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Silver's offer is a great deal! However, if you decide it should be a Remington, I recommend the model 870 Express HD. It's an 18" cyl bore parkerized gun that is absolutely perfect for home defense. They can be had for $250 - $275 new. The choice between Mossy and Rem is largely personal, kinda like Ford vs Chevy. Either can be customized to your satisfaction easily.
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I completely agree with gus.
Having owned both the 590A1 and numerous 870s I can vouch for the fact that either is a superb defensive shotgun.
Currently I own 3 different 870 models. Vintage Wingmaster, new SPS SuperMag for waterfowling and a HD model that I am customizing further.
If you have ever looked at Scattergun Technologies (Now part of Wilson Combat) then you have seen what is probably the best defensive packages known for the 870.
You can take a cheap HD 870 and start adding on as there is a plethora of goodies available for the 870.
You can add a heat sheild, side saddle and extend the capacity by 2 rds. all for about $90 and have one serious defensive weapon.
Furthermore, you can send an old junker 870 of any model to Wilson and get their[size=3] [b][green] Remington Steal[/b][/green][/size=3] package which consists of many improvements including but not limited to converting to 3", shortening barrell if needed, re-parking the entire weapon, poly coating the internals, bumping to 7 rds for 18" version, adding jumbo headed safety, adding 4 or 6 rd. side saddle, adding new synthetic stock and fore-end and adding tac sling and swivels and replacing any worn out parts..........there may be more but that is all I can remember. All this for about $189 I think.
Not a bad deal really if you figure you can get a asthetically worn out but functionally usable 870 for less than $200 any day of the week.
This would put you still below your $400 window.
Hope this helps.......[url]www.wilsoncombat.com/sgt/sgtindex.htm[/url]