I have 3 Mossbergs in the family and haven't had a lick of trouble with any of them. My 500 is over 25 years old now. Law enforcement use to use Mossberg's quite a bit. I'm not sure if they do anymore or not. My boy has the 835 now and he really likes it.

The 870 is a good gun, but I hate where the safety is located. That style of safety has cost me more birds than I can remember. Keep that in mind when looking at guns.

I looked at the Nova a couple of years ago too. It seemed like a pretty decent gun.