What Mossberg 500 setups does the military use?

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bigalexe

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I have a Mossberg 500A and was wondering what setups are standard military issue as far as barrels, chokes, and accessories.

There's not really purpose since im not intending to build a tactical gun, Im just curious what equipment the army uses because if I decide to go that route I figure that would be a good starting point.
 
pretty sure they mostly use a 6 shot 18.5 590a1 with ghost rings or tritium rifle sights. thats about the long and short of it. but dont tell the mall ninjas that, you might break some hearts.
 
Mall Ninjas? What are they? Should I be worried when I go to the mall that I may be attacked by highly trained martial artist assassins who can move silently through the shadows and execute me with their bare hands?
 
yes. Or just people who play COD 4 all day long and insist that the more gadgets they put on their shotgun, the more effective it will at going from room to room in their house and clearing it out in ways Chuck Norris and Steven Segal could only dream of.



Your plain jane Mossberg 500 is completely and utterly deadly and reliable if you know how to use it and maintain it, gadgets or not. I believe the military uses the 590a1 18.5 like I said, the main difference being a heavy barrel and rifle/ghost ring sights, aluminum trigger guard and aluminum tang safety. They're nice guns, and I'd recommend one of those way before I would the unwieldy, awkward (in my opinion) 9 shot 590 models. Some iof the tricked out 9 shot models actually cost more than the ergonomic, perfectly balanced, no frills 18.5 6 shot 590a1 :p
 
The military uses the Mossberg 590a1 20" heavy walled barrel, metal trigger guard, bayonet lug and ghost ring rifle sights. The 590a1 police model is the 18.5" heavy walled barrel, metal trigger guard, ghost ring sights with 6 shot tube. Both are excellent weapons, I own the 6 shot model. Beautiful, durable and effective.

Ignore the idiots hanging tons of **** on their shotguns. Those are mall ninjas and their only firearms experience is call of duty 4. Case in point, Saiga 12 forums you can watch idiots hanging 12 pounds of **** from 5 different rails on their shotgun. Which, by the way, jams a **** ton.

mossberg 590a1 or a remington 870p with a stock sock for extra shells and a sling is as good as it gets.
 
An acquaintance told me that the most common was a plain-jane 18.5" 500. Aint seen him in a few years, so I dont know how many are still in service. To be honest, I really cant remember if he was in the Army or the Marine Corps.
 
I was in the Marines from 96-01 and I only remember one post that had a shotgun, ordnance gate. I do remember the shotgun well as I was stuck as an ordnance guard for 12 hours a day for a whole week in a 4x4 shack.

So what kinda a set up did the Marines have? A parkerized 590a1 with tritium ghost ring sights, heat shield, tactical sling and tacstar side saddle. YEAH RIGHT were talking about the Marines here. What I carried was a plain jane regular old 6-shot 500a.

It had a 18.5 barrel with a bead, synthetic stock and a metal trigger and safety, that was the extent of the upgrades. It looked just like the 6 shot persuader model with the exception that ours had been cleaned so many times it didn't really have any blueing or paint left, the receiver and barrel both were dinged all to hell, and the pump forend had so much play in it that it sounded and felt like it was about to fall off. The funny thing is that shotgun has probably never been shot. Haha LNIB
 
Traditionally the U.S. military has had 2 different types of shotguns; the so called "trench guns" with handguards, bayonet lugs, heavier wall barrels, and maybe ghost ring sights. Supposedly these would go to troops on the line. Then there were the plainer models that were issued to MPs, guards at certain posts, and general security duty. These were usally off the shelf types with no additional military hang ons.
This has been since WWI and it applied to all models issued. Eventually the military may settle on one shotgun for all duties, until that time we will have a polygot of makes, and models, the single common element-12 gauge buckshot, usually 00.
 
I'll say for probably the last 20 years give or take, the standard has been the 590. When I was in the Army from 87-90, I saw alot of both in various configurations. When I switched over to the Navy and then was placed with the Marines from 90-99, I still saw alot of both but mainly the 590. I did carry a 500 criuser type model for a period of time and the only difference between it and the one I owned was the "Property U.S." on it.
 
I was watching the PBS series Carrier, and they had a segment showing the Navy boarding and inspecting a couple of ships in the Arabian Sea. The sailors mostly carried Mossberg 500 shotguns, but for some reason the barrels looked just a bit shorter than the 18.5" on my gun. I found a good pic of what look to be the same guns. I don't know, it just looks like they don't quite extend as far past the magazine tube. There is that sling swivel, but still.

navyshotgun.jpg
 
Thanks for the info. I tried google and wikipedia but they didn't help much. It's nice to know what setups the army uses because I assume they know what they're doing when it comes to ordering weapons. Apparently from what you've told me their philosophy is to keep it as simple as possible.
 
Mossberg 500,590's with a HW Barrel. Some have the Cruiser or Persuader Model's. Lots of Remington 870's out there too.
 
Mossberg 500Mill and 590 MilSpec differs in a few ways from the regular 500 like the open end magazine tube so you can remove the mag spring when you take off the barrel nut, they use a thicker heavy barrel, the bolts are blackened,the trigger guard/ trigger assembly housing and safety button are made of aluminum instead of plastic making the gun 100% metal except for the stock.

I have seen 500Mill 5+1 come in many different barrel configurations like 14" SBS, 18.5",and 20". There are two different 590 configurations. The 8 shot and the 20" 9 shot aka the Mariner.I'm pretty sure some get the factory Ghost ring rifle style peep sights also. They are usually non choked aka cylinder bore.
 
My company arms room has 12 500's in it. They all have the 18.5" barrel. 6 are PGO and 6 have a regular stock. They all have a bead site. Nothing else hangs on them.
 
The Navy issues M500 18.5" cylinder choked guns, and 17" folding-stock cylinder choked, both with standard magazines.
 
From experience not a "google search". My unit in the Air Force uses 20 inch Mossberg 500s with full synthetic stocks and 5 shot mag tube. Nothing else no vent ribs no extended mag tube, just a 20 inch Mossberg 500. I know this because the Mossberg 500 is my primary duty weapon.
 
Just curious, out of all the people here who has carried anything other than a 500a for military duty? I've heard of a few cases of the 590 on here but apparently it and all it's tacticool bolt on's are saved for grunts and special forces but if it has been the official shotgun for more than twenty years would'nt it be in pretty standard issue by now? I mean really how long did it take to switch from the m14 to the m16, months not twenty years. I also heard through WIKI that now we adopted the beneli m1014 as the official shotgun. Has anyone seen in person or carried one of those yet?
 
No hub the 590 is not the official shotgun of the the armed forces. I will speak for the branch I am currently a member of the Air Force and say that the Benelli M4 is actually the official shotgun of non spec op units however I have never seen one. My unit has had Mossberg 500s since 1989 with no plan to replace them. Other Air Force units I have visited that issue shotguns carry the 870. I have never seen a 590 in inventory. I know the base armorers and have visited the ParaRescue armory and LE armory on base, I have not seen a shotgun on either armory's racks.
 
my BTRY (artillery eq. to a company) has 5 pistol grip mossberg 500 pumps plain jane no bells or whistles, all we really use em for is breaching stubborn doors.

and im the only one in the BTRY knows how to take the damn thing apart.
 
It is my understanding (G&A TV), that Benelli USA partnered with the USMC in development of their M4 shotgun. So I would assume any new gun coming into the MC would be the Benelli. But the MC being Marines, they're not going to get rid of something that works great, just because it's old.

Wyman
 
chuck, I can't speak to the Aircraft, but the Marine Corps has their own procurement arm for small arms.
 
Thanks, The Real Mags. I've heard several people say the 590 was the "official shotgun" for however long but all that I have seen or heard of people using was the 500. Also I'm aware that the benelli m1014 has been standard issue for the Marines since 1999 but as of 2001 I never seen one. I'm not doubting the people saying the 590 was issued but I was just wondering if anyone knows exactly what years, how many, with what options, and to who they were given too. The reason I'm asking is that I do also agree with JWF III's comment that the Marines won't throw out any 500's in good working order and I was just kinda curious if that's why we are not seeing more 590's or benelli's in inventories.
 
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