by Rich Grassi

Mossberg FLEX 500 Tactical shotgun shown with Insight Mini Red Dot Sight (MRDS) and Winchester PDX1 Slug with 3 00 Buck Pellets load

The buzz word in military small arms these days is "modular." We've gone from the dedicated war-fighting piece - the musket, the rifle, the bolt gun (Mauser, 1903A3, M1917), the auto-loader (Garand, M14) and the M16 - to the M4 and variants. The idea was to make the piece more mission-appropriate instead of moving to another weapon system. Clearly, the .mil types have had some success. In extreme cases, the weight of modern carbines approach or exceed the loaded weight of main caliber battle rifles. While shorter, they get heavy quickly. The concept wasn't lost on old-line American gun-maker O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc. As the largest shotgun brand in the U.S., holding over 40 worldwide military contracts and making one of the two LE/defense shotguns I prefer - the Model 590A1, choice of the U.S. Military for more than 25 years - it was time to take what we had and move it forward. Mossberg developed the FLEX over a period of years in the belief that modularity in weapon systems should be extended to the most versatile and oft misunderstood fowling piece. The centerpiece of the system is a Tool-less Locking System. A durable method of quick-change stock and fore-end attachments means you can go from goose-gun to upland game, to junior's skeet gun - to a defense model with a six-position collapsible stock with a cheese-grater Picatinny fore-end ideal for hanging lights, lasers, curb-feelers and who knows what all on board. The fact that it's quick-change in the field with no tools is a boon. Our first day on the range at a Gunsite media event was consumed with "getting the deal." Everyone forgot that the idea behind FLEX is flexibility! By the second day, the pair of Flex 500 Tactical guns, both in chic tan finishes, had shorter stocks than the supplied gargantuan 14" "standard Length Of Pull" stocks.

Michael Turbyfill, PR Specialist for Winchester Ammo, shown here crowding the shotgun with his thumb over the wrist of the stock; quick way to a busted lip! Short stocks mean thumbs off the wrist.

Whoever came up with the idea of a 14" LOP for a shotgun either always shot low-brass at little flying discs or didn't know how we'd employ the shotgun in defense/LE scenarios. It doesn't matter now: buy the Flex 500 and you can have it for your 6'5" basketball player who wants to go on a quail hunt as well as for the 10 year old who's breaking his first clay birds - with everything in between. I've never said Mossberg was perfect, but I have said they're damn good. The Model 590A1 in my inventory has the mil style gas pipe barrel, ghost ring sights and a 13" length of pull "Bantam" stock. The current Model 500 Thunder Ranch gun likewise has the shorter stock on board. To manufacturers: This is what detectives call "a clue." The Mossberg Flex 500 Tacticals we passed around at Gunsite never choked. We stuffed them full of low-brass birdshot and slugs and they churned them out just like Mossberg 500s always do. The "tactical rail" fore-ends came off and the smooth fore-ends remained. The Flex 500 Tactical guns hammered Pepper Poppers from 100 yards using Winchester PDX1 Defender and Segmented slugs. They were also the choice for the Scrambler, with targets out to 90 yards or so. Our two guns were equipped with the Insight MRDS, a tiny reflex sight. The stocks were not "scope stocks" with high combs, so we were shooting "heads up," letting the gun get a running start at the cheek. Gradually, the sights came off, but they were fast to acquire on high speed multiple target drills and precise enough for 100-yard steel shooting. One thing about shooting the short stock shotgun. After we changed both Flex 500 Tacticals to shorter stocks, we noticed some of our shooters were sporting a fat lip. We don't wrap our thumbs around the wrist of the stock - it's a good aspect of the tang mounted Mossberg safety, it reminds you to flag your thumb. I thought it was a self-resolving problem, but in the heat of a shooting competition (won by Petersen's Hunting Associate Editor David Faubion, congratulations!), we experienced some recidivism. When you're ready to buy a shotgun, the Flex System by Mossberg deserves your attention. I'm hoping the .mil types see the value in the concept so that someday I'll have a Flex 590A1. After all, if it's not a Flex, you're pretty well stuck with the gun you got. http://www.mossberg.com/ http://www.winchester.com