My daughter is nearly 11 and looking to hunt with me and her grandfather. That is at least a couple years off but we are making moves to prepare her. I bought her a 20ga Benelli Ultralight and added a Benelli Montefeltro Youth stock to it (probably the lightest 20ga auto on the planet at that point!). I filled the stocks hollow with a bunch of 9mm bullets to balance it for practice (using the DryFire system), and left those in for weight as well for live fire on 2 occasions, the second was today. She did manage to hit two skeet today, which we celebrated immensely, out of about 12 shots, but feels the recoil is still too much. (I admit, most of her shooting has been with a suppressed, heavy barrel CZ455 22LR, so real recoil is a completely foreign concept.) What might you do in my situation to add a better recoil pad to the shotgun? Benelli does not appear to make one that I can tell. I do wish to keep the LOP down as much as I can, but don’t care if it doesn’t match the youth stock perfectly, she will out grow all this soon enough. I just want shooting to not be a painful prospect for her (and yes, we have addressed proper holding of the firearm into your shoulder to prevent getting slammed by recoil).
Thanks!

Just a couple of thoughts. One, I suggest removing the weight in the stock. I have not heard of doing that. Shoot it as it came from the factory. Maybe try a slip on gel recoil pad.
I would also look at how she shoots it. Make sure she shoots and watch's the hit while continuing her swing (follow through).
Shoot relatively light loads.

The more she shoots it the easier it will become for her. Good luck.

There are a few things you can do.

First, form is critical. If you don’t keep the butt pressed firmly in the pocket of your shoulder a shotgun will beat the shit out of you. Touching isn’t good enough, there needs to be pressure. Similarly, if you don’t keep your cheek pressed firmly against the comb, you are going to get slapped hard in the face every time you pull the trigger (unless your face is so far away from the gun you couldn’t possibly hit anything anyway).

A lot of new shooters try to push the gun away when they fire in an attempt to reduce recoil but it just makes things worse.

Second, fit is also critical. Poor fit will make a gun seem like it kicks twice as hard.

Make sure you’re not using the wrong shells. 1 oz shot weight and/or high-velocity shells kick more. At a minimum, stick to 7/8 oz standard velocity. Sometimes you can find 3/4 oz low-recoil shells.

Recoil pads are also pretty easy. In my experience, Kick-EEZ pads are the most effective, with Pachmyr Decelerator a close second. Swapping the stock hard plastic butt plate for a Kick-EEZ took my dad’s old 26” barrel Browning Superposed 12ga (an over-under that is definitely not an ultralight, but not a heavyweight, either) from pretty unpleasant to shoot a round of skeet with (25 shells) to pretty pleasant for a round of sporting clays (100 shells).

If the easy steps don’t get you far enough, there are also a variety of recoil reduction devices that can be installed inside the stock. The ones I see most often are mercury-filled. There isn’t really a mechanical interaction with the gun, the just get stuck inside the stock.

Years ago, my father-in-law won a 20ga SKB over-under that was beautiful but just stupidly light in a Ducks Unlimited raffle. It was really miserable to shoot. He added a good pad and a mercury recoil reducer and it made a huge difference. It was still a handful, but it went from intolerable to OK.

quote:

I suggest removing the weight in the stock. I have not heard of doing that. Shoot it as it came from the factory.

Wouldn't the additional inertial mass soak up some of the recoil energy? Sounds like the main problem is how light the gun is in the first place.

Something like this:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/pr...00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

helped me a lot. I've been getting more and more recoil sensitive as I've been getting older and this thing nearly eliminated felt recoil from 5.56 and 9mm.

Ive been shooting the 20g Montefeltro for years now and hope you find a resolution its a wonderful shotgun. Might try a gas operated gun, adds a little more weight and recoil absorption.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Wouldn't the additional inertial mass soak up some of the recoil energy?

Of course. Heavier gun = less felt recoil.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Wouldn't the additional inertial mass soak up some of the recoil energy?

Of course. Heavier gun = less felt recoil.

Remove the weight in the stock after a round or two with it in. Then shoot it again and report your findings. What will it hurt?

If it is not worse than let her try it. You might be surprised.

Of course, the other suggestions will also help. There is not one solution. It is a process.

Personally, I would not make the shotgun heavier for a small, young shooter.

It it turns out she cannot handle it. She may need to get a bit bigger.

Fit her for a PAST wearable recoil shield. I had to take a week long tactical shotgun instructors course. All OOB or slugs. I wore my PAST pad under my shirt all week. By day three, everybody else was bruised and miserable, but I was not. One big advantage to the wearable sheild is you can use it for multiple guns. They make a special model for women but it might not work for her age. You can see them on Caldwells website. And Midway USA and Amazon sell them too.

Someone suggested to me to get one of those moldable soft mouth guards, like used for football, wrestling, etc.

I thought it was odd but WTH, give it a try.

Bless my soul, it helped.

Definitely keep the weight in there or find something heavier than 9mm bullets. Shoot 7/8 ounce 1200fps. Get a professional to cut the stock and install a full size kick-eez.

Outside of that, sell the Benelli and buy a Beretta A400 and/or switch her to a 28 gauge.

What are you hunting? I know 3$ a round can suck but 410 would be more manageable. When you say an 11 year old girl fired 12 rounds I think that’s pretty solid days work in my opinion.

Without more weight and simple growth that may be her limit.

Thanks, guys! New Kick-Eez pad is on the way, as is a Caldwell Past wearable pad. I already am using the 7/8th oz loads. Measured the inside of the stock, but the youth stock’s interior doesn’t appear to be long enough for a mercury recoil reducer.

Hope those help with the recoil.

A couple shots behind a stout 12ga like a KS7 would make the 20 feel softer

But I wouldn't do that to my kids, much less realistically suggest that for someone else's.

quote:

Originally posted by barndg00:
Measured the inside of the stock, but the youth stock’s interior doesn’t appear to be long enough for a mercury recoil reducer.

You can get them down to 3” long. They also make them to fit in auto/pump magazines, usually replacing the magazine cap or magazine plug - although I don’t know if there are any to fit your exact shotgun. No personal experience with this company, but I think they’re one of the big names and they get good reviews:

www.mercuryrecoil.com/suppressors/index.htm#top

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maladat,

I bought my daughter a Remington 1187 20 gauge youth model. Recoil is fairly soft, even with turkey loads. Light, slick handling and soft shooting. She loves it.

Get a gas gun or add more weight. Different recoil pad? Sure. But an Inertia recoil system on an ultra-light gun is not a match made in heaven for the recoil sensitive shooter. It’s actually the worst combination you could get.

I’d try 3/4 oz loads and see if they will run in that Benelli.

Although it sounds like you are already invested, for a starter youth sized semi-auto I’d recommend the Weatherby SA-08 Compact. It’s a 24” barrel gas gun built for youth and women. Got one for my son when he was about you daughters age.

It’s not in the same league to a Retay Mesai Mara 20 gauge in build quality but we’ve never had any issues.

https://weatherby.com/store/sa-08-synthetic-compact/

Is switching to a gas gun an option? Benelli inertia system recoils quite a bit IME, no matter what recoil pad you use.

ETA: X0225095 hit the nail on the head.

Benelli kicks the hardest and Remington 1100 kicks the least in my experience. Only other thing I can say is what has already been said.

Weight is good.

Kick-eez recoil pads help.

Light loads.

Gun Fit and proper shoulder massage mounting.

I haven’t used the wearable recoil reducer but I have seen others use them during sporting clay tournaments.