Congrat's on the gun. I shot a 500 as my all purpose shotgun for a lot of years. I retired the 500 as may main gun and moved up to the 835 when it came out. I mostly hunt waterfowl and wanted the extra payload and punch of the 3.5". Early steel loads were awful so any advantage needed to be grabbed. The 500 would be fine with modern steel loads but I am so used to 3.5" stuff now I stick with it.
I actually still have the 2nd 500 I ever bought. I still use it for my deer hunting gun and it is a back up for anything else I might need it for although admittedly it is down the list behind 12g 3.5" guns for waterfowl and my SXS's for upland. For deer though it is #1. It is about 20-25 years old and works just fine. It is my 2nd 500 overall.
The 1st one got ruined by saltwater in year 2 of ownership( don't douse a gun in the ocean, get sick when you arrive home and forget the gun is cased, and leave it there for 2-3 weeks before you remember it
)and was not salvageable. I still have 500 #2 and it is doing well. It throws a sabot out of the Mossberg rifled barrel I bought for it with deadly accuracy out to 100-125 yds( furthest I would shoot here ).
FWIW I have shot the following all with a Mossberg 500 so as you can see it works and is very versatile...
Waterfowl( puddle ducks, diver ducks, sea ducks, geese - 20+ species in total )
Ring-necked Pheasant( + some exotics at a game farm once too )
Grouse/Partridge( Ruffed and Hungarian )
Bobwhite Quail
Rabbit( Cottontail and Snowshoe Hare )
Eastern Wild Turkey
Whitetail Deer
You will enjoy the gun. If you ever do have any problems Mossberg is one of the best companies I have ever dealt with for gun warranty. The guns are shipped to Maverick arms for repairs and they do a good job and have a reasonable turn around time.
