Proper hold of a shotgun--my face hurts :-)

[jlbpa]

After an afternoon of shooting clay birds the right side of my face (cheek bone) hurts. I shoot right handed.

shotgun is a remington 870 police (wood stock) 26 inch barrel. shooting winchester AA 7 1/2 light loads. Sometimes my finger tips of my right hand come back and hit my mouth .

I'm wondering if I'm too accustomed to relaxing and shooting a rifle off hand and perhaps not holding the shotgun tight enough against the recoil. How tight should I hold a shot gun and should I be laying my cheek on the stock?

 

[NG VI]

I don't know. I keep my face sort of on the stock, but slightly off of it, and try to hold the gun very tightly against my shoulder. I think tight into the shoulder makes all the difference.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Proper Mounting Techniques in the TFL floaters up top here has a good description.

DO pull the butt into the shoulder.

 

[Calibre44]

Sounds like the gun might not 'fit you' properly, maybe the comb is too high?

Another thing to watch out for is not to lift your head to see if you've hit the clay. If you do- Whack!- one bruised cheek.

Get someone to watch what you do as you're shooting.

 

[Cougfan2]

I had a similar problem on and Ithaca 37. I would come home from shooting 2-3 rounds of trap looking like I'd been on the losing end of a bar fight. Finally figured our that the leading edge of the comb was contacting right under my right eye. Added about 1 1/4" of recoil pad and spacer and it fixed the problem. Fit is everything, especially in a shotgun.

 

[dagger dog]

As Cougfan2 pointed out you may have a length of pull problem (too short). If you have exceptionaly long arms you may try a slip on recoil pad to add to the length of the stock. The statement you made of the fingers touching your mouth makes me think that it may be your problem.

 

[machinisttx]

As Cougfan2 pointed out you may have a length of pull problem (too short). If you have exceptionaly long arms you may try a slip on recoil pad to add to the length of the stock. The statement you made of the fingers touching your mouth makes me think that it may be your problem.

+1. First thing that came to mind.

Try a limbsaver brand recoil pad, best I've used.

 

[jlbpa]

I'm 6'1 and 185 and I do have long arms. Sounds like length of pull might be my problem. I'll try a slip on pad to see if that solves the problem.

Thanks for your help

 

[Phil DeGraves]

Also, run your thumb along the top of the pistol grip instead of crossing over. If you cross over, you'll hit yourself in the cheek with the heel of your thumb.