I never ran a skeet round with my Mossberg 500. Abominable, cat on a screen door trigger, sez I. Did kill the vast majority of my probable lifetime bird tally with it. Hurts to type that. Actually broke a bolt pin by way of field use - company mailed me the pin gratis, and I hammered it in with a ball-peen. Yup, a real artisan I am.
Ingrate, too. I literally gave it away on "long term, please don't ever let me see it again" loan to a brother. Had a slug barrel, too, and even that took some deer.
That was all before I knew what a M-12 looked like. 870s were more money, albeit "bests", reserved for trap fields. I mean, they had real figured walnut. My mentor never cleaned a shotgun. When, after several zillion trap rounds, his 870 quit he popped two pins, dropped the trigger out, hosed it down with WD40, slapped it together and finished shooting....seemed like 45 seconds. Years later I realized he could just as easily have thrown the entire trigger group in the trash and installed a new one for what....$125??
Now I have a safe full of 42s and 12s. Love 'em. Cannot imagine a Maine October without a 42 in my hands at least a coupla outings. My 16 ga prewar SR "full" M12 is the closest thing to a bankable phez gun in my hands.
My son won't start with a Mossberg. He's partial to a 16 ga M-12 "mod", and flat out loves shooting a repro 42 in .410 NSCA.
Sam
