonet would address this issue of the OKC M7 bayonet ring being too far forward.

Perhaps putting on something like a gasket material, sticky on one side, on the forward side of the cap would work. At least in my case, YMMV.
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If i am correct,on the back of your bayonet,the pommel is attached with a nut? If its the case, you must remove the pommel,the handle and then you can grind the back of the bayo,were the pommel sit again. You may need also the sand the handle too slightly. You just need to grind what it take so the ring will sit good on the magazine cap. The bayonet you have would fit right on a rifle because the flash hinder is long enough but on a shotgun, the cap dont protude much. As i said on my earlier post, the surplus bayonet are the correct lenght so they mount perfectly on a 590/590A1.
 
svt1940 said:
If i am correct,on the back of your bayonet,the pommel is attached with a nut? If its the case, you must remove the pommel,the handle and then you can grind the back of the bayo,were the pommel sit again. You may need also the sand the handle too slightly. You just need to grind what it take so the ring will sit good on the magazine cap. The bayonet you have would fit right on a rifle because the flash hinder is long enough but on a shotgun, the cap dont protude much. As i said on my earlier post, the surplus bayonet are the correct lenght so they mount perfectly on a 590/590A1.
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I'm going to get a surplus M7.

800px-Bayonet-Knife_M7_Expl.jpg
 
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