About 23 years ago, I received my Mossberg 590 as a Christmas gift. During that time, I was serving in the United States Marine Corps and I was constantly deploying to one place or another and had very little time to use my brand new 590. I had owned this shotgun nearly a year before I had a chance to shoot it the first time. Here what it has gone through over the years.
In the mid 90’s there were not many accessories available for the Mossberg line, well nothing compared to what is now available today. Some catalogs back then had some shotgun accessories available but they were mostly for the Remington 870, with some for the Mossberg 500/590 like heat shields, pistol grips and the sidesaddles were just starting to become popular. At first I had a pistol grip to put on my 590 at that, I was not sure if I wanted to put a pistol grip on this shotgun. This was due with the safety being up on top of the tang and being left handed this is an excellent place for it to be, I kept the factory stock on it. Later on, I added a heat shield and ghost ring.
Many years later on a Monday, I told to come to the Company office and was told that I was being temporally assigned to unit that would be deploying some time that week and I need to go pack everything up. Normally whenever I would be leaving for more than two months I would take all of my personal items (Firearms, TV and truck) home this time, I did not have the luxury. I put everything that I would not be taking. My Mossberg was on top of a foam matrass along lots of other items. I parked my truck in a friend’s back yard for that winter and left that Thursday for six months. While I was gone, my Mossberg in an unheated truck and was froze, thawed and sweated number of times without being able to clean and oil it as needed. To make matters worse some salt was in the back of the truck
I reposted back to my unit after being deployed for six months and was told welcome home, and since your bags are already packed we are going to deploy to California the day after tomorrow for the summer. I needed to find some other place to keep my truck at for the summer. I parked my truck at another friend’s house a few miles from the beach. I saw my Mossberg 590 and it was in poor shape. I had no place, where I could break it down and scrub the rust off nor did I have the time to do it. About all I had, time to do was to spray it down with a good coat of Rem Oil. I was personally embarrassed at state of my 590.
We spent the summer in California and we were scheduled to come back to North Carolina in early September. That was in 2001 and we all know what happened that month. With the war just starting, the Marines now had a lot more on our plate and we now had real world thing to handle. My 590 was still in the back of my truck and covered with rust. One weekend I drove home and I put my 590 what I still needed to work on in a closet and forgot about it. After that, we went over seas.
A few years later after I left the Marines, I returned home and my Mossberg was still in the closet. I had changed, I did not care for firearms or shooting in anyway. Now I was not anti-gun, I just did not want anything at all to do with them. My Mossberg 590 sat untouched in the closet for a decade. It had been over thirteen years since I even shot it. During the non-shooting time in my life, I did not want anything to do with any of my guns, but I did not get rid of them.
In 2013 during the assault weapons ban scare, my interest in firearms started to return. My girlfriend who hardly knew about the guns that was in the closet. My almost mother in-law got a J-frame Smith and did not know how to shoot. She asked me to take her to the range and show her the ropes. Granted I was ten years out of practice. We went to the range and I had brought my P-99 It turned out that I was somewhat rusty but I could still put rounds in the black.
A few weeks later I had done some work around the house where my girlfriend ended up giving me a blank “We will go do something that you want to do” type of check. Since it was cold out, going to a nude beach was out of the question. We spent a few hours shooting pistol. That evening I had admitted to myself that I enjoy shooting.
Later that night I took my long neglected Mossberg 590 out of the closet and gave it the detailed cleaning that it needed. The heat shield was very pitted, so I took it off the shotgun and just I set it aside. It only had a little rust on the bolt and on other parts on the inside within 15 min all the rust on the bolt, and on 590, itself was gone. It still took about an hour to clean; I forgot to clean after the last time I shot it as well. With a heavy coat of CLP, it looked great again. The heat shield was most of the reason I kept kicking the can down the road and bought a new one.
I took my now clean and no longer rusty 590 with me to the range. They only allow slugs to be fired at this range I put a target out at about 75 feet. I aimed my 590 and went to move the safety to fire, nothing happened. The switch had been in that position for so long that it would not move. Good thing I never had to use this shotgun for defense. I unloaded my 590 and pushed hard on the switch until it moved. I loaded the slugs back in the tube, aimed and pulled the trigger. I could not see where I had hit. Was I that out of practice that I could not even hit paper? No, I was in the black and then I proceeded to shoot the rest of the box of slugs all in the same area. My Mossberg 590 is still shooting like a champ.
I now go to the range at least once a week, about half the time more than once. I now have a few new pistol and rifles. I am getting started in 3-gun and now have a Mossberg 930 JM Pro. My Mossberg 590 is still my favorite though it had a rough spell. It is a tough shotgun that works.
In the mid 90’s there were not many accessories available for the Mossberg line, well nothing compared to what is now available today. Some catalogs back then had some shotgun accessories available but they were mostly for the Remington 870, with some for the Mossberg 500/590 like heat shields, pistol grips and the sidesaddles were just starting to become popular. At first I had a pistol grip to put on my 590 at that, I was not sure if I wanted to put a pistol grip on this shotgun. This was due with the safety being up on top of the tang and being left handed this is an excellent place for it to be, I kept the factory stock on it. Later on, I added a heat shield and ghost ring.
Many years later on a Monday, I told to come to the Company office and was told that I was being temporally assigned to unit that would be deploying some time that week and I need to go pack everything up. Normally whenever I would be leaving for more than two months I would take all of my personal items (Firearms, TV and truck) home this time, I did not have the luxury. I put everything that I would not be taking. My Mossberg was on top of a foam matrass along lots of other items. I parked my truck in a friend’s back yard for that winter and left that Thursday for six months. While I was gone, my Mossberg in an unheated truck and was froze, thawed and sweated number of times without being able to clean and oil it as needed. To make matters worse some salt was in the back of the truck
I reposted back to my unit after being deployed for six months and was told welcome home, and since your bags are already packed we are going to deploy to California the day after tomorrow for the summer. I needed to find some other place to keep my truck at for the summer. I parked my truck at another friend’s house a few miles from the beach. I saw my Mossberg 590 and it was in poor shape. I had no place, where I could break it down and scrub the rust off nor did I have the time to do it. About all I had, time to do was to spray it down with a good coat of Rem Oil. I was personally embarrassed at state of my 590.
We spent the summer in California and we were scheduled to come back to North Carolina in early September. That was in 2001 and we all know what happened that month. With the war just starting, the Marines now had a lot more on our plate and we now had real world thing to handle. My 590 was still in the back of my truck and covered with rust. One weekend I drove home and I put my 590 what I still needed to work on in a closet and forgot about it. After that, we went over seas.
A few years later after I left the Marines, I returned home and my Mossberg was still in the closet. I had changed, I did not care for firearms or shooting in anyway. Now I was not anti-gun, I just did not want anything at all to do with them. My Mossberg 590 sat untouched in the closet for a decade. It had been over thirteen years since I even shot it. During the non-shooting time in my life, I did not want anything to do with any of my guns, but I did not get rid of them.
In 2013 during the assault weapons ban scare, my interest in firearms started to return. My girlfriend who hardly knew about the guns that was in the closet. My almost mother in-law got a J-frame Smith and did not know how to shoot. She asked me to take her to the range and show her the ropes. Granted I was ten years out of practice. We went to the range and I had brought my P-99 It turned out that I was somewhat rusty but I could still put rounds in the black.
A few weeks later I had done some work around the house where my girlfriend ended up giving me a blank “We will go do something that you want to do” type of check. Since it was cold out, going to a nude beach was out of the question. We spent a few hours shooting pistol. That evening I had admitted to myself that I enjoy shooting.
Later that night I took my long neglected Mossberg 590 out of the closet and gave it the detailed cleaning that it needed. The heat shield was very pitted, so I took it off the shotgun and just I set it aside. It only had a little rust on the bolt and on other parts on the inside within 15 min all the rust on the bolt, and on 590, itself was gone. It still took about an hour to clean; I forgot to clean after the last time I shot it as well. With a heavy coat of CLP, it looked great again. The heat shield was most of the reason I kept kicking the can down the road and bought a new one.
I took my now clean and no longer rusty 590 with me to the range. They only allow slugs to be fired at this range I put a target out at about 75 feet. I aimed my 590 and went to move the safety to fire, nothing happened. The switch had been in that position for so long that it would not move. Good thing I never had to use this shotgun for defense. I unloaded my 590 and pushed hard on the switch until it moved. I loaded the slugs back in the tube, aimed and pulled the trigger. I could not see where I had hit. Was I that out of practice that I could not even hit paper? No, I was in the black and then I proceeded to shoot the rest of the box of slugs all in the same area. My Mossberg 590 is still shooting like a champ.
I now go to the range at least once a week, about half the time more than once. I now have a few new pistol and rifles. I am getting started in 3-gun and now have a Mossberg 930 JM Pro. My Mossberg 590 is still my favorite though it had a rough spell. It is a tough shotgun that works.
