I recently sold my Mossberg 500 to fellow TFLer Jody Hudson because I was in need of the cash (I'd been unemployed for a few months). Now, I'm not much better off but with tax return season coming up I'm thinking about what to spend mine on. First purchase may well be a replacement for my beloved shotgun.
In my shoes would you get another Mossy? Nice gun, especially with the 20" barrel (small enough for indoors) and decent magazine capacity. It was a lot of fun and 100% reliable. However, having just sold it out of need it is kind of difficult to bring myself to spend $100 more than I sold it for to get a new one. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I sold it because I was unhappy with it in any way- I just needed the money and there weren't many other ways to come up with the cash in the same time frame. In a month or so when the tax return comes I'll have the money to replace it. Still, having just sold it something in me doesn't really want to spend the money for what I already had (as much as I liked it), it would probably be easier to replace after a year or two but now replacing it would only make selling it seem like a really expensive loan.
Other, slightly different, options I'm thinking about is the Mossberg 590, the Remington 870 and some of the cheaper versions of the Remington 1100 (probably at Wal Mart). How do these compare with the 500 I had? Which is best for my needs (home defense, though I wouldn't mind starting some skeet or trap shooting as well and I'm still poor so one gun that can do both is better than two speciallized guns)? Can a pump be used effectively as a beginers gun for skeet and trap?
Also, there is another consideration that I just started thinking about. I've long believed that a shotgun with a revolver backup is best for home defense. The shotgun or a carbine is most forgiving under high stress situations and a pump shotgun, along with the revolver, is very simple to operate and very reliable in high stress situations. However, I've noticed that some people don't suggest magnum handguns for inside the home defensive use because the noise can be deafening. Wouldn't a shotgun be worse? Would shooting one inside for self defense potentially cause hearing problems? I've never shot one without hearing protection, but it seems to me that it is louder than my .357. If a shotgun is too loud I may go with a carbine loaded with .38s for home defense (as a long gun it should be just as easy to use in defensive situations as the shotgun and in a pinch the ammo for it could be used in my .357). I will still get a new shotgun but if I go this route I may look more at the autos or cheap over/unders and side by sides (i.e. Condor, IGA, EAA, or maybe for a little more a Charles Daly) and only use it for getting into skeet and trap. Also, any feedback about Condor, IGA, EAA and Charles Daly shotguns would be helpful.
In my shoes would you get another Mossy? Nice gun, especially with the 20" barrel (small enough for indoors) and decent magazine capacity. It was a lot of fun and 100% reliable. However, having just sold it out of need it is kind of difficult to bring myself to spend $100 more than I sold it for to get a new one. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I sold it because I was unhappy with it in any way- I just needed the money and there weren't many other ways to come up with the cash in the same time frame. In a month or so when the tax return comes I'll have the money to replace it. Still, having just sold it something in me doesn't really want to spend the money for what I already had (as much as I liked it), it would probably be easier to replace after a year or two but now replacing it would only make selling it seem like a really expensive loan.
Other, slightly different, options I'm thinking about is the Mossberg 590, the Remington 870 and some of the cheaper versions of the Remington 1100 (probably at Wal Mart). How do these compare with the 500 I had? Which is best for my needs (home defense, though I wouldn't mind starting some skeet or trap shooting as well and I'm still poor so one gun that can do both is better than two speciallized guns)? Can a pump be used effectively as a beginers gun for skeet and trap?
Also, there is another consideration that I just started thinking about. I've long believed that a shotgun with a revolver backup is best for home defense. The shotgun or a carbine is most forgiving under high stress situations and a pump shotgun, along with the revolver, is very simple to operate and very reliable in high stress situations. However, I've noticed that some people don't suggest magnum handguns for inside the home defensive use because the noise can be deafening. Wouldn't a shotgun be worse? Would shooting one inside for self defense potentially cause hearing problems? I've never shot one without hearing protection, but it seems to me that it is louder than my .357. If a shotgun is too loud I may go with a carbine loaded with .38s for home defense (as a long gun it should be just as easy to use in defensive situations as the shotgun and in a pinch the ammo for it could be used in my .357). I will still get a new shotgun but if I go this route I may look more at the autos or cheap over/unders and side by sides (i.e. Condor, IGA, EAA, or maybe for a little more a Charles Daly) and only use it for getting into skeet and trap. Also, any feedback about Condor, IGA, EAA and Charles Daly shotguns would be helpful.