Yesterday's pawn shop pick up...Mossberg 3000 Police.
Judging by the wear on the top of the receiver, and the lack of wear inside the receiver and on the bolt and action bars, it looks to have been locked in a cruiser mount for quite a while but shot very little.
I knew S&W imported the Howa for a while as their Model 3000, but never heard of the Mossberg version until yesterday. Apparently they picked up importation for a couple of years after S&W dropped them.
Hopefully I can find a magazine extension...Choate shows them "in-stock", but I can't imagine they're still producing extensions for a low-popularity gun that hasn't been sold in @ 35 years.
I've been wanting a "beater" 12g...the last one I bought for that purpose turned out to be too nice, but this one looks to be an excellent candidate.