How to get used to 12 gauge recoil?

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Practice with target loads. Repeat as frequently as possible. Their lower recoil will allow you to practice enough to ameliorate your technique to the point where you will be comfortable to shoot more punishing loads out of you shotgun. I took the other road and shot slugs and three inches buckshot during a whole afternoon on my first time out with my shotgun. The result was that I had to wait another two weeks before I went back to the range because my shoulder had been so beaten up. Yes, lighter loads felt like mice farts afterwards, including standard buckshot, but I did not enjoy the experience, it was painful and unpleasant. Another positive point to shooting target loads is also their lower price, which allows you to shoot more for your money and consequently to get more familiar with your gun, which is a good thing.
Of course, a good fit and an equally good recoil pad should be part of your plan.
 
I don't see where he mentioned clay pigeons at all. I don't think he is into that type of range shooting. Totally different ball game trying to hit flying clay pigeons. Although I watched Tom Knapp shoot clay pigeons and wild ducks behind his back, for most of us reasonable gun fit is needed to hit anything flying.
 
I specifically took up clay shooting it improve my HD/SD shooting skills. It's been a terrific learning experience - I can now engage and hit a small moving object 40 yards away from the low ready in less than two seconds (and sometimes significantly less). My offhand rifle brush hunting has gotten more proficient, and my overall HD/SD toolkit is vastly better than it was.
 
Learn good technique FIRST.

THEN practice.

Otherwise you might well ingrain bad habits into muscle memory...
 
I can only add that after some good coaching I noticed the recoil even less because I was concentrating on the bird. The main point my coach gave me was to never ever take your eyes off the bird and to just let the shot happen. So I focus on the bird exclusively and try and break it in my target zone. Commonly I don't even realize the gun has fired until the bird powders.

Recoil gets me when I am not focused and I notice it. That is my clue that I am getting distracted and should get back in focus on the bird again.
 
Fred Fuller said:
Learn good technique FIRST.

THEN practice.

Otherwise you might well ingrain bad habits into muscle memory...
Click to expand...
That is an excellent point and a very valid concern of mine. So how do I pick who to copy? How do I know their technique is sound and valuable? An error at the beginning of the training process would be expensive and frustrating to fix later.

What or where is the benchmark I am looking for? There are an enormous amount of opinions online. Where's a good place to turn? I have no idea.
 
If you guy's go back to the first post, the author says he was patterning the gun.

Which means shooting at targets not thrown targets. Shooting like that standing or sitting the recoil will be very bad, even if he was using target loadings.
 
^The problem occurs when one turns a shotgun into a rifle, I mount and fire the same whether it's at the pattern board, clays or critters. At least I try to.
 
So how do I pick who to copy? How do I know their technique is sound and valuable?

That's always the hard part. For my first few years here at THR, I would often blithely suggest to shotgun newbies that they talk to family members, friends and co-workers and find someone they knew to offer them some basic instruction on the scattergun.

And people kept telling me that they didn't know a single person who owned a shotgun, went hunting or shot clays. No one.

At first I was amazed and saddened at that idea. With time I have come to understand and accept that the America I grew up in has changed more than I realized. So it may take reaching out more, beyond your immediate circle of family and friends, to find someone to help you. You might need to try a local gun club, if you have one. The late moderator here, Dave McCracken, was always willing to teach a round of Shotgun 101 at his local club in Maryland to anyone from THR in his area. There are others in Geezer Squads all over the country who want to pass our art along and are willing to help anyone who can put up with a crusty oldphart in order to learn. They just have to be looked for.

A Hunter Safety Class might be enough to get you introduced to someone who can help - I often suggest that class as an introductory level training experience to folks over at the Strategies, Tactics And Training forum here.

And so on. There may well be a THR member in your area who can help you if they know you are looking for help. Start a thread to that effect here in the Shotgun forum, or at http://www.thehighroad.org/forumdisplay.php?f=41. You will likely get more responses here, however. I usually suggest that prospective students provide their own ammo and be prepared to offer lunch at a local watering hole :D.

Any truly professional firearms instructor is going to tell you that, beyond safety and the essential fundamentals, there is no "one true way" to follow with any defensive firearm. There are a variety of approaches to any problem or task- some will work well for a given person, and others not so well. It's an individual thing, but you will need exposure to the possibilities in order to decide what works for you. Don't expect to get it all sorted out in one easy lesson - but you CAN get started.

Some people like to begin with DVDs from noted instructors, so they get some idea what to expect. I usually suggest Clint Smith or Tom Gives as starting points. My own favorite shotgun trainer, Louis Awerbuck, had not updated his video in several years before his passing but it is still worthwhile IMHO. Be aware all these folks are going to assume that a student knows 'the basics' of safe gun handling, stance, gun mount, gun fit, and basic manipulation of the shotgun before coming to their class - and if I understand properly, these are the things you are looking to learn.

Best wishes, and anyone in NW NC, SW VA or NE TN who wants to get bored by this oldphart on the topic has an open invitation to PM me.

http://www.amazon.com/Defensive-Shotgun-Clint-Smith/dp/B003TEB4MC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhgwHQCJwWw

http://www.paladin-press.com/product/Combat-Shotgun/DVDs

http://www.rangemaster.com/publications/training-dvds/
 
there is no "one true way" to follow with any defensive firearm. There are a variety of approaches to any problem or task- some will work well for a given person, and others not so well. It's an individual thing, but you will need exposure to the possibilities in order to decide what works for you. Don't expect to get it all sorted out in one easy lesson - but you CAN get started.
Click to expand...

That is also true for ANY firearm, not just defensive ones - hunting, target, etc. We are all different sizes, have different reflexes, see things differently, and on and on. What works well for one might not for another, or might with some adjustments and tweaking to better suit that individual. Getting the bare basics down so you avoid ingraining bad habits is one thing, but the fine tuning of any method will be part of your learning curve
 
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