Tough to balance lower recoil vs lighter weight. If you reload shotgun shells you can load a low recoil 7/8 or 1 oz 12 gauge. My wife enjoyed my Rem 1100 28 gauge Sporting Clays but shells get expensive in volume.
Tough to balance lower recoil vs lighter weight. If you reload shotgun shells you can load a low recoil 7/8 or 1 oz 12 gauge. My wife enjoyed my Rem 1100 28 gauge Sporting Clays but shells get expensive in volume.
If you shoot 1 oz or 7/8 oz loads at under 1,200 feet per second with a gas operated auto and still suffer painful recoil, the gun isn’t fitting, or being mounted, properly. If you square-away all of these variables including fit and mount yet still suffer recoil, sorry, but shotgunning is probably not going to be enjoyable. Period.
Recoil is only one consideration of many. Fit is important, weight is important, and balance is important; some smaller people, or some people with comparatively-less upper-body strength, face real difficulty trying to manage longer and heavier shotguns.Originally Posted by rob_s
Remington 1100 shotguns take the cake for soft recoil. They abound in plentiful number. They are easy to keep running. Used ones are fairly cheap.
Of course.
Especially with smaller shooters, gun selection has always been a struggle between lower weight for easier handling which in turn means more felt recoil, gun fit, and new shooters not really *getting* the technique (which I personally think is a large part of the problem here).
What I'm really most interested in is the most ubiquitous off-the-shelf shotgun used by women in sporting clays, preferably (well) under $1k.
Nobody is nearly as special as they think they are, and women have been shooting "men's guns" for hundreds of years successfully before Syren and others showed up hawking "you're so special" versions that cost $3k.
I really want her to try my A300 but at 6'-1" I have pretty much all the shims on the stock and we're going to have to deal with the LOP issue.
The "answer" for new shooters or shooters of smaller stature was often a Remington 1100 20 gauge shooting lower recoil shells - note that the "hunting" 20 gauge shells can be relatively stout. Rem 1100 is considered "old tech" but they have broken many clays. Buy a youth stock or have the existing tock modified to fit better.
When I was a very active Sporting Clays shooter, I shot Rem 1100s in the sub-gauge side matches - 20, 28, 410. I had my "sub gauge" Rem 1100 28 gauge stock modified so that I could easily add or delete shims to get the length right moving between myself and my wife. 28 gauge is a magical shell with low recoil but smacks clays with surprising authority.
You can always sell a clean Rem 1100 28 gauge if she does not like or hopefully after she gain confidence and moves to another platform.
That's good info, thanks.
it does appear that (a) Remington isn't selling 100 youth models anymore, in any gauge and (b) they are $1300+ new anyway. So that leaves the used market, which is pretty sparse in my area. Plus makes it a little harder to get her the chance to hold one.
We did discuss it a bit and she feels like the weight of the gun is less of an issue now that she's more comfortable with the gun and understands how to use the balance of the gun and body parts like hips and armpits to help support it while not shooting. She's actually very fit, but this is a new set of muscles that you don't really use for much else.
When I was shooting Sporting Clays in the Southeast, there were often vendors at large events that modified stocks on site at a "workshop" trailer and also vendors (gun dealers) selling new and used shotguns. Great opportunity to "see" what's available. All my Rem 1100s are used - 28 gauges are rare and 410s are unicorns. 12s and 20s should be plentiful. Secret to 1100s is keep the shell tube exterior clean - I lost count of "broken" 1100s I fixed with a few paper towels and some WD40. Those large shoots used to be a good place to pick up target load shells too.
Thoughts on 11-87 instead?
https://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/...ducts_id/57577
When I was more involved in shooting I'd have been more open to getting far more involved in this process, but for us we really just want her to have a gun in the safe that fits her and she's not scared of that we can take out on a "date" from time to time. Most organized events don't fit our schedule. About the best I'm going to hope for is getting her to Bass Pro (which is an hour away, unfortunately) and have her try some guns they happen to have on hand.
Right now, this concept is competing against golf (which is better for my career, allows drinking on the field, is easier to access from our house and has more potential for doing it on vacation). I'm not saying they'll ultimately be mutually exclusive, but I've really enjoyed our two clays outtings so far and I want to try and keep that momentum.
I believe that Remington has moved the remaining 1100s to more expensive target or collector grades. The 11-87 will be fine - it has an updated gas system. I would recommend getting a longer barrel for clays use - a 26" is actually cheaper. https://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/...ducts_id/99827
I just checked and eBay has plenty of Rem 1100 stocks cheap - some already shortened. A competent local gunsmith should be able to modify a stock at reasonable cost. Not sure about interchangeability of Rem 1100 and 1187 stocks but I am sure there is a chart somewhere.
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