They do work even when abused, but so don't most other pump guns built since the 1950s, or even earlier.
I much prefer an Ithaca 37 and a Rem 870 over the Nova.
There are lots of pumps that I prefer over the Nova as far as aesthetics, fit and feel, etc. There are none, however, that I shoot any better than the Nova, that can take ANY weather conditions and still function like the Nova, and none that I care LESS about as far as damaging/abusing. I have killed ducks with that gun minutes after retrieving it from the bottom of a salt marsh creek, from a coastal inlet's bottom after tossing it toward the beach from a sinking duckboat. It has been submerged in beach front rollers and in swamps. It has been at the bottom of layout boats on the Atlantic. I have used it to bust ice and as a walking staff in deep snow. And as stated, I never even cleaned it once (I hunt a lot before work and go from the field directly downtown).
Total and utter neglect, and I'm well aware of it. But then, multiply 300 and what, fifteen minutes? That works out to around 75 hours I didn't spend cleaning it. I'd rather have that time than the few hundred for a new gun every time--if I needed to replace it, which never happened. What's not to love about that? Nuttin'!
Edit: Have to slightly and respectfully disagree with the quoted statement above. I have seen many friends' guns and personally had issues with LOTS of other pumps. Brownings, Remingtons, Mossbergs and Winchesters. Not knocking them, but I have a little experience with a lot of different kinds of shotguns in the field, and the Nova is one I will stand by as far as being bullet proof, and a damned STEAL for the dough.
