Trash cannon? Or portable powerhouse?

Mossberg 590S Shockwave

Mossberg 590S Shockwave

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Tales of a Gun. Up today is my Mossberg 590S Shockwave.

What is a Shockwave? Technically it’s not a shotgun. Shotguns have to have an 18” barrel, whereas the Shockwave has a 14”. Instead it’s a “firearm,” because by definition a shotgun is shoulder fired, and Shockwaves have never had stocks attached. If you buy one that way, it’s all good. If you try to convert an existing gun into a Shockwave configuration? Felony. If you put a stock on a Shockwave, without jumping through Uncle Sam’s hoops, and paying the squeeze? That’s right. Felony. If you feel inclined to write your personal congress-critter and mention that gun laws are ridiculous, I would not blame you.

What makes it a 590S, instead of just a 590? It’s set up from the factory to feed the new 1.75” 12 gauge mini-shells from Aguila and Federal. (It’ll also run standard 2.75” and 3'“ magnums.) When loaded with the shorties, it holds 8 rounds in the tube, plus the one in the chamber. The same capacity as my 20” 590 Mariner with standard shells. That’s a lot of firepower in a small package.

This has been a controversial gun since it first came out. Even such luminaries as 'Gun Jesus,' (aka Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons,) famously mocked it when it was first released. (At SHOT Show, and to directly to Mossberg.)

Like most gun nerds, I had played around with a pistol grip shotgun at one time. (This one was built out of the beater grade Mossberg 500 my brother acquired for a pittance when we were teens.) Like most people, I soon realized just how miserable a weapon the PGO shotgun is. Hip firing is horribly inaccurate, recoil is brutal on the wrist, and if you hold the gun incautiously, it can do serious damage. One gentleman of our acquaintance, disgusted with missing from the hip, held it up to sight like a regular shotgun, and promptly got bashed in the mouth. The resulting scar was the origin story for an epic mustache that followed.

Thus it was, that I was inclined to agree with Ian and the rest of the nay-sayers. "That 'trash cannon' is a terrible idea! You'll never hit anything, 'cept maybe yourself!"

But as it was out a bit longer, folks started to mention that the "Raptor grip," the odd knobby thing Mossberg used instead of a traditional pistol grip to achieve the required 26" overall length, actually handled recoil much better. It moved enough in the hand, rather than directing all the force into the wrist.

Then too, a new (to me, at least,) technique for running shotguns had been developed, the push-pull. Instead of taking all the recoil on the shoulder, (or wrist, like a PGO,) one pulled back as usual with the firing hand, but pushed forward with the pump hand, creating isometric tension. I'd played with that idea a bit with a full-stocked shotgun, and it seemed to work.

At this point my curiosity started to creep up on me. I wanted to know how it would work with a "trash cannon." When the 590S variant came out, which could feed and fire 1.75" minishells with no modification, I was sold. When Mrs. Jesse asked if I had any ideas for a birthday, I was quick to answer.

I got it, and started to play. The comparison with the full-stocked version is interesting. Anyone used to steel and wood shotguns who picks up a 500 or 590, with the aluminum receiver and hollow plastic stock is shocked by how light they are. That's not the case with the Shockwave. The receiver is still aluminum, but when they cut it down, everything they cut off were the light parts. The hollow plastic stock. The thinly tapered part of the barrel. Part of the magazine tube. They left the heavy part of the barrel around the chamber, they left the big steel nut at the end of the mag tube.

Still, the learning curve was actually surprisingly short. I started out nervously hip firing, anticipating the painful recoil of the PGO, but the buzz turned out to be true. The raptor grip and push-pull method made all the difference. I held it up to eye level, (carefully, I know I can't grow an epic mustache,) and found that it worked just about as well as a standard pump.

Is it slower and less accurate than a stocked gun? Yes, but only by a few percentage points, not by orders of magnitude. But it can fit in places that a stocked gun cannot. The phrases "truck gun," and "vehicle defense," seem especially apt.

I'd hoped to have a comparison video to demonstrate, but winter had other ideas. Hopefully that will come next week.