Purchasing First Firearm - Suggestions Welcome

[kennymo]

Good choice. Maverick 88’s are one tough gun, and probably the best bargain priced pump shotgun on the market. They’re built by Mossberg and most parts are identical to the Mossberg 500. The safety has been moved from the tang to the trigger guard, and the trigger assembly is made a little more inexpensively. The action bars are moulded into the plastic forend IIRC, so if you ever want to swap it out with 500 parts, you may need a few extra bits.

It should do fine with any 2-3/4” or 3” 12 gauge ammunition. I like to shoot a lot of target loads in the shotguns, they’re far more economical and more than enough for pop bottles and cardboard (clean up your garbage). You can even *gasp* use them for shooting at clays, which can be interesting with a riot length barrel. These will usually contain shot in the #7 to #9 range, be 2-3/4” in length with low brass and light loads.
Buckshot, slugs and game loads for bird hunting will be more expensive, sometimes considerably. I’d avoid spending money on the game loads with the improved cylinder barrel, for target shooting it won’t do much the target loads won’t do. Fire slugs if you want a single projectile, buckshot if you want to make eight or nine largish holes in something. Either of these would be good as a defensive round if you take your gun camping. I usually buy 2-3/4” length in buck and slug, you don’t lose a whole lot of performance from the 3” rounds, but they do seem to kick a hair less.
I’d start with lighter target loads if you haven’t shot much before and work your way up to the heavier stuff. It really depends what you want to do, the beauty of a shotgun is the variety of ammunition you can get for them. May as well try it all....

I don’t like storing in a padded case. The case can trap humidity/moisture up against the firearm, I’ve seen more than one gun turn a nasty shade of orange stored in one. If you do choose that route, make sure it’s clean, moisture free and keep a light coat of oil on it inside and out.

Man I’m long winded. Must be the long weekend....