Felt recoil questions

[timbo]

So, I've gotten a few lessons in Sporting Clays and Skeet and find myself loving it, so now I'm lining myself up for a shotgun to buy. I do have a question about how people do with recoil in shotguns. I've been taught in 12ga. and shot a 20ga O/U a few times now and after 50-100 rounds my shoulder is sore. It doesn't get to the point of bruising, but it doesn't really feel too swell afterward. Is this typical for this number of rounds? It takes me a relaxing 1.5-2 hours to shoot that many rounds in sporting clays, which is a nice time at the range. I can see 200 rounds going in as much time in skeet.

I'd like to buy myself an O/U for my shotgun, preferably in 12ga., but because of my shoulder I feel I need to keep an autoloader on the list also. I've heard that recoil is much more manageable with them.

I'm used to rifle shooting, and the first 25-50 rounds through the shotguns I feel fine. My instructor feels the shotgun (Browning 425) fit right for me, and I thought it also fit me well. Anyone else have a similar situation to mine?

 

[PJR]

The good news about your shoulder hurting is that it means your gun fits reasonably well. If your face was hurting then the gun fit would be the problem.

The autoloader is a good way to reduce felt recoil but if your heart is set on an o/u there are things you can do to reduce the shoulder pain.

The first is have the instructor check your stance and hold. It may be you are not tucking the gun solidly into the shoulder or gripping the gun with sufficient force.

Secondly, use a lighter load. If a 3 dram 1-1/8 ounce load is causing the discomfort then select a lighter 2-3/4 dram load or a 1 ounce shell. I shoot 1 ounce shells most often because they recoil less.

Finally get a vest with some built in recoil reduction. Browning vests have a Reactar pad option that reduces felt recoil on the shoulder. PAST also makes a vest with a spongy recoil pad that is very good for reducing the kick.

 

[hoghunting]

Put a good recoil pad on that shotgun. For a prefitted pad, Limbsaver or Pachmayr might have what you need. Most factory pads do very little in reducing felt recoil, a good recoil pad will make a big difference.

 

[ArmedBear]

I have a Limbsaver on a break-action trap gun and it does wonders. Kick-eez, Pachmayr Decellerator, and a few others are also good. Note that the Remington R3 is made by SVL (Limbsaver), as well.

Another thing... Where are you holding the gun? On your upper chest (correct), or out on your upper arm (bad for your rotator cuffs, but all too common among rifle shooters)?

Where does it hurt?

 

[timbo]

I would say that I typically keep it more in my chest, but that the gun may wander further out on my arm. I have mis-mounted my shotgun after looking for a target and bruised my arm, but I just chalk that up to poor technique that I need to overcome. It's possible that I've done that to a lesser extent and mounted the shotgun too far out. The pain is mainly right above my armpit.

As for the ammo I was shooting, it was a target load, 1-1/8 oz. I don't want to think it's my grip on the gun, I tend to pretty much strangle my guns. Unfortunately this leads to me tiring out my hands.

Thanks for the input by the way, if there are any other suggestions I'd love to hear them.

 

[45auto]

When I shot a lot, in the old days, , each year after a layoff my shoulder would be a bit sore after the first few times...then no problem.

Assuming the gun "fits", the weight of the gun, the weight of the shot charge and velocity will determine the "felt recoil". Gas autos do "stretch out" the recoil sensation making it feel less harsh, but IMO a 7 1/2 lb gas auto doesn't recoil less than 8lb+ O/U so be wary of the "gas autos recoil less". Again that's my experience, yours can be different since it's "felt recoil" we are talking about.

Try as many shotguns as you can as long as you can before you buy.

1oz loads for skeet are more than enough.

Heavy guns are good for target shooting, light guns for hunting.

Just IMHO of course.

 

[Dave McCracken]

All good advise so far. Let me add some....

Rookies oft have recoil issues because of a bad mount. Make sure the shotgun is going into the right place and you're pulling the shotgun back into you. A bit of slack here will tear a new one.

Practice mounts at home with a shotgun KNOWN TO BE EMPTY. This will help get your "Chops" right.

Use hearing protection fervently. Less noise means less felt recoil. Trust me on this.

Lighter loads will help immensely. I use 7/8 oz loads most of the time. If the International Trap folks can use 24 gram (A scant 7/8 oz) loads for that very difficult discipline, we can for other games.

If that load seems to be too little, try a 1 oz load at 1150 FPS.

HTH.....

 

[SShooterZ]

How heavy is your gun?

If you're shooting a field grade gun, typically they are a bit lighter and more prone to recoil. Even the fancy guns succumb to this standard.

If you plan on shooting 200 rounds of sporting clays per shooting sesssion, you might look for a dedicated sporting clays gun that has some weight to it. It will help reduce felt recoil.

Lighter shot payloads and a decent recoil pad would also be my other suggestions.

 

[timbo]

As weight goes, I want to say that the shotgun was an appropriate weight; or at least it wasn't particularly light. Among the shotguns I've been looking at, I've seen the Browning 525 Field in a 28" barrel. The price isn't too bad among O/U's, and the weight is listed at 7lbs, 14 oz. Other shotguns in that class I've seen floating between that and 8lbs, 3 oz. Those too light?

Yeah, perhaps the word Field in there should be sending up warning indicators.

I think I might have been slightly misleading when I labeled the thread "felt recoil", my problem is just that I figured I was holding the shotgun properly, and the recoil getting through over time was making me too sore to go too long. As for hearing protection, I don't think my shoulder is sore the day after because of shotgun blasts from the day before. I'll keep this in mind though.

As for loads, I'm set on 12ga. just because I tried 20ga. and it didn't really seem to be any lighter, though maybe that's due to the shotgun itself. I haven't seen a lot of loads that are less than 1-1/8, and have seen none that are 7/8. The ammo I was using in 12ga. was shooting 1-1/8 at 1200fps.

I will be trying another shotgun in two weeks. A shotgun place has offered their demo gun to me to try out. They warned me that it might not be a good idea though; as I'd probably buy one.

 

[GRP]

If your not into reloading, I'd get the autoloader. The Gas autoloaders out there are so pleasant to shoot ,you'll shoot better. While I have a buch of O/U's, on Clays day I always take the 390 or 1100.