Inertia Drive 20 ga. (kick) for 9 yr old

[ROSCO]

I am still trying to decide on a gun for my son to dove and duck hunt with. I have been to my local gun dealer to look at and get the feel of some of the guns I had looked up on the web.
I really like the feel of the Benelli Montefeltro short stock ( 5.3 lbs). I am also interested in the Franchi 720 short stock, they did not have this one for me to look at. (5.8 lbs).

My question is, How does the Inertia Drive recoil (kick) compare to other styles of 20 ga. auto's.

Any other input you guys have on getting a young boy into the sport of shooting/hunting would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[TrapperReady]

IMO, go with a gas gun. My wife started on a Benelli M1-Field 20ga. They are lightweight, and as a result they kick every bit as hard as a 12ga.

My personal preference is for the Beretta 391 20ga youth model. A 20ga Remington 1100 would also be good.

 

[ArmedBear]

Blowback recoil is harsh. ("Inertia" doesn't eject shells. It might switch triggers on an O/U, but it ain't enough to operate a repeating shotgun action. Think "blowback" when you think about what an "inertia driven" gun feels like to shoot.)

Have you ever shot a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum? It's gas-operated and the recoil is shockingly soft. I was really surprised I'd venture to say that it's softer than any full-size blowback pistol I've shot, and none of them shoot a round that comes close to a .44 Magnum. Gas operation really does make that much of a difference.

Anyway, the Beretta 20 Gauge 391 is just under 6 lb., a good weight for a youth gun. Nice gun. Since it comes with a case, the price isn't bad (as these things go).

Remington appears to only offer a single youth semiauto currently, the 11-87 Sportsman. With plastic stocks and the same cost-saving measures as the 870 Express, I don't think it's worth what they charge for it. (I have an 870 Express, and I think it's a good enough deal for the $235 NIB I paid for it. Great gun for throwing in a skiff or lending to a less-than-careful buddy, and it shoots well. But I'm not going to pay $700 for something similar!)

Of course the "old school" way was to get a used 1100 LT-20, a shorter barrel, and a cut-down stock. Then he can grow into the gun, or you can use it when he's sick of it. LT-20 balance and recoil are wonderful, but they're available for a decent price.

 

[ROSCO]

Where is a good place to look for a used shotgun? Can you buy them over the net?

 

[45crittergitter]

The Montefeltro is most definitely an inertia/recoil operated action, NOT a blowback, period. Although difficult to explain inertia recoil operation with mere words, the owner's manual does a fair job.

Although I love my 20 ga Monte, a gas gun will fell softer. If the Benelli is in your price range, so is a Beretta gas gun, which is what I'd recommend for your application. Make sure you can get adjustable/multiple stocks to fit him as he grows.

 

[kennyboy]

Where is a good place to look for a used shotgun? Can you buy them over the net?

Go to www.gunbroker.com. I have never ordered from there, but it is a reputable internet gun auction site. I mainly use the sight to get an idea of how much a particular gun costs.

By the way, I'd go Benelli. They are the best name in shotguns and have innovative comfort tech parts that help reduce felt recoil.

 

[JohnBT]

The best name? That's open to lots of endless debate.


As far as soft shooting, even Benelli doesn't list it as a feature:

Simple — Inertia Driven® is simple with only three primary parts: the bolt body, the inertia spring and the rotating bolt head. Simple is better.

Faster — With a greatly reduced mass of parts, Inertia Driven® is faster.

Cleaner — Gas, smoke and burnt powder stay in the barrel where they belong, rather than being channeled into the gun’s mechanism, as they are in gas systems.

Strong — The massive steel locking lugs on the Inertia Driven® system’s rotating bolt head not only lock steel-to-steel into the gun’s barrel; the lugs are locked-in tighter during firing.

Low Maintenance — The Inertia Driven® system is much cleaner so gun cleanup takes a fraction of the time that it takes to clean a gas system gun.

Light Weight — The Inertia Driven® system is not only incredibly simple; it is also lightweight, allowing Benelli shotguns to be some of the lightest semi-automatic shotguns ever produced.

Perfect Balance — With no springs, action bar linkage or heavy gas cylinder under the fore-end, Benelli’s Inertia Driven® shotguns balance like a fine game gun should.

Reliable — The Inertia Driven® system never needs adjusting and will cycle anything from field loads to 3½˝ magnums with consistent reliability, year, after year, after year. In fact, there are Inertia Driven® Benelli shotguns that have fired over 350,000 rounds, still in the field and functioning perfectly.

 

[JNewell]

Make sure you do your homework on this one. I definitely concur on the suggestion of a gas gun, but a 20 ga will not necessarily feel more gentle than a 12 ga. Recoil would be less if gun weight was the same, but many 20 ga shotguns weigh a pound or more less than a 12 ga. In my experience, the wind up feeling pretty much the same if the 20 is a pound or a pound and a quarter less than the comparable 12.

 

[david_the_greek]

I used to shoot skeet with a 12gauge montefeltro (or was it a legacy). could barely feel a thing and I had to be somewhere around 10-12. now when I tried with the m3 on pump, well that was a different story