Mossberg M500 Cruiser Shotgun Review

     For a beginner looking for a fairly good gun at a low price, a spring shotgun is the perfect weapon.  No other springer can compete with the high fps, high fire rate and durability of a simple spring shotgun.

     My first impression of this was very good.  It has weight but is far from being heavy and cumbersome.  Everything feels balanced and sturdy.  There is no wobble except when wiggling the pump side to side.  Also, the pistol grip is extremely comfortable.

     Everything seemed quite nice.  Then I looked down the barrel.  No iron sights to speak of.  This was a disappointment, but then again, it is a shotgun.

     The hop up adjustment is a sliding bar on the right side.  It slides with just the right amount of resistance and shouldn't change while shooting.  More on hop in the performance section.

     The mag is directly below hop up adjustment, on the bottom of the gun in front of the trigger guard.  The mag is small and is released by a button at the front of the mag.  The button is wobbly and doesn't feel very durable overall but I haven't had any problems.

     The pump is smooth and easy to cycle.  Pulling the trigger before completing the cycle or holding down the trigger allows you to slam fire, shooting faster.

     The magazine is small and only holds 14 rounds.  This is one major problem with this shotgun.  Particularly because reloading isn't that easy and you can't even buy more magazines for it.

     One thing this gun doesn't lack is power.  Fps isn't abnormally high but is plenty to get the job done.  From the results of the Coke can chrono, I'd put the Fps at between 300 and 350.

     Accuracy is more difficult to judge on this gun than any other.  On one hand, the hop up isn't bad and actual accuracy is pretty darned good.  On the other hand, there are no sights so the great accuracy's usefulness is rather unfortunately limited.

     Fortunately, it is a shotgun, so while the BBs curve downward after around 50', it isn't a major problem as it is made for close quarters.  The lack of sights also takes away any semblance of precision.

     One other feature this shotgun has is slam-fire.  If one pulls the trigger before or during the cycle, the trigger mechanism will lock, allowing this to auto fire.  This means you can hold the trigger and fire much faster than would normally be possible.

The Bottom Line

Pros:

     Official liscenced Mossberg
     Good build quality
     Slam fire
     Decent Fps
     Surprisingly good accuracy

Cons:

     Very low capacity
     No sights

Summary:  

     This is a very nice shotgun for the price (about $30)  I wasn't dissapointed with build quality or performance.  The mag isn't very good and it doesn't have sights or hop up, but is still a good and reliable shotgun in any case.  With its level of accuracy it could almost be a cheap sniper, but the lack of any aiming method destroys that advantage.  I could recommend this as even a primary weapon in CQC but the low capacity limits it to a good sidearm.

Overall Score:  ****

AR&M Performance/Value Score:

0.996