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How to get used to 12 gauge recoil?

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Anytime shooting a light weight shotgun, recoil magnifies. Not many tactical shotguns don't kick. All I can say, spend the money on a SX3, A400, or a VERSAMAX. Problem solved
 
Like the baseball player that swings a heavier bat before stepping up to the plate, shoot a 10 gauge a few times and you will think the 12 gauge is pleasant after that.
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Actually, my 10 gauge H&R ain't bad at all. I've fired 22 rounds in a morning goose hunt from it, all 3.5" steel T, with only minor soreness the next day. The gun weighs 9 lbs. My 535 Mossberg is lighter and a 3.5" load from it will rock your world. :D I like that H&R, think I'll stick with it, but I got the 535 used at a pawn shop in almost new condition for $170, just couldn't leave it there. :D

I think the heaviest recoil I've ever felt from ANYTHING, and I have a 7 mag that's powder puff by comparison, is a 3" slug in my SxS which is lighter than my Mossbergs. THAT ain't pleasant, but that gun shoots like a double rifle with slugs. I don't do that often, though. That gun is mostly retired. :D
 
A good recoil pad and shooting a 10 gauge or 3.5" shells and buying a VersaMax or whatever else doesn't do anything to address an obvious flaw in technique.

OP, please just go to a quality local instructor in the field that you are interested, and let them show you what to do.
 
quality buttpad + properly padded shoulder + good hearing protection(don't laugh)
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Won't do too much if the gun doesn't fit him properly; in fact if adding all that padding makes the gun too long, his felt recoil will increase
 
Lots of good advice here....and none bad.
Fit....the primo basic when using a shotgun and expecting it and you to work together.
Patterning from a rest.....tough to do with heavy loads....the body is not able to move with the gun as readily as it does when standing. When I sight in a heavy kicking rifle, I use the "shot bag between me and the gun" trick, same for a heavy kicking shotgun.
The comment about good hearing protection is very insightful.

I shot 15 or so rounds of buckshot with a pistol grip shotgun and my hand hurt for days after that.
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I hope that you learned a lesson and put a proper stock on that gun.
Pete
 
Thanks for all the helpful replies everyone. I definitely plan to get some training and in the meantime I will do something about stock fit. The standard wood stock is too long to let me get square behind it so I have been shooting the gun the same way I shoot a rifle, in a bladed stance with the butt in the pocket of my shoulder. I will trim about 4" off it and then add a recoil pad for an overall 2" reduction in length. I think that will help me get more squared up behind the gun

Like the baseball player that swings a heavier bat before stepping up to the plate, shoot a 10 gauge a few times and you will think the 12 gauge is pleasant after that.
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Hmmm, I dunno about that advice. If I got beat up by Floyd Mayweather, my first thought would not be to get in the ring with Mike Tyson ;)
 
MCgunner said:
Regards to Mossbergs, fit, and recoil....8 or 9 years back when I was a newb to this board, I'd been shotgunning for over 30 years, mostly waterfowl and doves. I knew some guns were sweet, some beat me up, but I'd never really considered FIT. I posed the question on this very board. I'd go duck hunting shooting heavy steel shot loads and come back looking like I'd done 3 rounds with big George Foreman, face would actually be cut and I'd be bleeding like a stuck hog from the upper jaw line of my cheek. Even light dove loads would bruise me up a bit seeing as a 3 or 4 day hunt, I'll shoot a lot more rounds dove hunting than duck hunting.

I was told I didn't likely have enough drop on the stock. They were right. I had to crawl the stock a bit to see down the rib and that was the problem. I cut pop bottle plastic as instructed and lowered the stock with the shims I'd made and got the thing to come to me nicely without crawling the stock. NOW, as oneounce explains, I can close my eyes and bring the gun up and open my eyes and I'm looking right down the rib without having to lower my head to the stock a bit. THAT fixed the battering problem, but more than that, I got faster with the gun on target and my shots per bird dropped a LOT, I got more efficient with the gun.

Now, I often shoot one for 2 shots on doves, tough little beggars to hit, where I used to do good to hit 1 for 3 or 3.5. It's all because the gun now fits and I shoot where I look with it.

Some guns will fit right out of the box. I seem to have a Winchester/Browning build. Mossbergs ALWAYS need more drop. But, no problem now that I know what to do to adjust the stock. Mossberg even offers shims for this, but pop bottle plastic and a little time is cheaper for a retired person. :D I got lots of time.

Now, if your shoulder is still painful after 15 or 20 rounds, the Limbsavers help. I have one on my Mossberg 535 and an old SxS that I've had for years. If you think buckshot is tough on you, try a 3.5" 12 gauge steel T shot load from a light 535. That's why I got the Limbsaver. :D But, work with fitting the gun to you, also. It really helps for the gun to fit right.
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Could you school me on "drop on the stock" and what all that means please? I'm new to shotguns and am looking for one for tactical/defense purposes and would like to do it right the first time!

Russellc
 
This site explains fit pretty well, even talks about shimming....

http://www.americanhunter.org/articles/how-to-achieve-perfect-shotgun-fit/

Note that shims made of pop bottle plastic can serve you without having some stock maker build you a new stock.

Here's Mossberg's shim kit for the 500. Guess it'd fit the 590, don't know, doesn't specifically list the 590....

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/89...rop-adjustment-spacer-system-mossberg-500-835


Edit, found this diagram which might be helpful....

shotgun_img2.gif
 
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I think McGunner is on the right track. You are using your shotgun like a rifle, positioning your head to line up the sights instead of getting your cheek down on the comb as you would when shooting a properly fitted bird gun. It will be even worse if you are using a scope or red dot on that gun which forces you to raise your head a bit more.

The gun should come up firmly to your cheek first, then back into your shoulder. If the sights don't line up doing it that way, the gun does not fit you.
 
I will trim about 4" off it and then add a recoil pad for an overall 2" reduction in length. I think that will help me get more squared up behind the gun
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Why?
You're guessing at measurements where 1/8" could be the difference between success and failure. A squared up stance might work fine on some paper target a few yards away where you are not swinging the gun, but it really hinders your ability to swing the gun to the target. Shoot it like you would a good target gun or rifle, feet shoulder width apart, head erect, stance slightly quartered - that will be the most comfortable and help to absorb some of the recoil
 
NoirFan, perhaps a note of explanation about the relative importance of shotgun fit, as opposed to rifle fit, is in order. Shotgun shooting is traditionally wing-shooting or other moving-target shooting. Unlike rifle shootings or (most) pistol shooting, it is done with the focus on the target, not the sight/bead of the gun. The shots are fleeting and rely on instinctive judgment of things like lead. There is no time, as there often is in riflery, to confirm alignment of the gun with the eyes and with the target. There is just a target, moving fast, and soon to disappear.

For these reasons, it is the conventional wisdom that a shotgun must fit the shooter so correctly that no "adjustment" to the mount is needed... it simply must come up into the right spot and point wherever the shooter looks, every time with zero adjustment/fiddling/checking. That's why serious shotgunners are such fanatics about fit. There are people whose job is, by and large, to adjust the fit of shotguns.

I don't know whether that level of fit is really needed for static shotgun shooting, where you're essentially using the shotgun just like a rifle. But it probably would help a bit with comfort.
 
I will trim about 4" off it and then add a recoil pad for an overall 2" reduction in length. I think that will help me get more squared up behind the gun
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cut it correctly or your recoil issues will get worse.
 
in fact if adding all that padding makes the gun too long, his felt recoil will increase
What??? really? Explain that to us please.
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Simple, too long and the gun is not held properly or in the proper position. Most will then lean a little backwards (picture a young kid with a too long gun). Then the recoil is unmanaged and can become more painful as the stock smacks him hard. It also completely changes the sight picture
 
A traditional (non-parallel comb) stock that's too long will also cause the shooter to either have to crunch their neck forward and down to get a good cheek weld or alternatively the shooter will NOT get a good cheek weld and the stock will smack the shooter in the face on each shot.
 
Lean into the shotgun when you shoot and use ammo with a lighter load.
If you need to cut 4" off the stock you really should buy a new one that fits your LOP. Recoil pads are usually only an inch thick too. If you cut 4" off and put on a 1" pad the stock will be too short. That hurts more.
 
I would second the notion of getting some sort of recoil pad shield to help deal with the recoil of a 12 gauge shotgun. I use to have a Browning Reactar recoil pad shield that fit inside my vest while shooting trap. When I was trying out a new shotgun or sighting it in for slugs I would use a PAST recoil pad shield. They're available in varying pad sizes from 1/4" to 1" in thickness.
 
I would suggest going to someone who knows how to fit before you go lopping off 4 inches. Besides the length, you just dramatically changed the drop at heel, drop at comb, the pitch, the cast, and the toe
 
After 40-something posts and no one mentioned the over the barrel technique? Formal term is I think underarm or high-tuck. Granted, not typically used for target shooting, but it is effective in pretty much eliminating recoil. I do this with my PGO and regular stock shotguns.
 
That settles it then Noirfan,
You gotta be fitted for a new custom stock for your Mossberg so you can shoot buckshot at the range a few times each year. There's no way around it.
 
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