The Mossberg 510 "mini"

Mossberg has a new youth shotgun out. New being about 6 months ago. It's called the 510 "mini". Made in the USA, and modeled on the old standby model 500. You can get one in either 20 ga or .410. The .410 is obviously easier on the shoulder, but not on the wallet, nor ones confidence.

In Mossberg's nomenclature, a 500 is a standard size shotgun, a 505 is a scaled down youth shotgun. Thus one would expect the 510 to be even smaller yet, and it is. Here is a pic of the 20 gauge next to my 18 1/4" barreled home defense 12 ga.


Yeah, it's that small.

Mossberg did it right, and it comes stock with a set of 3 chokes, and it should use standard 20-gauge Mossberg/Winchester/Accu-chokes like all US built Mossbergs. It also comes with a stock spacer to add an inch to the length of pull later if one wants.

The factory plug is actually long enough that it plugs the entire magazine, so you can use it as a single shot if you want. The plug is just a normal wooden dowel, so you can cut it to length to make the magazine hold 2 (for hunting migratory birds) or to just one if you want the gun to only hold two for shooting clays.

Now the bad news: at just over 5 lbs, it kicks like an angry dyspeptic mule. This is with standard "target" loads. Since the 510 is built on a normal 20 ga frame it is actually chambered for 3" magnums as well. (thanks, but no thanks)

Size wise, it fits my 9-year old daughter perfectly, but I WILL have to handload to make it comfortable to shoot. Anyone have any extra light 20 ga recipes?