Are the 870's not a military weapon?
IMHO, the 870 platform can be taken down for a quick cleaning much easier and quicker.
Simply take off the end cap, pull the barrel off, and depress the inner tabs and the forend, the bolt all slide out.
The 500.
Take off end cap, use punch to take pin out, remove trigger assembly, remove the 2 loose "bars" on the side, remove the slide, remove the lifter (as you can tell I am tired and not using proper names), remove mag tube, remove forend, remove bolt... Seems like a lot more complex to me. Its easy, now that I have done it, just complex.
This sounds like a typical Mossberg bashing biased opinion. So after your two steps listed for the 870 you have all parts out of the gun? What about your shell stop and interrupter, how easy are they to come out? What about your trigger assembly? Your lifter? Why take out the lifter anyhow? If you are going to claim something is crap, it should be a valid and fair comparison.
The 500 is a super simple gun to work on, my tools consist of a pen, stick or key to punch out the pin and a 341mL brown bottle, bottle is optional. I am not familiar with this extra step of removing the mag tube, I own 2 500s, one being a Lakefield/Mossberg as well and neither have ever had the mag tube off. I find them simple to work on, perhaps you are missing something?? Maybe ask someone at your range/club how to disassemble it.
One other thing, it is a Mossberg, you don't have to clean it


















































