Mossberg is listening

[John A.]

OK, there have been several of us here who have been asking for shorter THREADED barrels for hunting.

Well, mossberg has finally released a 20" threaded turkey setup. While still not 18.5", I doubt anyone would notice the other 1.5" of barrel sticking out.

But, thanks mossberg for finally listening to those of us who have been threading our own shorter hunting barrels and with good success.

Having interchangable chokes in a compact setup is really handy to pack in the woods and brush gun.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/102031965?pid=278522

 

[tcecil88]

Just saw this post. I have a Mossberg 500 Deer/Turkey Combo that was a gift from my Dad back in 1989. It has a 20" Turkey barrel. They have had several shorter barrel Turkey guns over the years. A buddy of mine has one of the 20" pistol gripped M500 turkey guns he got in the mid 2000's. I also remember the thumbhole turkey guns with 20" barrels. I think the 24" barrels just make better hunting barrels for turkey.
The 20" turkey gun Mossberg has now would certainly do well as a multi purpose shotgun though.
https://www.mossberg.com/product/835-ulti-mag-tactical-turkey-63102/
I bet this one is a real shoulder pounder though...

 

[John A.]

I'm not really knocking whatever mossberg does as I have no say in it.

But this just proves that the word tactical is over-used, misused, and no longer means what it was supposed to.

At least mossberg isn't painting stuff bright green and calling it zombie turkey getter.

 

[tcecil88]

That's very true. They slap the word tactical on everything nowadays. I wish they would give us 18" barrels with choke tubes as an optional barrel. My old 20" turkey gun was my HD gun for along time and if we ever had a SHTF event, I would slap a modified choke tube in it and load it full of buckshot. 2" of extra barrel is not gonna make much difference indoors or out. To echo what you said in the OP, it did make a fine little gun to carry in the woods, it just did not pattern as well with the turkey loads available back then. I moved onto a 28" M500 with a .640 Hastings choke, then bought a 835 turkey gun in 2001 and have hunted with it ever since. I have gotten 11 turkeys with it and missed a handful more over the years since I bought it.

 

[John A.]

That's what I'm using too.

An 18 inch (or probably closer to 18.2") vent rib barrel shortened down and threaded for choke tubes.

I've been carrying it in the woods a while with buckshot and slugs and I'm pretty certain that I have a modified choke in mine too.

A 2" or 1.5" difference in barrel is going to make NO difference, in terms of velocity, ballistics or patterning at any distance you compare the two sizes.

Zero. None. Zilch. Nada. Nothin'.

The only thing is the shorter barrel is a little lighter and barely easier to carry around in thick brush.

You can't even really compare the sight radius between the two because they're so close together that they're statistically the same.