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The barrel swapping would be perfectly doable in a hunting camp. Long barrel for birding and swapping it out in the evening for any "bumps in the night." The point was that you get both in a package deal so you have both complimentary barrels in one purchase.
All of the lock-up in a Mossberg is steel to steel. The receiver being aluminum is no bigger a deal than it is on an AR rifle, both proven through far more real world scrapes than a duck hunter will ever serve up.
As to the safety switch and the trigger plate. On a 590A1 both are made of metal. On a 500, both are end user swappable if the plastic is really a problem. The most common 870 on the market today, the 870 Express, has, you guessed it, a plastic trigger plate too. The plastic trigger group has now crept into the 870P too thanks to the profit taking of the Cerebus Group that runs Remington. Oh and the Express has, a MIM extractor, and only one of those POS units where a Mossberg has dual extractors. The Express has a MIM ejector in it too.
The funny thing about Cerebus cheapening the 870 is that the 870 was originally a price cutting model to compete better against the Winchester Model 12. The Remington Model 31, which I like, BTW, couldn't compete cost wise against the wildly popular Winchester. However, as the Winchester's all machined, hand fitted construction costs continued to escalate in price post war, the "cheaply" made 870, consisting of a then-radical amount of stampings and music wire springs and such, began taking over the market. It happened to be good, but the market was swung on the lower bottom line than Winchester could meet. Once designed to meet a rock bottom production cost point, today the 870 is being pushed to an even lower production cost target by taking material shortcuts that were simply not ever designed into the gun in the first place.
Lo and behold, the Mossberg 500 came along in 1960, using basically the same superior feed system that was the heart the Model 31. The 500 also used an aluminum receiver, which was no problem apparently when Remington was making and selling the M31L, which had, gasp, an aluminum receiver.
Essentially, the 870 was produced to be something like a cheap Winchester Model 12, the 500 a cheaper version of the M31L.
As to the term "slam fire" that's why I put it in quotes. Even if erroneously, most people call the pump actuated fire on a shotgun without a trigger disconnector, "slam-firing." I am not defending or advocating that term, I only used it for the sake of convenience.
All of the lock-up in a Mossberg is steel to steel. The receiver being aluminum is no bigger a deal than it is on an AR rifle, both proven through far more real world scrapes than a duck hunter will ever serve up.
As to the safety switch and the trigger plate. On a 590A1 both are made of metal. On a 500, both are end user swappable if the plastic is really a problem. The most common 870 on the market today, the 870 Express, has, you guessed it, a plastic trigger plate too. The plastic trigger group has now crept into the 870P too thanks to the profit taking of the Cerebus Group that runs Remington. Oh and the Express has, a MIM extractor, and only one of those POS units where a Mossberg has dual extractors. The Express has a MIM ejector in it too.
The funny thing about Cerebus cheapening the 870 is that the 870 was originally a price cutting model to compete better against the Winchester Model 12. The Remington Model 31, which I like, BTW, couldn't compete cost wise against the wildly popular Winchester. However, as the Winchester's all machined, hand fitted construction costs continued to escalate in price post war, the "cheaply" made 870, consisting of a then-radical amount of stampings and music wire springs and such, began taking over the market. It happened to be good, but the market was swung on the lower bottom line than Winchester could meet. Once designed to meet a rock bottom production cost point, today the 870 is being pushed to an even lower production cost target by taking material shortcuts that were simply not ever designed into the gun in the first place.
Lo and behold, the Mossberg 500 came along in 1960, using basically the same superior feed system that was the heart the Model 31. The 500 also used an aluminum receiver, which was no problem apparently when Remington was making and selling the M31L, which had, gasp, an aluminum receiver.
Essentially, the 870 was produced to be something like a cheap Winchester Model 12, the 500 a cheaper version of the M31L.
As to the term "slam fire" that's why I put it in quotes. Even if erroneously, most people call the pump actuated fire on a shotgun without a trigger disconnector, "slam-firing." I am not defending or advocating that term, I only used it for the sake of convenience.