How to get used to 12 gauge recoil?

[NoirFan]

I don't get out to the range as much as I'd like and when I do go, I spend more time on rifles and revolvers than I do with the shotgun. This weekend though, I took my shotgun to pattern some different buckshot loads. It's been a long time since I shot it and I forgot how much that thing kicks. After 10-12 shots I was done for the day and my shoulder is still sore two days later.

The gun is an 18" Mossberg 590A1 with a standard length solid wood stock and rubber butt pad. The shells were 00 buckshot from Royal Buck, Seller & Belliot, and those OD green military surplus loads. The green milsurp rounds had the worst kick by far. I made sure to pull the butt tight into my shoulder pocket but I was still getting smacked around. After shooting the 12 gauge, my .308 rifle felt like a pop gun.

How do you guys deal with 12 gauge recoil? Do I just need to practice more and get used to it?

 

[ATLDave]

Well, buckshot and slugs are just going to recoil quite a bit, especially out of a lightweight gun like yours. Try doing more shooting with #8 or #9 shot target loads.

But regardless of what you're shooting, the closer you get to the gun, the tighter you pull it into you, the more you can add your mass to that of the gun. If you give it even a fraction of an inch to start moving independently of you, then it will pick up speed. If you've got it sung against bone and muscle, it can't.

For similar reasons, ejection seats on fighter airplanes have very minimal padding. If the seat can get a "running start" at a crewman, it will break pelvic/spinal bones almost every time.

 

[red rick]

I don't think that you can get use too shooting buckshot at paper . When I shoot at a deer I don't even notice the kick though .

After patterning your gun , I would just shoot #8 or #9 at the targets .

You also might try one of the vest style recoil pads , but it might change how you shoulder the gun and where it hits on the target .

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Posted in the revolver section?

 

[oneounceload]

Try shooting the lightest loads I reload 3/4oz at 1210fpa. Works both my gas guns and is like shooting an AR

 

[buck460XVR]

Posted in the revolver section?

..........maybe he was implying that shooting a .460 revolver will help you get used to 12 ga recoil.

Or maybe not.

 

[dvnv]

Shoot a 10 gauge for a while...

 

[oneounceload]

but I was still getting smacked around

Your gun doesn't fit you properly

 

[peacebutready]

I shot 15 or so rounds of buckshot with a pistol grip shotgun and my hand hurt for days after that.

I say shoot reduced-recoil buckshot rounds and see how that works out.

 

[goon]

Reduced recoil buck loads from Federal keep most of the power of a 12 gauge but cut recoil a lot.

 

[somerled]

oneounce makes a good point. The factory-issue stocks are set up for the median of a wide range of users. I'm not at the median, and a lot of us aren't. I usually need less length of pull than what an issue stock offers.

Patterning buckshot or shooting slugs from a bench will take its toll particularly from a pump action.

 

[huntsman]

Recoil? yeah there's a bit in a 12 gauge, a semi auto will dampen it some and lighter loads also help but the laws of physics being what they are you just grit you teeth and bare it, or you could switch to a 20 gauge

 

[Inebriated]

Get some training. There is no substitute. Whether it's for skeet, trap, or fighting.

I'm assuming that you're shooting with more of a defensive focus, given that you have a 590? Push forward with your support hand and pull back with your firing hand. Put your face on the stock so that the gun won't hit you, and do the same with the butt... Place it firmly enough that recoil isn't going to ram the gun into you, but it doesn't have to be so hard that you're straining... having the tension in your arms is already going to absorb a lot of the recoil.

Also, get square to the target. Put the gun on the outside of your pec, just underneath the collar bone, and lean forward just a tad (not a ton). That places a lot more "you" behind the gun. When you let the gun go off, the tension in your arms will absorb a lot of the recoil, your body behind the gun will absorb the rest, and you'll find that 1, you're not getting moved around much at all, and 2, you have meat behind the gun, rather than bone or a joint, so your pain level is going to be drastically reduced.

If you find that the gun doesn't fit you when you shoot more squared up, then a shorter-LOP stock can be had.

 

[anothernewb]

limbsaver?

 

[oneounceload]

The butt should fit nicely in the pocket between your shoulder and collar bone. Take the gun (unloaded) and close your eyes. Mount the gun and open your eyes - are you looking right down the barrel (This is easier to do standing in front a mirror). Is the butt pad in the correct place? If these things aren't happening, your gun needs some adjustment to fit you. Don't make yourself fit to the gun, make the corrections to the gun to get it to fit you so you can mount and point to your target without thinking, twisting, or otherwise thinking about it

 

[RMc]

When Patterning...

...use a standing bench rest.

 

[Fred Fuller]

How do you guys deal with 12 gauge recoil?

I guess being an insensitive brute helps, at least in my case .

Gun fit is important. Lots of factory shotgun stocks are too long for many shotgun shooters, especially those of a defensive persuasion who are apt to square up more behind the gun. A shorter stock (with a premium recoil pad) might help in that regard.

Stance is important too. Leaning into the gun helps soak up recoil for me, especially if you 'break' the knee of the forward leg a bit and keep the back leg straight.

As has been mentioned, positioning the butt properly on the shoulder is important. The pad needs to go into the shoulder pocket - too much inside or outside and you'll be getting onto either collar bone or shoulder joint, and both of those will hurt.

There may be more, but without seeing you shoot it's hard to diagnose. But like so many other things, if you are doing it right, shooting a shotgun is not supposed to hurt. Even with buckshot and slugs.

 

[rbernie]

Position the gun in the pocket is almost impossible without also raising the strong hand elbow in the classic shooting stance - something that has fallen out of favor with the squared-up stance....

 

[TomADC]

PAST Super Mag Plus Recoil Pad Shield I use a smaller one when I shoot my sharps from sand bags or my Mosin M44, M38 really tames them.

 

[Virginian]

Hang a 25# bag of shot over your shoulder between you and the gun. When I sot a lot of heavy 3" 12 gauge and 3-1/2" 10 gauge patterns that's what I did. Makes a huge difference.

 

[oneounceload]

Position the gun in the pocket is almost impossible without also raising the strong hand elbow in the classic shooting stance - something that has fallen out of favor with the squared-up stance....

Which is why I use my normal target shooting stance, works great.

 

[bangswitch]

limbsaver?

Beat me to it. Recoil pads have come a long way in a few years, and make the old style ventilated rubber ones feel like bricks. Of course, no pad will correct a poor grip and incorrect mount.

I put a LimbSaver pad on my 12 ga. double, as well as one on my .308 bolt gun. After 3 rounds of skeet, and 50 rounds through the bolt gun, not a single mark on my shoulder, not sore at all. I'm 60, if it matters.

 

[Taurus 617 CCW]

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.

 

[Zach S]

S&B used to sell 25 round boxes of 3" 15 00B. I went through three or four in one day...

After that beating, 12gauge recoil didn't bother me. Definitely not the best route for most folks, but it worked for me.

I use Federal low recoil (LE132 or H132) for my defense load because it patterns tight, but practice with cheaper full power loads that dont pattern as well...

 

[MCgunner]

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. 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. But, work with fitting the gun to you, also. It really helps for the gun to fit right.