I spent time this weekend with a 590 pushing slugs and buckshot. My cheek took an absolute beating. Had anybody got a good pad that they can recommend to add to the stock? The constant punches to the face aren't helping me want to practice with slugs.
Thanks!

In order to keep my certification as Instructor, I would have attend an advanced tactical shotgun course. 3 to 5 days of pounding. I went with a wearable recoil pad from P.A.S.T. Which I wore under a shirt so no knew I was not just sucking up the recoil like everybody else. Worked great and you can use them with every shotgun you own, no need to install anything. MidwayUSA has all the various models.

I shoot between 5-6k rounds of shotgun shells a year between defensive, clay shooting, and as an avid bird hunter. The waking up like I was hit in the face by Mike Tyson, is mostly the result of a bad mount. I have managed to train most of that away, but bad mounts are surely going to happen. I am at the point where I know the mount is not right before I squeeze the shot but you take it anyway because a target/bird are in the air. The way to minimize the pounding of the face is to “cheek” the gun properly. If your cheek isn’t firmly on the stock the gun will batter your face under recoil. Before I put on any face recoil pads, I would check to make sure the gun is fit properly to you. It may be as simple as shimming the stock up or down which could eliminate most of the problem.

As an example, my son and I were testing defensive loads on a few of my shotguns this weekend. Most of the loads we shot were pretty potent (1600 fps). After just shy of 50 rounds each, I was feeling absolutely no effect and my adult son felt like he just got out of the boxing ring. These were my guns which would require a slight shim downward to accommodate his long neck, hence the battering. The same thing happens when I shoot his guns, I am too deep when cheeked, so I have a tendency to creep off the stock for a good sight picture.

THANK YOU! This is exactly the kind of information I need.

I shoot a lot of shotgun a year with an 870P.

I've found that the culprit is almost always a stock that's too long. It causes you to blade and that drives your cheek into the stock, which is ordinarily fine, but it's a hard drive and I find that to be what causes the painful jaw.

Anyone can shoot a short stock well on a HD shotgun but very few can shoot one well with the standard LOP stock. Adding a Limbsaver or R3 pad helps too.

When I shoot I only have about 1/3 of the pad in the shoulder pocket and the rest sits above it.

I've been using the 12" LOP Hogue stock with their air pad. Very comfortable and it's right up their with the Limbsaver and R3.

You mean a comb pad?

You can buy peel and stick jobbers of various thickness from a few companies. I can't recommend one over another, but I will complain that they're too much money for what they are IMO.


Last couple I got off Amazon.

Flashlight boy is dead on! When I did a lot of shotgun, what is found is almost every stock is too long for almost everyone.

In the old days, companies put butt plates on guns. When they started adding recoil pads, they did Not correspondingly shorten the wood stock.
Also I see a lot of hunter go gun shopping in a T shirt and think the gun they mounted in the store fits fine.
Add layers of clothes typical to hunting environments and they end up too long sometimes comically so.
My solution every. Time I get a shotgun is to remove the pad and replace with a thin buttplate.

And the concept of proper mounting is also key. Your cheek should be hugging the stock so it does not slap you. The problem also is once you get slapped, you start to not nuzzle into the stock causing more beating not less

Looking at the catalog for the 590 there is a wide variety of stocks for that particular model. Some with stock pads and some without. Material can range from a variety of polymers to "walnut stained wood". BTW, odds are it's actually Beech or perhaps Poplar. Yeah, I'm a wood snob, wood without the figuring (defects) common to Walnut are boring. Anyhow all these variants means that a different stock may provide a completely different Fit that doesn't slap you cheek. Note, stocks appear to be low cost with the 590.

Another option is the Beretta Gel Cheek Pad. I have two shotguns that are horrible cheek slappers with the naked stocks. Adding this cheek pad totally eliminated the cheek slap. Note I use the 3/16 thickness. These are self stick and very tenacious on a wood gun stock, leave them on longer than 6 months and your really have to work to peel them off. So they will NOT come loose in a shooting session. However I have no idea at all how well they work on a composite stock.