I first saw the Mossberg 590M shotgun at an event at Gunsite Academy in early November 2017. It took up too small a part of the day with Shockwave guns in 12- and 20 gauge as well as their AOW shotguns.
Like any Mossberg Model 590, it’s a solid pump shotgun with the necessary but incongruous empty magazine tube slung below the barrel. Initial production will feature double stack 10-round magazines – a real handful when loaded. They’ll have optional magazines of 5, 10, 15 and twenty round capacities.
Our guns featured only bead front sights; the gun is likewise available as pictured, with ghost ring sights and a “Tactical Tri-Rail” forend. That special forend has a full-length bottom rail and dual side rails for easy attachment of lights and accessories. The guns will come with heavy-walled barrels of 18 ½” in length.
The magazines are frankly incredible. They seem to be over-built, if that’s possible. Capable of containing and feeding only 2 ¾” 12-gauge rounds, the magazines have a rounded follower, over-molded steel shell ramps and feed lips of hardened steel. The magazine body is molded – a polymer magazine body – that’s easily gripped and held onto.
The floor plate can be removed for cleaning – a good idea. It’s heavy, particularly when loaded.
I’m not convinced about the pump shotgun fed from box magazines. I get the idea that it’s quicker to reload, though I doubt any of us will need that capability operationally – nor is it likely you’ll carry spares. I can’t get people to carry service/compact size pistols even without spare magazines – the guns are too big, too heavy.
That said, the ability to use one of the great aspects of the fighting shotgun – ammo flexibility – is made easy with the box-mag fed pump. Slugs in one magazine and buckshot in another. Inaccurately-named “less lethal” rounds could fill another magazine.
Even better, down-loading the 590M is dirty easy. Why worry about unloading a shotgun? Well, if it’s a duty shotgun in a patrol car, taking the round out of the chamber becomes a serious deal. We didn’t encourage people driving around with a chambered shot (or rifle cartridge, when a patrol rifle). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people rack rounds from the tube magazine through the chamber to unload the gun.
Using the shell stops in the tubular magazine was the way to go. Easier is to simply remove the magazine and then remove the round from the chamber.
When I write of my experience with the 590M, I tend to think most about the magazines; when handling the gun at the range, it was all ‘automatic.’ The 590M handles just like the M590A1 at home. The safety is nicely placed atop the receiver accessible to either thumb. As I’ll shot the piece bilaterally, that’s a handy bit right there.
Where application of the gun wasn’t automatic came at reloading time. Not surprisingly, when using the Maxpedition dump pouch from the Gunsite Pro Shop, I found the mag changes to be quick and easy.
It’s a bit disconcerting, handling those thick, double-stack magazines at the same time as using the trim, fast-handling Mossberg 590. But those who don’t have the years of pump gun experience I do will likely find the 590M easier to use.
I wasn’t surprised that the gun worked 100% with the 10 and 15 shot magazines. I wasn’t surprised that the guns worked without stoppages.
I was so taken with the 20-gauge Shockwave and the 590M, I asked them to make a real-live M590A1 or at least a 590, in 20-gauge. For those of us getting on in years, as well as those new to the combat shotgun, the 20-gauge would be a better choice. And, with the advent of the Shockwave in 20 gauge, I think ammo makers may start development of decent defensive 20 gauge shotgun ammo.
I can dream.
They’re showing the 590M at the SHOT Show this week. You should be able to see it and handle it soon. Give it a look.
- - Rich Grassi