Ever since I watched Miami Vice reruns with my dad, I’ve had an obsession with extremely short shotguns. Something about the various shotguns used by Tubbs captured me. As of this writing, the availability of ultra-short shotguns, or more accurately AOWs (Any Other Weapons) isn’t high, so I consider myself to be lucky to own a Mossberg 590A1 Compact Cruiser.
There used to be a time when Serbu was pumping out ultra-short Remingtons and Mossbergs, Wilson had the Executive Protection shotgun, and various other pistol-grip only super short guns were available. Mossberg rolled out two AOWs: the Mossberg 500 Compact Cruiser and the 590A1 Compact Cruiser. The Mossberg 500 had a 7.5-inch barrel with a two-round capacity, and the 590A1 had a 10.25-inch barrel with a three-round capacity.
Like any NFA weapon, these require a tax stamp and wait. Luckily, through the power of Eforms, the wait is a lot less these days. The tax stamp isn’t cheaper, but the wait doesn’t sting so hard anymore.
My Mossberg 590A1 Compact Cruiser
This 590A1 Compact Cruiser has had a bit of a facelift. The gun features an optic, rail, side saddle, magazine extension, and even a mini shell adapter from Defender Tactical. You still have to aim a shotgun, even one this small, so an optic was a welcome upgrade over the bead. The bead sight sits on the barrel, and with how short the barrel is it gives the impression that your gun shoots high with basically every load.
I like hitting what I point my gun at, so I tossed on the cheap but larger-than-average CTS-1300. Next, I added a magazine extension to add just one extra round. Now, I have the same capacity as a Remington 870. Four 2.75-inch rounds isn’t a bad payload for such a small weapon. The side saddle is an NC Star option. NC Star makes crappy stuff, but side saddles are tough to mess up.
Takes Mini Shells
I chose this model because it can hold mini shells due to its small size, and it uses a hook and loop attachment. It mounts to the 590A1 Compact Cruiser with room to spare. The mini shell adapter from Defender Tactical allows me to shoot shells ranging in size from 1.75 inches to 3 inches with no problems.
The Compact Cruiser comes with an ATI T3 grip. It’s big, hand-filling, and rubberized to absorb recoil. The front of the gun wears a vertical metal grip. The action is too short for a proper pump, so the folding vertical grip takes its place. The folding design allows the weapon to remain compact when transported or stored. As mentioned, we get a simple bead sight, but like all Mossberg shotguns, adding an optic is easy.
Blasting Away With the Compact Cruiser
The Compact Cruiser is a small package that packs 12 gauge firepower. As you’d expect, it also packs 12-gauge recoil. The gun wants to buck and fight with every trigger press, so you better hold on. The good news is it’s not all that hard to hang on to. The old Push/Pull technique is handy here and surprisingly easy to do.
The two vertical grips make engaging the push/pull technique easy. Push against the vertical grip and pull against the rear grip. With this technique, the red dot and low recoil buckshot, I can put two rounds on target in 1.2 seconds. I’m betting that I can drive this number even lower with more practice.
I think a lot of people expect the weapon to be more difficult to control than it is. However, the super small nature creates a better-balanced gun. With the entire length of the gun practically sitting between our hands, there isn’t much to get away from you. It’s all centered and easy to control. Just hold on tight.
Accuracy and Patterns
The bead sight sucks for anything that’s not a rapidly spreading buckshot. With something like Federal Flitecontrol, the round appears to hit over a foot high at 15 yards. This begs for a red dot or for a good hip fire technique. Maybe one day Mossberg won’t position the bead directly on top of the barrel.
The Compact Cruiser features a cylinder bore choke or lack of choke, and patterns are as you’d expect. It’s ammunition-dependent.
The FliteControl stuff looks like a slug at 15 yards, and stuff like the Remington Ultimate Defense spread between 6.8 and 7.4 inches at 10 yards. My cheapest buckshot, the Monarch 00 loads, spread between 7.5 to 9 inches at 10 yards.
The gun’s short barrel gives off a lot of flash and a loud boom. It’s a proper combination of thunder and lightning you’d expect from such a small cannon.
Getting Small
I think most minihells are a novelty that’s fun to shoot. In a gun like this, I can only fit five. I expected six, but that sixth round doesn’t make the cutoff. The buckshot and birdshot minishells offer less recoil, making them exceptionally fun to shoot. The slugs aren’t all that different from low recoil slugs.
Most of us aren’t breaching doors, so a gun like this would be a fun novelty. For that purpose, minishells work well. They are fun, easy to shoot, and work without a problem with the Defender Tactical Adapter. The slugs are where it’s at, and it’s a lot of fun to shoot through the red dot-equipped Compact Cruiser.
With a properly zeroed dot, landing hits at 50 yards with the slugs is easy if you take your time and use a full-sized IPSC target. Beyond 50 yards and a stock becomes a bit of a necessity for accurate slug throwing.
The two vertical grips make aiming easy, but the rear vertical grips make the Mossberg tang safety a lot tougher to reach and activate. It’s a downside, but one I can work around. The rest of the controls are simple and accessible.
What’s the Point?
The Compact Cruiser series has been discontinued. It’s easy to understand why. The guns are not super useful for many roles in the world of the average Joe. Without a stock, the gun can be tough to aim and tough to control for some. Even with a good push/pull in place, it is harder to shoot than a stocked shotgun. The fact it’s an NFA weapon turns some away.
For the cool guy types, it would be a breaching gun in most cases. It’s compact and portable. It wouldn’t be all that tough to carry alongside a rifle in a military or SWAT context. If the NFA didn’t exist and the laws permitted it, you could have one very small but devastating close-range weapon for personal security, but you’d have to be dedicated to carrying such a gun.
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Inside the home, it’s very portable and maneuverable, and that’s where its utility comes into play. My best suggestion for this weapon would be for extremely tight spaces. Campers, for example, would be well-defended. It’s quite niche overall; ultimately, guns like the Compact Cruiser are just fun.
Last Thoughts on the Compact Cruiser
That is its purpose. It’s fun. It’s loud, hard to hold onto, and quite small. The Compact Cruiser hits the novel and fun button just right. It’s a shame they are no longer produced, but I can see why they might not have been the biggest sellers. The near thousand dollar price point and NFA categorization made them most appealing to fans of Tubbs and Miami Vice, not the everyday Joe. Discover more about them here.
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