My brother owns both a Mossy 500 and a 590 from the 1990's and both of those guns were nice to my fingers when loading shells or pulling them back out unfired from the mag tube when I fired them once years ago while paying him a visit. The Mossy shell loading area for 500/590 models under the receiver is rather spacious to boot. The Remmy 870 with its tight shell loading area and spring loaded shell carrier stuck in down position is just murder on my thumb/fingers to load and unload. My local Academy has a new Maverick 88 Tactical for $199. I'm thinking about making one of those my home defenders and dumping the Remington I bought second-hand three years ago. That Remmy 870 also has a crappy mag tube with a deep scratch on the inner wall which the rim of a shell could possibly hang up and cause feeding issues. Some yo-yo who owned the gun before me, evidently, tried to unscrew it by jamming a tool up in the mag tube from the breech area and putting a deep score or groove in that area just about an inch up the tube from the loading port. These stupid Remington mag tubes are silver soldered onto the receiver and the gun has to be shipped to Remmy for replacement. The same forlorn Remmy 870 of mine is plagued with an ejector you can't service yourself also. Field stripping the Remmy is also a pain. That same buffoon before me also put a side saddle on the receiver which I took off myself as the original takedown pins were included. A square notch was cut out of the left side of the friend to facilitate the use of the saddle so this gun was slightly custom hacked. The screw heads for the saddle also slightly damaged the bluing on the right-hand side of the receiver around the takedown pin holes. This Remmy of mine also kicks me like a mule with only 2 3/4" oo buck loads while my brother's 500 and 590 were rather gentle on my shoulder even with 3" magnum 00 buck loads! I have the original box for the Remmy, the side saddle with hardware and the unused padlock and key that came with originally from Ilion, NY. I might be able to dump the gun for $350-$400 on Armslist. Does the new Maverick Model 88 12 ga. fire as gently as a 500 or 590 to boot? In the video, it appears to have the same kind of shell carrier as 500/590 models so I suspect that this gun has a similar receiver tot he 500/590 models and might be just as user-friendly to put shells in and take them out.
I have a Maverick 88 that was thrown in with a trade I made. I haven't warmed up to it. It has the trigger guard, crossbolt safety instead of the "tang" safety. And sometimes it "clunks" and doesn't fire when I pull the trigger. The parts can be purchased to fix it, or I could contact Mossberg about repairing it, but as I said, I haven't warmed up to it. I might do so eventually, or I might trade it off to someone that wants to work with it. It will take a 500 barrel. In fact, I did buy a 18-1/2" barrel for it and used to bust clays well out past 50 yards, just for S&G. That was with #8 shot and it just barely broke the clays at that range - but the shot cloud must have been pretty large since that is cylinder bore (No choke) Still, it was an experiment and it was able to break the clays in half and had fun showing off to my kids and son-in-law. I also got a "tacticool" telescoping stock for it. That makes the action release hard to reach. But remember there is a reason they sell for about $200. I would save my money and buy something a bit better. It's not that I hate the brand. I use a 930 semi 12gauge for 3-gun shoots (got it before Jerry Miculek endorsed his). I have shot various 500's and those are OK - not unlike an 870. I am considering a 590. I just don't like the 88
Maverick is the same gun as a 500 only difference is instead of a tang safety in the receiver it has a safety in the trigger group like an 870. They are built in mexico on parts from eagle pass texas. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
They just might not be the same quality as Mossy 500/590. A classic case of YGWYPF? Academy has the Mossberg 500 Persuader listed there for $359 but it's out of stock now. Apparently the Model 500 is in higher demand because of quality.
In spite of the nations involved in their production, are Maverick Model 88 guns still inferior overall to 500 and 590 models? Junction15 said above: "And sometimes it "clunks" and doesn't fire when I pull the trigger." This doesn't sound like a firearm I want to trust my life to. I'd sooner pay a little more to get a gun I can truly trust. I never heard one bad thing about a 500 or a 590 from my brother or anybody else. It seems as these time-honored Mossy's are what the American military trusts the lives of its soldiers with. If it doesn't rattle, it doesn't go to battle. My brother never complained of any Mossy rattle. I can't recall any rattle when handling his two Mossy's to wit. if I were own my own Mossy, I would not care to try to fix any rattle if there were one of note.
I can't answer that. But the 88 is a cheaper shotgun. It has a lot of fans, so there must be good ones out there. You will just have to decide if you can live with any short comings it might have.
Let me clarify - MY Maverick 88 sometimes clunks and doesn't fire. It needs some attention. That is not saying that they all do that. I do believe that cheap money usually means cheaper quality. However, Mossberg would not continue selling those if they all clunked instead of firing or were unsafe to shoot. Caveat emptor.
My Remington 870 for all its crudeness hasn't failed to go BANG! yet when tested at the range. I'd better hold onto it until I can find a Mossy 500 or 590. 500/590 are out of stock at my local Academy, Maverick 88 is not. People even in Lawton probably think the Mav 88 too low in price to be any good. I don't like the idea of those Mossberg Shockwaves also. I prefer a buttstock even on a defensive shotgun.
I bought a slightly used Maverick 88 for $200 several months back. The previous owner shot less than a box of ammo through it and decided it wasn't for him. He ended up buying a more tactical shotgun. I told him he could've just swapped out parts from a 500 Tactical and would've been money ahead. I haven't even shot it yet. I'm thinking i'll just sell it since I have three 12 gauges already.
