I picked this New Haven 600CT 20 Gauge pump action shotgun up for a really great price. I was looking for a different slug shotgun for deer season, and this seems to be perfect for what I wanted. The New Haven is a rebranded Mossberg 500, produced for Montgomery Ward from O.F. Mossberg & Sons. The only difference between the 600CT and a 500, is there are no tapped screw holes for fixing an optic on top of the receiver. Other than that, there isn’t a lick of difference between the two.
The shotgun was pretty beat up when I got it, so I stripped the stock and barrel. I noticed that on the tang, it was split at one point in time, but someone made a pretty decent repair and it seems to be holding up OK. I may get a replacement butt stock, but for now it seems to be fine.
I powder-coated the receiver for this one, and went with a dark walnut stain. I think it turned out nice. I also experimented with my laser engraver, and laser engraved a Whitetail silhouette and “Deerslayer” on the side of the receiver.
I purchased a used rifled slug barrel that was re-blued and also put a 1 point harness adapter on the tang. The receiver was missing the safety switch so I purchased a new one on Amazon. Excluding the ammo, I think I have about $250 total into the gun. Not bad at all and I’m really excited to take it out this firearm season. This shotgun weighs almost half of what my Mossberg 500 12 Gauge with rifled slug barrel weighs. I love my Mossberg slug gun, but it is extremely heavy to lug around the woods.
I took it to the range today and sighted it in for 100 yards. I’m using Hornady SST 250 grain sabot slugs, with 1800 fps muzzle velocity. It performed exactly how I wanted and had a really nice group. I only needed to adjust the horizontal on the Williams iron sight. Hopefully it’ll live up to the name I gave it!
