M14 Forum

hotlead

Thankyou for your service, and thanks for the info.

jmoszer

Heres a shotgun my unit had, Balad Air Base Iraq, about 2007. I wish I would have taken a picture of the receiver, but I am just about positive it was labeled "M500." As you can see, the shotgun is VERY worn, but functioned flawless. I have several videos of some fun at the range with this shotgun. If someone can help me post them, I would be willing to.

tsg68

I know its a necro but thought I'd contribute anyways. The military first became interested in mossbergs after they introduced the 500ATP for law enforcement in the late seventies. They created a milspec requirement for which the 500MILS gun was created. All this gun was is a 500A with all metal components, sling swivels, wood stockset the standard 500A fixed magazine setup. The Navy requested heavy barrels. The second incarnation is the M500MILS which is basically the current base model 590A1 only mossberg hadn't created that designation yet. The main upgrade was the magazine cap to make cleaning and disassembly easier. The variations on the 590A1 basically now have to do with barrel length magazine capacity sights and bayonet lug. All of the variations are based on the same 500 series receiver only 590A1 are receiver marked on left side as such. The M500MILS created the 590A1 as it comples with the spec that Mossberg used. A few actual contract guns that were overruns made it to the civilian market back in the 90's. The military occasionally buys plain 500A pursuaders COTS and as they wear upgrades the parts to milspec.

wspe1

In Afghanistan we used the 590A1s.