What Would YOU Do?
A simple question for this learned crew.
Someone gave me a Mossberg 500 in 20 gauge today. BTW, all of my ammo, if I had any, might be 12 gauge.
Should I just toss this thing on the burn pile?
There are some after-market sorta neat things for the 500 it seems, but I dunno.
ETA: Perhaps I should have explained, but it seemed apparent. “What do you need with another gun?” That question, stated in THE voice made me wonder.
Category: Geezer Alert!
That’s a joke, right?
Shucks, what COULD you do?
Go get some shells for it!
Have fun with it. Tac stock, new barrel (12 ga if you like), shorter or longer barrel, sling, scope, blam. blam blam!
2/17 Air Cav #2: Mind if I cite your reply for The Wife?
Send it to me.
Zero, shoot it. Few things in life are as much fun as a 20 guage. With the 500 series, you can’t readily switch from 20 to 12, but you can add a youth stock and let the wife shoot it.
#4 shot trunk gun. Beat the snot out of it and it will keep coming back for more.
Zero, you can send it to me…
🙂
Honestly, I’d probably put it up for trade unless I had a friend or kids that were ready to begin learning about shotguns.
Joe “Bite-Me” Biden says: go out on the deck and shoot it in the air…or shoot it through the door…oooops, sorry Girl Scout cookie seller.
i’ll take it. or use the 12 guage shells as a trade
Go bear hunting. Or get a rebuilt WWII Kaiser-Willys Jeep and mount it on the gun mount in the center of the Jeep.
I have a 500 ATP with pistol grip and sling. 5+1 chamber/barrel.
But to answer your question; buy ammo for any weapons lacking in such, and seek a weapon for any idle ammo size/caliber.
20 is a good gauge for youth or petite women. Use for when relatives come over and want to go shooting.
20g is still more powerful than .44mag. And it’s a very viable weapon.
Good score there, Zero! It would make a great house weapon that anyone could shoot, with or without much training.
Perhaps we could talk about trading some ammo for it?? (Not that I would have any, of course, but we both know folks who know folks who know.)
Oh, and if you MUST toss it, there’s a burn pile out back here that I will volunteer for that purpose.
Saw off the barrel.
Somebody gave me a f–ing 16 gauge…what did I do with it? I cleaned all the dust off it and found ammo. My grand daughter is only 18 months old, but it’ll be her first shotgun. If you have no little kids to train, save it for when you’re old and weak and stuck in a wheel chair…it might be all you can shoot in old age.
CI Roller Dude #19: Perfect! Many thanks.
trade it to the cops,,buy-back program for an expended missile launcher tub!! convert said tube too a water squriter and let yer kid soak all the idiot school administrators! yee haw
Obviously the person who gave it to you is directly insulting your manhood, and thus the only valid response is to challenge them to a duel the next day with .45 man pistols.
I haven’t been able to afford a new gun in quite some time, I’ll gladly take it off your hands.
Get some shells! In fact, go to cheaperthandirt and get some of those fancy shells. Flachettes, bean bags, pyros, smokers.
Get an extra barrel for it.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, 20 gauge packs plenty of punch, and it’s much easier to come by than 12 is right now!
You do not have to send it to me, I will gladly come fetch from you. Of course, on the way back home, it may fall out of my boat whist crossing numerous bodies of water.
There sure is a lot of macho bravado B.S. being spread around here on this topic. I had a Mossberg 12 gauge pump that kicked like the proverbial mule. For an old fart like me me at 71, it was too damn much and there was no way my 66 year old wife could handle it.
Traded it in on a Remington 20 gauge pump with a pistol grip and tactical stock, a much more manageable weapon for both of us.
All you you studs whose bravado still outweighs your brain matter need to learn the very basic lesson that a weapon is only as effective as the ability of the bearer to effectively bring it on target and fire for effect.
Big don’t mean shit if you can’t shoot it and hit what you intend.
Who are you and what have you done to Jon? Keep it or give it to the Scouts! Ammo’s not that hard to find and the 20ga is a pleasure to shoot.
A 20 ga. is a very fast handling field gun. In a lot of hunting camps it is the preferred gun for grouse and dove. My son bought about 6 boxes of shells for his 12 ga. I asked him where his 20 ga. was . Oops, wrong shells. I wish someone would give me a 500-20 it would go nicely with my 500-12 eight shot.
Hell yes, keep it and enjoy it. It just might convert you.
20ga is plenty. Around here (Michigan), deer are so thick that they have to share trees to hide. The woods are so wild that the average range is less than 30 yards. I hunted 20 years with a bolt action 12ga….. a 20ga would be a sweet slug slinger.
In the 60s my preferred gun was a 22/.410 killed a lot of squirrels and rabbits with the .22 and ducks with the .410
Am I the only one here who felt safer in the field (Vietnam) than in the woods on deer opener? bam bam bam bam bam bam
Every punk and drunk heads out with a borrowed gun and 300 rounds to “practice” with.
@31, Mr H, I hear you, it’s that way here in the South as well.
1. Have some special slug with high load ammo made.
2. Keep weapon loaded and at the ready in the truck of your car or behind the seat of your pick-up (if you live in West Virginia).
3. Use this weapon if you ever encounter an armed criminal while in a parking lot, on the road, and or if you are caused to retreat to your vehicle.
I picked one up for my wife a few years ago and have to admit I enjoy shooting it as much if not more than my other shotguns! I have turned it into a “scarry black” gun for her and she loves it. Very good all around gun.
I love my 20! I do all my small game hunting with a 20 gauge now. More shot than my old .410 (and way cheaper to buy ammo) but not as messy as picking all the shot from my 12 gauge out of a rabbit. I save the 12 for duck and goose hunting or shoot slugs out of it for deer hunting in the parts of my state that do not allow rifles. You can shoot skeet with the 20 all day and not feel it the next!
20-gauge is a sweet shooting gun. If I recall correctly, it has way less “kick” than a 12-gauge; I’d say 1/2 as much. Very easy to handle.
It’s been a while, but I seem to recall that the 20-gauge also has/used to have a 3″ magnum shell that was roughly equivalent to a standard 12-gauge shell in terms of powder and shot load. If this one is capable of handling that round (I seem to recall that not all older 20-gauges years ago were capable of using the 3″ magnum round) and it’s still made, that might broaden the range of possible use considerably. And it might also be a damn good choice to keep handy and/or loaded for potential defensive use, too.
Sanitize it and keep it as a throw down.
Stick it in a closet for a rainy day.
I’ve got a whole bunch of guns I’ve never even shot (mostly inherited) just because.
Shit, I’m trying to decide between an FAL, an Uzi carbine (when back in stock) or a Mk12 Mod 0 (when lowers are back in stock).
Pheasant hunting is good. Pheasant tastes like chicken. Turkey season approaches.
20ga + ammo + oven + bird = dinner at minimum expense, lots of fun.
“Should I just toss this thing on the burn pile?”
Firstly, you should slap yourself, you daft bastard….
Whenever my wife says that crap, I tell her “NEED” and “WANT” are two different things. I don’t need it, I want it. I don’t say anything when she “wants” another purse, do I? Plus, that is a pretty sweet gun for for being free. I was thinking of a 20ga over/under but the prices on those are outa my range. 20ga is the perfect gun for bird hunting too.
@40 The Answer of the Day!! Haahaahaahaahaa
Either buy shells and have a blast with it, or sell it to Tactical Trunk Monkey…
Your choice.