I love my Mossbergs! Sure, they rattle a bit, but I have taken every type of bird this state offers, except for Turkeys, with them, plus two deer and two elk. Shoot them with a coat or two of primer, then green, then black over a fern, and you have a rustproof killing machine at less than 7 lbs.

Scratch it, fall on it, drop it in the salt water. It keeps on going.

I remember shooting a 24 from the 16 yard line the first time I shot my second one. The four other guys with the BT99's just stood there and gawked. "You did that well with that piece of junk?", one guy said.

My reply to him was, "It's a tool for killing birds. It works. It is the shooter that matters, not the gun. Know you tools."

Pretty guns are for posers. Of course, if Santa brought me one of those stainless Red Labels I might just have to try to put a scratch in it.