I've had both and truthfully both will serve you well for the purpose you have in mind. My 870 express is also an early model and I've never experienced any rust issue its been a champ . Over the years I have also owned a couple of Mossberg 500s. One was a 20 ga regency? model which had a walnut shock and was a pretty cool little gun. I also had an older 12 with a corncob style walnut forend also a nice old gun. The only thing that got tiring about it was people constantly asking about my model 12.
