Do the Navy and Marines really use the 18" version of the M590A1 (catalog #51411)?  I see mainly the 20" 6 shot version.  But why doesn't Mossberg sell these models to civilians?  Also, can anyone tell me why the 590 20" with heat shield is only available in matt blue?  Anyone have any genuine military pictures with close-up shots of the 18" #51411?  CarrierKey  

Mossberg sells the 590a1 with a 14", 18", and 20" barrel to the public. They all come with a parkerized finish as well.

My 590 and 590 A1 have the heat sheilds and are parkerized.

AFAIK, they actually use a similar model but without the M590A1 engraving and either a 17" or 20" barrel. They are the 500A1 NSN 1005-01-371-4462 and the 500A2 NSN 1005-01-371-5639. The Army uses a parkerized finish PN 50411 500 NSN 1005-01-085-1032. There are a few of the 590 NSN 1005-01-251-8578 and others that have been used as well but those are the most common. Not sure which ones the Air Force might be using.

These are from a Google image search:

USMC:









US Army:



Dustin

Every ship in the fleet has at least a dozen 18" 590A1s on board, most of which are unfired.

Funny a couple of those pictures are hosted on my site. The comments above are correct.

In the sticky the 51411 is refered to as it is the closest production shotgun to the issue USMC shotguns availble. The 17" shotguns are NFA so not availbile to the gernal public, for NFA shotguns you are better off using either the 16" breaching barrels or the standard 14" barrels depending on your application. As for the 20" barrels on the USMC guns. I'm sure to some extent they are not offered as civilian shotguns is market pressure. Mossberg already has several 590/590A1 20" models with extended maag tubes. If a distributer went to Mossberg and wanted to order several thousand 20" 5+1 shotguns Mossberg would turn them out. Since they don't have any other orders for them they don't make them.

The 590A1 SKU's used to only be sold to LE distributers, but often found their way to non-LE dealers from the distributors. Because of that distrobution they were much harder do come across than a 500. I believe it was two years ago that Mossberg made those SKU's availible to all distributors, likely because the SKU's were public and created increased pressure on distibutoers to provide them to more shops. As for the blued heat shield I believe its because they are only offered on the blued 590 line. Limited numbers of the parked heat shields are availible, but most of them are provided by the factory to AimPro Tactical, their LE Service Center.

Hope this helps.

not 14-inch













ETA: not

ch139,

Thos are not 14" 590s. A 14" barrel ends even with the mag cap. The barrel pictured below is a 16 1/4" barrel we provided to DOD.

I see (and added the "not")

Then there's things like this advertised as 18.5-inches... different than the Remingtons I'm so used to

So, 14-inch then?

CH139,

Your first photo is of the 18" barrel version. They look similure because the non-NFA Mossbergs use a differant mag tube then the NFA (in the stickman photo) version. Your second photo with the  Surefire forend is a 14" "Compact" 590. Both models are 5+1 which gives them a very differant llok then a stock 870.

The Mossberg produced 18" breaching barrels for the 870 and the 500/590 are one piece barrels, The bore is about 15" with the last 3" as a stand off which is machined into the barrel when it is made. OAL is 18".  The 16" NFA barrels are made the same way.

I had not known they used a different magazine tube. But they're both 5-shell tubes?

A friend sent me the pic below of his 590A1.



So, I'm thinking most of the above pics by pezboytate are probably showing guns with 20-inch barrels.

Apologize for muddying the waters, I'm just all kinds of curious about this stuff.

So, as "civilians" we can get a gun like the one in the pic my friend sent me... 590A1 with 18+inch bead-sighted barrel. Does Mossberg sell the 590A1 with a 20-inch bead-sighted barrel (the one with the shorter magazine tube as in the mil pics)?

Mossberg only sold/sells the 5+1 20" models on contract. If a distributor wanted to order a large batch Mossberg would make them, but generaly the 20 models in their current line are a better match if you want a 20" model. The Navy and the USMC will general have either a 17" or 20" 5+1 590 type shotgun. It may be marked as a 500 depending on which contract they were procured under. I believe the old contract had the 17" models and the newer contracts are 20". Your Navy pic should be a 17" model.

All of the .mil Mossberg's should be 14" models or the 16" breachers, to bad for me they are not.

Thank you for all the great info, I really appreciate it. I love the Mossberg shotguns, just don't know all too much about them.

Now (like everything else I can't have)  I really want to have a 590A1 5+1 with that 20-inch barrel.