Guns: The Great Debate - Pump shotgun edition

It's a natural tendency, I suppose, for humans to play favorites. Life is full of decisions between mostly-equal brands - Ford and Chevy, Coke and Pepsi, etc. All too often, adopting one product means excluding other products from your life, just to avoid duplication - who needs both Crest and Colgate toothpastes in the bathroom?

This same behavior occurs quite often with firearms. While there are many with enlightened attitudes, there's always a small but vocal minority that insists they have happened upon The One True Sword, or that Brand X has some fatal flaw that makes Brand Y the better choice (which draws the ire of the people who bought Brand X). You can see this in gun magazines, gun stores, the Web...

Today's post concerns the various types of pump shotgun available. Winchester and Ithaca used to be big players, but nowadays the competition is basically between the Mossberg 500/590 and the Remington 870. In my view, there are advantages and disadvantages to both, but they both will do a fine job for most anything you'll ever need a shotgun for.

The Remington 870 series has a pretty beefy, yet heavy steel receiver. It uses a push-button safety behind the trigger guard that works great if you have a pistol-grip stock. It costs more than the Mossberg models and often your options are circumscribed if you opt for the cheaper Express models (you'll need to replace the foreend and Dremel out the dimples on the mag tube in order to put on a sidesaddle and extension, respectively).

The Mossberg 500 has a noticeably lighter aluminum receiver, which to be fair will probably not last quite as long as the 870, all other things being equal. The 500's safety is mounted on the upper rear of the receiver, making it more intuitive to flick on and off than the 870 with a standard stock but more difficult to use with a pistol grip stock. The 500 tends to be cheaper than the 870 series. Even many of the budget Mossbergs come with factory magazine extensions, which is nice if you're planning to use one out-of-the-box for home defense.

Both models have proven track records (the 870 rides in police cruisers across the nation, while the Mossberg 590 is the only pump shotgun currently in use by the U.S. armed forces). Both models have plenty of accessories and parts. I'd take either in a heartbeat if the lives of my loved ones were on the line. So why all the commotion? I suppose people just need something to argue about sometimes...