The 870 is king, I will definitely agree to that. Nova is awkward at best, not slick and ergonomic like the 870, for me anyway. Not had a jamming problem with any Mossbergs(except the 9200 auto,real crap), turkey loads, pheasant loads, slugs, none of them in multiple 500's and 835's. Not a waterfowl guy so I wouldn't know about those loads. Having said that, I don't own one anymore because I hardly use a shotgun, went with Beretta 390 and stuck with it because it sits there mostly.