I haven't had a shotgun since I was 14. I've since started to collect a few guns, and finally decided I needed a shotgun. Since I don't hunt with one, I just picked up a 500 Persuader. It was cheap. $207 was all. It came with the new popular Black Walnut stock that looks a lot like black plastic, as well as the extremely useful pistol grip stock... :wink: I thought it would be a decent home defense weapon, and deep down I had visions of blowing the crap out of 12 points using buckshot. Well, for home defense it's great. For buckshot beyond about 10 yards it's worthless. I tried Brenneke 9 pellet 2.75" 00 and Winchester 12 pellet 2.75" 00 in it. At 25 yards I had 5 out of 9 pellets of the Brenneke on paper, and only 4 out of 12 for the Winchester :shock: 18.5" cylinder bore is a horrible scattergun for hunting. With slugs it's a entirely different animal though. With just the bead site I was grouping about 2" at 25 yards with plain Slugger 2.75" slugs. hmmm I liked it! After adding a weaver rail and a Millett red dot I could do about 2" at 50 yards. This is comparable to what I can do with a scoped NEF UltraSlugger rifled barrel shotgun. I was impressed! Since the average deer where I hunt is taken at about 30 yards, I might try and neck shoot one with it this fall. I usually use a 50cal smokepole, even in rifle season and only take neck shots.
The forearm on it wobbles, I hear this is normal. The action is very smooth. The top mounted safety is stiff, but it has a great location. I like it. It doesn't weigh anything, and kicks like a mule, even with the rubber buttpad my shoulder started crying after about 15 rounds. The included pistol grip stock is a joke, just for looks. You couldn't hit anything shooting it with one, and your wrists would take a severe beating. For that matter the black plastic stock is cheap. But it works well. You can buy about any worthless accessory you want for it. Heat shield, folding stock, tactical lights, but why? Actually, for home defense a little bright maglite duct taped to the forearm might be handy.
For it's intended use, short range home defense I give it an "A"
For short range slug hunting it gets a "B"
For anything else a "real" hunting shotgun is for it gets an "F"
At $200 it's a deal, if you want a cheap very functional HD weapon.
- Joe
