recoil--slug vs buckshot

[Evil Monkey]

I've never fired a shotgun before and I would like to rent one. The only place I know of that will rent them out require that I purchase their ammo. On top of that, the only ammo for their shotguns they allow at their indoor range are slugs.

I'm wondering, do slugs have more recoil than buckshot like 00? I just don't want to get the wrong impression.

 

[Deer Hunter]

I've shot buckshot and 3" slugs out of my Stoeger coach gun, which probably weighs around 6.5 pounds. To me, the buckshot kicked harder than the slugs, even though the slugs were 3".

 

[_N4Z_]

I have had a Rem870 since 1988.

It has had everything imaginable run through it, though it has been a good 12+ years since anything of the 3" variety has been fired.

I recently patterned 3 different brands of factory 00buck with it as well as a few slugs. Everything was 2 3/4" size wise. It all kicked me pretty much the same. From memory the 3" stuff was stouter, but it's been quite awhile.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Apples to apples. An oz of lead at a given speed in a given shotgun will produce X kick. Add weight or speed things up, X+ whatever.

In my slug shooters, 9 pellet Winchester 00 and KO 1 oz slugs feel about the same. 12 pellet 00 and 1 1/8 oz Rottweil Brenekkes both kick a lot.

YMMV.

 

[RNB65]

I find that slugs recoil a lot harder than buckshot but YMMV. Everyone feels recoil a little differently and some people are more recoil sensitive than others. Use a good recoil pad on the gun and some shoulder padding such as the PAST pad or Browning REACTOR pad to help tame heavy recoil.

 

[Landlocked Pirate]

Just two hours ago I fired my Remington 870 Express 18" for the first time since installing a Remington R3 recoil pad made by Limbsaver. I fired both 00 buckshot and slugs (2 3/4" full power loads). The slugs seemed to have a little more recoil, but the point of this post is my utter amazement at the reduction of felt recoil using the Limbsaver pad. I would never have believed that the pad could have made that much difference. Whereas before, shooting 8-10 heavy buckshot loads was about all I wanted to endure, with the new pad I believe I could shoot buckshot OR slugs all day long.

 

[wdlsguy]

+1 on the R3 recoil pad.

The other thing you can do is switch to "managed / reduced recoil" loads. Less velocity and muzzle energy, but less recoil.

http://www.remington.com/pdfs/07catalog-ammo.pdf

It's kind of fun to plug numbers into a recoil calculator also.

http://www.huntamerica.com/recoil_calculator