Description
The Mossberg 500 410 Bore is the small-game version of the most-produced pump shotgun in American history, and the .410 chambering changes what it is for rather than how it works. Everything that makes a 500 a 500 is still here: twin action bars, a tang safety that works the same whether you are right or left handed, and a steel receiver that has been in continuous production since 1960.
What the .410 brings is a gun a smaller shooter can carry all day and shoot without dread. At 6.25 pounds and 43.75 inches it is a proper full-length shotgun rather than a cut-down one, which means it mounts and swings like the gun a young shooter will move on to, while producing a fraction of the recoil.
The barrel is 24 inches with a vent rib and a fixed full choke, and the receiver is machined for a scope base, which tells you exactly what Mossberg had in mind: squirrels, rabbits and turkeys at the far end of what a .410 will do.
What the specification is telling you
- A fixed full choke shotgun is built to hold a pattern at distance rather than open it up close, which is the right answer for small game and the wrong one for clays at fifteen yards.
- Dual bead sights, front and mid-rib, which is a clays and field arrangement rather than a defensive one.
- The blued receiver carries an integral scope mount, so a red dot or a low-power optic goes on without drilling anything.
- A 3 in. chamber, so both 2-1/2 in. and 3 in. shells will chamber and fire.
- Twin action bars, which is the reason 500s do not bind when you work the slide off-square.
Mossberg 500 410 Bore fit, feel and the tang safety
- Fixed hardwood stock with a 13.875 in. length of pull, which is a full-size dimension.
- Ambidextrous tang safety on top of the receiver, reachable with the thumb of either hand without breaking grip.
- Blued barrel and receiver with a wood forend, which is the traditional look rather than the tactical one.
- 6.25 lb, light enough to carry through a morning without becoming a chore.
- 43.75 in. overall, so it needs a full-length case rather than a compact one.
Mossberg 500 410 Bore specifications
- Model: Mossberg 50104
- Gauge: .410 bore
- Chamber: 3 in.
- Capacity: 5+1
- Barrel: 24 in., vent rib, blued
- Choke: fixed full
- Sights: dual bead
- Receiver: blued steel with integral scope mount
- Stock: fixed hardwood
- Length of pull: 13.875 in.
- Overall length: 43.75 in.
- Weight: 6.25 lb.
- Hand: right
- UPC: 015813501040
The fixed full choke is the whole character of the Mossberg 500 410 Bore
This barrel does not take choke tubes. The constriction is full and it is permanent, and that single fact decides what the gun is good at.
Full choke holds a .410 pattern together at thirty yards and beyond, which is exactly what you want on a squirrel in a tree or a turkey at the edge of the range. It is the wrong choke for close-range clays, for rabbits jumping at ten yards, or for anything where you need the pattern to open quickly. If you want one .410 that does everything, this is not it; if you want a .410 that reaches, it is.
Ammunition, and a note on shell length
Unlike the short-chambered .410 handguns we sell, a Mossberg 500 410 Bore has a 3 in. chamber, so the whole .410 shelf is open to you. That is worth saying plainly because .410 is the one bore where shell length regularly catches people out.
Winchester Super Target in 2-1/2 in. number 8 is the cheap practice and clays option and is gentle enough for a new shooter. Troy 3 in. number 4 is the longer shell with more pellets and more reach, which is where a full choke and a 24 inch barrel start to earn their keep. Pattern whichever you choose on paper before you hunt with it.
Putting an optic on it
The integral scope mount on the receiver is a genuinely useful feature and one most buyers never use. A .410 shooting at squirrels in a tree at thirty yards is doing something much closer to rifle work than to wingshooting, and a low-power scope or a red dot makes that far easier than two beads on a rib.
If you intend to shoot flying targets as well, keep the beads and leave the receiver bare. The two jobs want different sighting systems and trying to do both with one setup usually means doing neither well. A Mossberg 500 410 Bore is cheap enough that owning it set up one way and borrowing something else for the other is a reasonable answer.
Who the Mossberg 500 410 Bore is actually for
A Mossberg 500 410 Bore suits three buyers, and it suits all three well. A young or small-statured shooter moving up from a single shot, who needs a repeater that does not punish them. A small-game hunter who wants reach rather than spread. And anyone who wants a light, quiet, cheap-to-feed shotgun for the truck or the barn and does not need it to be tactical.
It is not a home-defense gun and we would not sell it as one. Full choke, a 24 inch barrel and .410 is the wrong combination for that job in every respect, and we stock better answers.
Why the Mossberg 500 410 Bore earns its place
- The 500 action has been in production since 1960 and parts, barrels and gunsmiths are everywhere.
- Twin action bars make it genuinely hard to short-stroke or bind.
- The tang safety is the best-placed safety on any pump shotgun and works identically for left and right handed shooters.
- An integral scope mount on the receiver means an optic is a bolt-on rather than a gunsmithing job.
- .410 recoil in a 6.25 lb gun is mild enough that a new shooter will actually practice.
If a repeater is more than you need, the Stevens 301 single shot in .410 is the simplest and cheapest way into the bore, and the 301 Turkey XP with a red dot fitted is aimed squarely at the same quarry as this gun.
Going the other way, the ATI Alpha Maxx .410 semi-automatic softens recoil further and adds capacity, and the Retay Gamelander .410 is another light single-shot option we hold deep.
Browse the rest of our shotguns category or the wider firearms range, and see the factory page at Mossberg. Every transfer goes through a licensed dealer.
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