Tell me about the Mossberg 590A1

[HeavyDuty]

Interesting - I think that might be the replacement barrel I just ordered from Mossberg to replace the one my gunsmith pooched. Now I’m curious if it will have the chokes or not.

[dfeder530]

So I bought the Mossberg 590, model 50670 for $477 before tax. It has the 20" barrel with Accu-chokes and holds 8+1 of the Hornady Critical Defense. The barrel thickness around the choke seems to be slightly thicker than the Remington 870 Tactical with a choke I used to have. Haven't shot it yet, as I literally just bought it today. Threw on a Modified choke, Magpul stock, shot card, sling plate, and a Protac Rail Mount 1 on a Thorntail mount.

[dfeder530]

Took it out to the range today to get some shot patterning and to sight in the ghost rings for slugs. After reading about lackluster groupings with the Versatite/Flitecontrol wadding and choke tubes, I swapped the modified choke for an improved cylinder choke. I was hoping to mitigate the wad separating from the 00 buckshot early, but my results were the same as what I read online with chokes and the Flitecontrol wadding.

With my gun, it would seem that the Hornady Critical Defense 8 pellet 00 Buckshot patterns much tighter with a cylinder bore than the same rounds through an improved cylinder. I then shot the cheap Suprema 00 buckshot I bought at Walmart to compare. The Hornady with an IC choke performed about the same as the standard 9 pellet 00 buckshot with an IC. With the IC choke still installed, I zeroed my shotgun with Winchester Super X rifled hollow point slugs at 25 yards. It produced tight groups, but consistently shot a few inches low even after multiple adjustments. At 50 yards supported, it nailed the target head dead on but still slightly low.

After these results, I've decided I will keep the IC choke installed due to the slug accuracy and similar 00 buckshot performance. I will keep the shotgun loaded with the Hornady Critical Defense for now, but have plenty of cheaper standard 00 buckshot that patterns similarly. Next time I go to the range I will have to see if a cylinder bore will give me the same slug accuracy. If so, I will stick with the cylinder bore for the tighter Hornady groupings for home defense.

Don't know how to rotate the images. My original files are facing the correct way, so not sure how they ended up on their side.