irishlad
Contributing Member
Browning Maxus. Eats 3.5’s all day.
The grandson's SBE 3 shoots them comfortably and he only weighs 120.
Browning Maxus. Eats 3.5’s all day.
The shotgun cycles 3.5” shells reliably or your grandson isn’t bothered by the recoil shooting 3.5” shells in his SBE 3?The grandson's SBE 3 shoots them comfortably and he only weighs 120.
I currently own four SX-3’s. Felt recoil for me is noticeable less with them than with the Vinci I used to own.All. But good gas guns like the Beretta Xtrema, SX Winchesters/Browning Golds are more comfortable than my SBE's with 3.5in loads.
The shotgun cycles 3.5” shells reliably or your grandson isn’t bothered by the recoil shooting 3.5” shells in his SBE 3?
That’s great but the fact of the matter is between equally fitting shotguns gas will have less perceived recoil than inertia. Nothing wrong with inertia but some people including myself are bothered by really heavy recoil. Which you are going to get with 3.5” 12 gauge shells. Height and weight have nothing to do with the ability to handle recoil. And in fact many small light people handle recoil very well.Both, he loves that shotgun.
That’s great but the fact of the matter is between equally fitting shotguns gas will have less perceived recoil than inertia. Nothing wrong with inertia but some people including myself are bothered by really heavy recoil. Which you are going to get with 3.5” 12 gauge shells. Height and weight have nothing to do with the ability to handle recoil. And in fact many small light people handle recoil very well.
There's no getting past the very heavy recoil generated from a 3.5" shell in a 7 1/2 pound shotgun. Gas, recoil pads, stock design and greater weight can help mitigate the push but you're still firing a round that kicks more than many magnum "elephant" rifles.
I've hunted waterfowl all of my life with different 12 gauge shotguns, both pumps and autos, and I'm not particularly "recoil sensitive". But shooting from a blind on a good day means firing a box of shells or more (even I miss on occasion ), and recoil has a deleterious accumulative effect on the shoulder no matter who you are in terms of age, weight, strength and stature.
Imo, 3 1/2" shells are useful in very limited circumstances (long, passing shots at Canadians or maybe big tom turkeys at a distance). Even 3" shells don't kill any better most of the time than 2 3/4" "baby magnums" do in my experience.
My Benelli has a 3 1/2" chamber but, just like you don't have to use Magnum loads in a .357 Magnum revolver unless you really need to, you don't need to pound yourself silly using shells the size of a cucumber unless you have to. Most of the time, I don't have to, even when hunting waterfowl where ballistically inferior steel shot (when bigger but less pellets are a disadvantage in terms of pattern sizes) is mandatory.
This is not known as short recoil operation in the traditional sense since the barrel needs to move for that system as well but the action is still driven by recoil.