People that may try to steer you away from a Mossberg or people that may bad mouth them have often never even tried one. They are the Lee of the rifle business. I didn't care for the older mod 800's and until the patriot came out, didn't care for the looks. But I've had several different mod 500 shotguns and while they were not a high dollar gun, they were a nice gun that people that could not afford better could afford the 500. Well the Patriot's I've bought, just got them this year, impress me. They have wood stocks, a very good trigger and are very accurate. I don't have a complaint one. In both of them I have quite a bit less invested than I do in my mod 70 feather weight and they out shoot it! I could do without the fluting but it obviously doesn't bother me much either. Same with the plastic betting system for the action and the magazine well. But time will tell! Today I can do nothing but compliment Mossberg one making such a nice rifle affordable. Make no mistake, it is not a mod 70 or even a mod 700 but then it cost a lot less and shoot's better out of the box!