By Terry Houin
The Mossberg 500 Retrograde checks nearly all of the shotgun boxes for me: it’s classic, tactical, sporting, and just fun to run. But why should you own one? Because every red-blooded American should have a walnut-stocked, blued pump shotgun to break clays from the hip, dust coyotes with some buck shot, hunt squirrels, and tell stories from the years of bouncing around in the truck via the scars adorning the stock.
I’m familiar with the 500 platform. It holds a special place in my heart, and, in fact, I have great memories with it from my youth.
My first full year of deer hunting was 1989, and I had a driver’s license to run around the countryside along with a load of family farms to hunt. In November, there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, temps hovered around 30 degrees, and the bucks were moving. With these conditions, how could anyone expect a 16-year-old boy to not ditch the last class of the day and hit the woods?
After stealthily sliding out of school, I made the quick drive to the dairy farm, threw on my Treebark coveralls, orange hat, rubber boots, and grabbed the Mossberg 500 from the rear rack, jamming a handful of slugs in the tube. Within 10 minutes of hitting the woodlot the deer were on their feet. Three young bucks were pushing two does around. It was like I was being rewarded for taking action and skipping class—or so I thought. After what felt like an hour of close calls with the deer in the thick cover—several times within 20 yards—I just couldn’t get a shot on any of them.
I finally got frustrated and tried to make a move but just ended up blowing everything out of the woods. I guess karma for skipping school caught up with me, or it was just my inexperience. Either way, I didn’t kill a deer. On the way back to the truck, I kicked up a rabbit right under my feet. I may not have had much experience deer hunting, but I did know that our rabbits liked to run a big circle and come back to their safe spots. With this in my head I pulled the slug from the chamber, slid a #6 in, and didn’t have to wait long for Mr. Peter Cottontail to return and make his way into the truck for the ride home.
This memory raced through my brain when I first opened up the box from Mossberg and put my hands on the 500 Retrograde. This gun takes me back to my highschool days—a time when you could still go to school with your hunting gear and cut class when the hunting was going to be good. That handed-down 500 hanging from the double gun rack in the rear window of my Ford Ranger accompanied me everywhere, and it was always ready for the field. The 500 Retrograde has a look that will definitely make you nostalgic.
The classic blued action with a solid walnut stock and forend along with the 18.5-inch barrel just makes me want to jump on a horse or kick in some doors and start blasting, so that’s what I did when I got this one—horse excluded. First stop was the clays range to see what this old boy can do. My expectations were far from high as the short barrel and cylinder bore are not conducive to shooting sporting clays. But hey, what the hell? As expected, I struggled to hit anything farther than 20 feet with the 7.5 shot, but it sure was fun shooting clays from the hip. Next stop was the range where we have a door mockup for some basic training. As you can imagine, kicking in a door with a short, classic pump shotgun and blasting the shit out of targets was fun as hell.
There’s something that just feels right about picking up a no-frills walnut-stocked and blued shotgun that carries five in the tube and tossing it in the gun rack to accompany you on whatever adventure the day holds. This is one you need in your collection.
Cost: $651
Pros: It’s a classic look that every American can appreciate; the walnut stock can take a beating and you almost want to put some scratches into it to make it feel right; dual action arms and anti-jam ramp make it a smooth shooter
Cons: Really none, if you’re buying an 18-inch shotgun you know it’s not a hunting rig, although you can get a longer barrel for some squirrel hunting
