Man In Black, I see you caught on quickly that this place is loaded with opinions about stuff whether correct, or germain to queries.....coincidentally, I just bought one today for homestead bebopping/truckgun/pest-control.
Bought the 505E youth model for $250 (compared to the 500/24"/Full/$209)....the 505 is just what I was looking for....the following is a cut/paste of an email I sent to AK et Cie only an hour ago....I'll pattern tomorrow and post results to this thread.
"Just got (sigh), another one....I always wanted a really nice .410 that would hold more than one shot....I'm still waiting, and considering prices, a lifetime holding pattern is foreseen....instead, bought a Mossberg 505E youth model....too much to resist....a dinky little gun, it's a repeater, AND a .410....pretty cheap, too. I'd call it the Glock of shotguns.
Seriously, had considered the $500 Wingmaster .410 with very much desired Modified choke....also thought that was a bunch of money for a bebopping walkabout truck gun with aluminum trigger housing...and it wasn't exactly the handy gun I needed with looong barrel.
Kept thinking about the Mossberg for half the money, or even less if I could live with their looong barrel and fixed Full choke ($209 at WallyWorld)....which I couldn't....then, yesterday, while buying primers at a store in WarTown, picked up a free copy of the Mossberg 2008 Gun Annual, and looked at their specs....the 505 youth model had a Modified choke, 20"bbl, 12"LOP, 37.5"LOA, and 5.25lb weight.....THAT was more like it!
And while tooting about all afternoon on the DR, dodging widespread t-storms in 100% heat, came across a store that actually had one in stock...it bugged me, man, that they wanted more for less gun at either end, but that's pretty typical, and it still cost half the 870.
It costs half what an 870 goes for, and is probably half the gun...crude parts, crude wood that undoubtedly is the standard .410 stock cut at both ends, the worst recoil pad fit I've ever seen on a US-made gun....but the bore looked just fine, and I know it will work, which is all that really mattered for $250, the only new gun I know that fills the gap between econo single-shots with oversize chambers/actions and the 870 high-dollar wonder repeater.
Stripped/cleaned it this evening, and only reinforced the opinion this sho'nuff ain't no 870.....bunches more to the job than the 870, even if no tools required...can certainly see the steel lifter pivots turning in holes in the aluminum action as something not geared for several lifetimes of shooting, ditto the plastic trigger-group housing....but, it'll work for what I want....cheap/light/short/reliable/repeater/.410....not a heck of a lot of difference in weight between it and the aluminum hulled Remington 572 .22 smoothbore.
Seriously considered the 500 .410 for $209, and then whackifyin' it myself from 24" Full to 18" Cylinder...but truly wanted to see what a Modified choke would do....if uninspring, can always end up lopping 2" off of this one, whereupon I'll be wishing I'd bought the cheaper 500....this one doesn't really need shortening, it's already a bit shorter than the 18" 870 Police, and would be shorter if the action hadn't been made to handle 3" shells.
Anyhow, it's an option I'll be trying out tomorrow with shot and slugs....lacking sights, the slug shooting will be to just check basic POI/pointing to see if they'd work for close-range pest-control/defense....it they do, a slug will probably be first up in the 4rd mag....oh, the mag holds 4ea 2.5" shells, or 3ea 3" shells....makes ignoring the 3" shells even easier."
PS.....it IS a smaller reciever....no way would this be a 20ga....doubt even a 28ga would work, but could be wrong about that...like I said above, feels more like a Remington 572....nice little gun, and expect no problems....shucks through loaded shells with no problem....the aluminum receiver action just feels a bit "sticky", but expect that to smooth out.
