recoil management question(s)

[Detritus]

my appologies if i've posted teh same things here before, such a thread does not show up in the achives of posts i've made or sub'ed to in teh past year+, and i sometimes loose track of what i have asked on what Boards

Howdy,

i have a small dilemma, consisting of two facts,

1.my wife wants to learn to shoot pretty much everyting i have both an interest and reasonable acess to, including the clay games. this means that a shotgun is in her future (she also fell in-love with the Mossberg 590A1 a few years ago and wants one for her own)

2. for reasons beyound her control she is now physically at least somewhat recoil sensitiveint eh wake of surgery on her right shoulder. Doc says she can shoot any and everything SHE feels comfortable shooting. But i want to try and reduce the "impact" on that shoulder from shooting.
so i need advice, alternatives, etc. based on the above and also on my own personal biases....

those biases.....
i HATE .410 shotguns i think they are a waste of time in trying to start a new shooter. all they lead to is frustration for a newby b/c teh pattern is so realatively small.

i am leaning toward a 12ga for the following reasons,

• 12s tend to be built on larger and at least slightly heavier, frames than the same gun in 20ga,
• ultralight loadings such as the winchester "low noise, low recoil" AKA "featherlight" are readily available in 12ga, where as i have yet to see comparable loads for 20 (these are all that's needed for 90% of what we'd do with the gun)
• and lastly she's just as stubborn as me and she is GOING to get that 590 eventually so she may as well start out with the same guage she's gonna get in THAT thing..

she's got one of those PAST "Herean Sheild" recoil pads to use, and i plan on adding a really good decellerator or similar type of buttpad to any such gun.
Also thought has been put toward the possibility of adding either some sort of fixed weight (lead plug) or one of those mercury filled recoil reducers to any shotgun we bought for her use.


so what is the advice of the gurus. are their better ways to do this, ideas that should be considered, am i off in left feild, or am i ont eh right trac and just ahve to follwo through as time/money permit??

as always,
Thank you for your time and patience.

 

[Dave McCracken]

You're on the right track, and here's best wishes for her complete recovery.

The 590s I've seen have an adequate pad. The Herean Shield style of wearable protection and that should suffice, especially if....

I've seen new people do very well at trap with the 7/8 oz Fiocchi creampuffs. Like the Winchester feathers, these have enough moxie to bust targets and make fun but do not punish newbies.

In fact,I've got a nice set of straights with my equivalents, 7/8 oz of 8.5s at 1150 FPS. Kick is miniscule by shotgunner's standards.

Get her the 590. It's a good shotgun if not my favorite. Get the stock fitting her, new pad optional.Buy some superlights,and send her to a qualified instructor. Spouses have too much history to do the best job teaching.

And, be a man and just grin when she outshoots you....

 

[Detritus]

You're on the right track, and here's best wishes for her complete recovery.

she's doing pretty dang good, in fact the doc says she's about as good as she's going to get for range of motion and pain level right now. unfortunately 10 years give or take down the road she'll have to have that shoudler replaced!! doc said that if not for the small chance of this past surgery fixing the probs without replacement, that he would have just gone "the bionic woman" route to begin with.


the 590A1 will either be the second or third SG to enter the house, the first is going to be a run of the mill 870 Express.


and i intend to try and contact our club's "women's Issues" (what a name the wife says they may as well have named it "girl stuff" lol) Director, who is a certified NRA shotgun instructor. adn trust me if she out shoots me ont eh clays field.... then i'll be VERY happy. i'm pretty iffy with a shotgun right now.

thanks dave

 

[Dave McCracken]

Glad to hear it. You may want to take a lesson together, part of that sharing stuff.

Women's Issues? Like, what's the best ammo for SC?....

 

[Detritus]

Women's Issues? Like, what's the best ammo for SC?....

Or Where to have your husband take you for dinner after you trounce him at ( insert SC,Skeet, Trap, What have you) without breaking a sweat....

:how to get HIM to buy everything, even though YOUR salry is twice his.... (my wife makes about 3x the highest rate i've EVER earned, and i'm working on getting HER to pay for some of the gun stuff still....)

 

[ysr_racer]

Beretta 391 20ga youth model. Soft as a kitten. DO NOT LET HER SHOOT A PUMP GUN.

 

[Detritus]

sadly I can't afford a $700 shotgun,

I'd be hard pressed to pay even the $500 that i have seen a new synth stock rem 1100, for a starter shotgun.


maybe i should have put these two comments in the original post, but in addition to the cost factor

1. I don't like Auto shotguns, everyone of them that i've ever messed with has been more trouble to me than the possible reduciton in recoil was worth.
2. and more importantly than ANY of MY biases/prefs, SHE wants a pump gun and not an auto, very vehement about it too. i've told her the upside (reduced recoil in most gas guns) and the downside (tend to be a PITA to clean compared to the pumps).... and she states she wants a pump ~Shrug~ her shoulder her decision. i think it has someting to do with her being issued a pumpgun for guard duty while in the army
   [/list=1]
   
   we all have limits in which we must make our decisions,
   
   i thank you for your input though, and if circumstances adn the prefs of the intended shooter, premitted i wold certainly look into the Beretta semi-autos, since they look worlds better than the comparable remingtons...

 

[45auto]

As mentioned, the 7/8 loads with a low velocity in a 12 gauge gun should give you the lowest recoil in what she wants.

I'd read about or get some advice on the different recoil pads out there today. They seem to improve them all the time.

When you have it installed, it would help if the "smith" was knowledable about fitting a stock. Pitch is important in "spreading" out the recoil so it's not concentrated at certain points on the shoulder.

Good luck.

 

[mete]

The newest Benelli auto has features to minimize recoil including a recoil pad that has a gel in it that absorbs the energy. If she is new to shotguns then get good lessons for her , it reduces the learning curve.