Mossberg 20 gauge HD gun

[Hondo]

I am in the market for a new home defense gun. I want something that both my wife and teenage daughter can handle easily and I think we've narrowed it down to a Mossberg 20 gauge. The options are either the SA 20 or the 500 pump action in 20 gauge. Any opinions, experience or advice on these two?

 

[ohen cepel]

I know you asked about Mossberg and they are not a bad gun.

However, I much prefer the Browning BPS Upland or Micro Midas in 20. Upland is handy and the Micro Midas is meant for smaller shooters. Won't always find them on the shelves of the local shops but worth handling one before you buy. Also, nice that they are bottom eject if anyone is left handed, and they come with screw in chokes to make them viable field or skeet guns. Worth a look.

 

[BUFF7MM]

I am in the market for a new home defense gun. I want something that both my wife and teenage daughter can handle easily and I think we've narrowed it down to a Mossberg 20 gauge. The options are either the SA 20 or the 500 pump action in 20 gauge. Any opinions, experience or advice on these two?

One in the classifieds:
https://www.mdshooters.com/vbclassified.php?do=ad&id=28587

 

[Hondo]

Both my wife and daughter are about five foot seven but my daughter's frame is especially slight. The recoil of my 870 packs just too much punch. It's really the reduced recoil that I'm looking for, so that they can control it better and make faster follow up shots. For that reason, I'm leaning a bit more toward the semi-auto. I decided on Mossberg, simply because it's such a common gun that it should be easy to find parts for it, if it's ever necessary to do that. I'll definitely mount a flashlight too.

 

[sailskidrive]

How comfortable are your wife and daughter with firearms in general? What's their size?

They may be more comfortable with a .410 or 28 gauge than a 20 gauge, both of which have plenty of kinetic energy at close distance.

 

[Hondo]

How comfortable are your wife and daughter with firearms in general? What's their size?

They may be more comfortable with a .410 or 28 gauge than a 20 gauge, both of which have plenty of kinetic energy at close distance.

They are both pretty comfortable with firearms. My daughter loves shooting, which I find to be a pretty awesome thing I get to do with her. She's about 5'6" and about 110. She's a decent shot with my Ruger SR 762 when shooting prone. Standing up, it gets heavy for her pretty quickly.

 

[jimbobborg]

Why you have a shotgun question in the rifle section is odd. Anyway, why not an AR? Lighter, easier to use, no short stroking with it.

 

[Docster]

How comfortable are your wife and daughter with firearms in general? What's their size?

They may be more comfortable with a .410 or 28 gauge than a 20 gauge, both of which have plenty of kinetic energy at close distance.

I have a Mossberg 500E .410 that is kept ready for HD. It fits my requirements perfectly. I have all gauges except 28 because the ammo is difficult to find, otherwise I also go with a Remington 870 in 20 gauge. IMHO the 12 ga. for HD is overkill especially if others in the family will be training/using it.

 

[Hondo]

Why you have a shotgun question in the rifle section is odd. Anyway, why not an AR? Lighter, easier to use, no short stroking with it.

Shotgun question in the rifle section is a valid point. The vast majority of my time in the Maryland Shooters forums is spent in the Rifle Section. Call it a brain fart; I didn't even think to post it in the shotgun section.

As far as the idea of using an AR goes, I'd just rather not have to worry about the round traveling much further than the intended target. I'd also considered a pistol caliber carbine too. In the end, I feel like a 20 gauge tactical shotgun is the way to go for us. The Mossbergs are very affordable too.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Actually I'm keying in on post #6 . Recoil, and ability to handle and manipulate the gun are two different things, and weight per se has opposite effect on each.

* If * I am understanding correctly that your daughter is ok with firing a .308 , the the issues are with the weight of the gun for off hand, then the M500 20ga is good for her to try. With the alloy reciever it is light and quick handling.



Meanwhile; I have frequently posted that 20ga with slug or buck is plenty sufficient for defense ( or deer with slug for that matter). But that doesn't particularly extend to .410 .

No I won't volenteer to get shot with one. But, .410 slugs are quite underwhelming. Buckshot is a less worse option, but with only 3 to 5 pellets, pattern density gets iffy much beyond bad breath. For extremely minimal recoil long gun at that point, I'd prefer a PCC over a .410 .

 

[sailskidrive]

Pretty sure the .410 has the same amount of kinetic energy as a .44 mag at 15ft. Convincing enough for me....

 

[Biggfoot44]

Actually the once bandied comparison was that a .410 At the Muzzle has same energy , as would a 4in bbl .357 mag 100 yds downrange.

 

[mopar92]

What kind of accesories are on your current 870?

I used to have a Mossberg 500 that with reduced recoil 00 buck could be shot 1 handed with ease.

There's three ways to reduce recoil, both actual and percieved.

1. Add weight, things like lights, shell carriers and extended magazine tubes add weight to the gun making the firearm "absorb" more recoil.
For dirt cheap a stock with a sealed bag of sand can suffice.

2. Softer buttpads, Speedfeed stocks have very soft buttpads and some models allow you to store shells in the buttstock again reducing recoil. Or Blackhawk offers the Knoxx stock that is spring assisted and reduces recoil by about 40%.
Stippling the forend (or adding grip tape to a wooden one) help the support hand have a firmer purchase on the forend allowing it to better control recoil.

3. Reduced power ammunition. Reduced recoil 00 buck and slugs are common and reduce recoil tremendously. Terminal performance isn't very adversely affected and Thugalicious isn't going to notice a 100 FPS difference.
They're also less damaging to the ears if unable to equip ear protection.

4. Proper training in form and technique can help the shooter manage recoil much more effectively.
Commonly referred to as "push-pull" using opposing muscle groups to control the firearm can help tremendously.

ARs and Mini 14s (with good quality SD ammo) are much better in the home as they overpenetrate less often and deliver a large amount of energy. Plus you get additional capacity, easier manual of arms and vastly reduced recoil.

 

[alucard0822]

A carbine would probably be much easier to handle, more compact, lighter recoil, better capacity, but if you must use a shotgun. Mossberg isn't bad as long as you put plenty of rounds through it to shake it out, but I would go with a 12ga JM pro or SPX, MUCH greater capacity and features good for defense. Managed recoil slug or buck recoil is about the same as a 20ga, maybe a little less, and you have a ton more ammo selection. 20ga slugs are OK, but large buckshot doesn't stack as well as it does in 12, so you get odd loading, usually with #3 and #4, also no real managed recoil defensive ammo, so lots of blast and noise with full recoil

 

[Biggfoot44]

Taking into account the difference in weight, the absolute recoil of 20ga and low recoil 12ga will be similar. BUT the 20ga will weigh about a lb less while doing it.

All depends if the primary issue is ease of handling or kick per se.

 

[traveller]

Has anyone shot the SA-20 tactical ?

 

[lazarus]

Frankly I'd just look at a mossy 500 20ga with some reduced recoil buckshot. Or even possibly a 12ga with reduced recoil buckshot. Still going to hit very hard, but the recoil is relatively gentle. Having 24 pellets of #3 going down range is going to ruin someone's whole life real fast.

For over penetration, yeah an FMJ .223/.308 whatever will penetrate further than a shotgun, but slug or even buckshot is going to punch through a couple of walls and still easily retain enough energy to kill someone. Box 'o truth, slug punches through something like 12 sheets of drywall. Almost anything that can kill a person is going to also remain lethal or at least very dangerous most of the length of a house unless it hits something really solid, like a column, heavy furniture or several wall studs.

Actually probably the best HD gun with the least chance of wounding someone through a wall is something like a 10/22 with a 30 round clip loaded with stingers. A round isn't probably going to stop a person, but half a dozen will probably kill them and a dozen absolutely will and stop them pretty fast hitting them a bunch. A stinger is likely to blow up on dry wall and have minimal penetration through it.

That said, my 20ga break action is my HD gun. Handy, reasonably short and with a few shells in my hand I can fire about 1 per 2 seconds in a hurry and I figure in a high stress situation I could still manage every 3 or so seconds. Handier as a club as well. My 870 12ga is my backup if I don't think someone is in my house yet (28" barrel, so it is almost a foot and 2lbs heavier than my 20ga break action). Or I take the 870 and my wife takes the 20ga.

Personally not a scenario I worry too much about, but I've certainly spent sometime thinking about it.

 

[sailskidrive]

Very timely thread.

Interestingly enough, by coincidence very early this morning, approximately 0345, we woke up to a loud crash/banging type of noise. We both heard it and our dog went completely ape sh!t. A few seconds later our Newfoundland was ferociously pawing at the rear slider and after a brief reconsideration I decided to turn her loose. I then proceeded directly to the safe and grabbed an Hk USP since the only loaded magazine I had was for it, that's when I realized that the magazine wouldn't fit in the gun as I added a jet funnel adapter a few years ago. So in a nervous urgency I find myself fumbling through a shoe box looking for a correct mag, which was happened to be new in the wrapper. About a minute later I'm sitting on the steps transferring a few rounds from one mag to the other pondering how poorly prepared I was for the situation.

In retrospect, my response time was way to slow and it probably would have been better to have the dog in the house with us. I plan on discussing this tonight with the spousal unit as the only one who had their sh!t together was the dog.

 

[mopar92]

Very timely thread.

Interestingly enough, by coincidence very early this morning, approximately 0345, we woke up to a loud crash/banging type of noise. We both heard it and our dog went completely ape sh!t. A few seconds later our Newfoundland was ferociously pawing at the rear slider and after a brief reconsideration I decided to turn her loose. I then proceeded directly to the safe and grabbed an Hk USP since the only loaded magazine I had was for it, that's when I realized that the magazine wouldn't fit in the gun as I added a jet funnel adapter a few years ago. So in a nervous urgency I find myself fumbling through a shoe box looking for a correct mag, which was happened to be new in the wrapper. About a minute later I'm sitting on the steps transferring a few rounds from one mag to the other pondering how poorly prepared I was for the situation.

In retrospect, my response time was way to slow and it probably would have been better to have the dog in the house with us. I plan on discussing this tonight with the spousal unit as the only one who had their sh!t together was the dog.

Just do what I do. When you get ready for bed, AR comes out of the safe and goes next to bed. Or take a handgun out before bed.

 

[Sirex]

My wife doesn't want to touch the 12G Mossberg. I HAD a Mossberg 20G, and although I liked it, finding decent HD ammo in 20G was very hard. Walmart carried #4 buck for a while then stopped. I had to special order defensive 20G ammo online and it took forever. Fortunately, with the popularity of the Judge, there has been a good surge of .410 ammo to the market. I got my wife a .410 Mossberg and it is awesome. Just in Walmart today, they had Winchester PDX1, Federal 000 buckshot, and Winchester 000. I also bought some Hornady Critical defense, and some rubber slugs. If you want sometime, you can come with me to shoot it sometime, and test for yourself. Mossberg makes some decent 410s. Some Walmarts (Mt Airy for one) has the longer barrel ones for $267, but I think they have the 5+1 capacity. You could just cut the barrel, or buy a spare to cut, or find a 18" one. My wife's is a 18.5 inch, 5+1 capacity. If they are opposed to a 12G like my wife was/is, I would take a 410 into consideration if you want a shotgun.