Recoil is really funny. If I am sitting down at a bench and shooting or standing and shooting at a pattern board, I'll feel the recoil, and how. If I am hunting or shooting clays, I never feel a thing. If you focus on what it is going to feel like, it will kick pretty hard. If you are focussing on a moving target, you won't even notice. Kind of like getting an injection - if you watch the needle go in, you always seem to feel it more than if you look the other way. A long way around to saying that just about anyone who can shoot a .410 can handle a 20 or 12 gauge if there isn't a medical situation and the gun fits.