Shotgun recoil

[Water Rat]

I've noticed recently that a lot of members here complain about the recoil from 3 and 3 1/2 inch shells. Granted that I wouldn't want to go to the range and blast off a few boxes of 3 1/2 inch shells , but I don't think twice about hunting with them. Am I the only one who doesn't feel the recoil when I'm shooting a turkey with one ? When I pull the trigger on a turkey , all I feel is the adrenaline rush and the explosive shockwave of the muzzle blast. I love it too Lol.

[Waterfowler]

Exactly, at the range or pattern testing you feel it. Shooting at turkeys or waterfowl don’t feel a thing

[LET EM GROW]

I typically don't feel the recoil of 3-1/2" shells while hunting.. unless my grip or form is poor while squeezing the trigger, ill feel it in different ways.. but it doesn't cross my mind a bit while hunting... I do not enjoy shooting more than a few shells at a time though. I have switched to handloading Tungsten turkey loads, and the 20ga tungsten recoil turns into a 12ga lead recoil.. I load most all gauges.. and even the 410 has some recoil to it!  I've also started patterning from a tripod with a saddle grip vs on a bench.. seems a tad more comfortable when shooting heavier recoil turkey guns. 

[Enigma]

This subject always twists me up lol. I'm an admitted elitist when it comes to most people (imho) being over gunned for deer, but I shoot nothing but 3 1/2" 12 at turkeys.

One of my best hunting buds shoots 180 grain out of a 300 Weatherby Mag at whitetails for cripes sake. Granted he travels NA for bigger game but I still bust on him when he shows up with that cannon to deer hunt. WTH!? I always say. He always responds the same way. "I shoot this because it leaves no doubt". I guess that's how I feel about turkeys and 3 1/2" mags. Weird . . .

I look forward every year to taking out my 935 and slamming paper turkey targets before the season. Never feel the recoil when shooting at a bird but I know they're gonna get hit HARD. Some kinda twisted masochism I guess. 

I shoot 3 1/2" because they don't make 4". 

 

[CharlieNY]

6 hours ago, Waterfowler said:

Exactly, at the range or pattern testing you feel it. Shooting at turkeys or waterfowl don’t feel a thing

I will agree with you with a couple of exceptions. I shoot 3.5" shells at both Canada and Snow geese. During the early September season for Canada geese the limit here is 15 per day and right now during the Snow goose season the limit is 25 per day. There have been a few days during both seasons where I have shot a box or more of 3.5" shells and even though I don't feel the recoil at the time, my shoulder feels it at the end of the day.    valoroutdoors.com

[Jeremy K]

I actually enjoy the sore shoulder after a range trip with the shot gun. 

[UpStateRedNeck]

May not feel the shoulder, but you feel the shiner you get sometimes shooting at a hard angle!   Noticing better pattern at 50 with the 3.5" than the 3" too.

[Waterfowler]

47 minutes ago, CharlieNY said:

I will agree with you with a couple of exceptions. I shoot 3.5" shells at both Canada and Snow geese. During the early September season for Canada geese the limit here is 15 per day and right now during the Snow goose season the limit is 25 per day. There have been a few days during both seasons where I have shot a box or more of 3.5" shells and even though I don't feel the recoil at the time, my shoulder feels it at the end of the day.    valoroutdoors.com

Yes I guess early season shooting with those limits you would feel it a little after. I shoot my Beretta Xtrema 3 1/2’s with absolutely no butt pad to shorten the LOP. Don’t feel a thing 

[Pygmy]

I have never shot a 3.5" 12 gauge and never plan to..The two guns I use for turkeys,  a Rem 1100 and a rem 11-87 are capable of killing turkeys at as long a range as care to shoot, and being gas operated, aren't too bad to shoot  off the bench while patterning or checking scope zero..

I often use a Browning Citori for duck hunting with 3" 12 gauge loads....I don't notice the recoil while I am hunting, but it gives me a headache if I shoot more than 10 or 12 times, and I usually have a bruised shoulder, which doesn't happen when I shoot one of my gas autos...

[Buckmaster7600]

I hunted with a 870 super mag for 1 year, killed 5 turkeys and ended up with a broken finger and and a couple black eyes. My style of Turkey hunting very rarely leads to a normal shooting position therefor recoil becomes a much bigger factor. The bird I broke my finger on I shot at 8ft and never got the gun in my shoulder, broke my trigger finger and had to hunt the rest of the year shooting with middle finger.

Last year both my birds were shot around trees with gun not in my shoulder, a 20ga kicks plenty for me.


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[G-Man]

A mossberg 835 with a 3.5 in turkey load has almost 10 lbs more ft lbs of energy than a 416 rigby.Rigby.. it has enough energy to break your collarbone  nothing short of extreme large caliber rifles 50 cal big, 20mm rounds kicks harder..   most guns are made heavier to contain the energy transfered to your shoulder ,  the 12 ga is in fact a light gun shooting a 10 ga round thru it... that's why guys complain about a 3.5 in shell...

[Otto]

I have 2 boxes of 12 ga 3.5” shells, when they are gone, I’ll switch over to the 6 or 7 boxes of 3” shells, and when they are gone, I’ll switch over to 20 ga.  

The 3.5” kick like hell, but it’s the last thing on my mind when a turkey is at the end of the barrel.  

[Jeremy K]

8 minutes ago, G-Man said:

A mossberg 835 with a 3.5 in turkey load has almost 10 lbs more ft lbs of energy than a 416 rigby.Rigby.. it has enough energy to break your collarbone  nothing short of extreme large caliber rifles 50 cal big, 20mm rounds kicks harder..   most guns are made heavier to contain the energy transfered to your shoulder ,  the 12 ga is in fact a light gun shooting a 10 ga round thru it... that's why guys complain about a 3.5 in shell...

The 835 is back bored to reduce recoil from a 3.5 inch shell lol. I've only shot 3s from mine but I have a box of 3.5s I'm tempted to try out just to see.

[G-Man]

22 minutes ago, Jeremy K said:

The 835 is back bored to reduce recoil from a 3.5 inch shell lol. I've only shot 3s from mine but I have a box of 3.5s I'm tempted to try out just to see.

Yes and it still kicks worse than any gun. 

[wolc123]

I am going to use the hardest kicking gun that I own for turkey hunting this year, my Ithaca 16 gage featherlight.  I have not noticed the kick from it, when shooting at game, but I sure have on the target range.  I usually use a pin-on recoil pad for that, which tames it very well.  
 

It kicks so hard, because it is extremely light, basically built on a 20 gauge action, but it fires shells nearly equivalent to 12 gauge loadings.  I like it most because it has killed everything that I have shot it at, since I put the 1.5 Weaver scope on it 40 years ago.  I also like that it is so light, that it is hardly noticeable to carry.  An extra bonus these days, is that I have a nearly inexhaustible supply of ammo for it.  
 

I am looking forward to getting some use out of my “hardly used” modified choke bird barrel for turkeys this year.  That 1.5 Weaver scope should be kick-ass for that, having always put the slugs almost exactly where I wanted them, on dozens of deer, in the 10-40 yard range.  It surely ought to be able to center a shot pattern, right on a turkey’s head and neck. 

 

[G-Man]

This is scientifically proven so if you shoot an 835  with 3.5 in you can handle anything.....

[wolc123]

1 minute ago, G-Man said:

This is scientifically proven so if you shoot an 835  with 3.5 in you can handle anything.....

Having mostly used shotguns , It always amazes me when anyone even mentions recoil concerns with any center-fire rifle or pistol.
 

it was a big eye opener for me , when I fired my neighbor’s Ruger #1 .458 win mag a few times.  The recoil of that thing was nothing compared to my 16 ga Ithaca featherlight.  
 

My Ruger 77 30/06 is fairly heavy and it’s recoil seems comparable to my .410.   I also thought that the recoil of my buddies .44 magnum pistol was almost negligible, compared to the time I tried a pistol grip on my short barreled Remington 870 12 ga.  My wrist  was sore for weeks after firing a few slugs with that.  

[suburbanfarmer]

Wolc

Have you shot a semi auto shotgun; Gas or inertia driven?

I could handle 2-300 rounds of sporting clays easy in a day without developing a flinch in my younger days.

[wolc123]

7 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:

Wolc

Have you shot a semi auto shotgun; Gas or inertia driven?

I could handle 2-300 rounds of sporting clays easy in a day without developing a flinch in my younger days.

The only autoloader shotgun , that I have ever fired, was my Dad’s Recoil operated Browning sweet 16, and I only shot it twice.  We were hunting a friends deer camp one opening weekend, about 35 years ago, back when deer season opened on Monday.  We got to camp on Saturday evening.  
 

Sunday morning, a couple of my younger buddies and I went back to check on our stands, and dad let me carry his Browning, in case I ran across any grouse.  My scoped Ithaca deerslayer wouldn’t have been so good for that.  Sure enough, I saw two and shot both, just as they disappeared into the leaves.  My buddies heard the shots, and were surprised when I showed them the two dead grouse.

That gun fit me real well, but I never fired it again.  Nobody saw any deer the next morning, and a few of the older guys blamed me for scaring them all off, by shooting them two grouse.  We didn’t get invited back to that camp for quite a while.  Those grouse sure were tasty though.

On Thanksgiving of that year,  I killed a big 9 pointer, on our farm.  My dads buddy and one of his other friends were standing out in front of their barn down the road, when I drove by with it in the back of my pickup.  I pulled in so they could check it out.  

[G-Man]

11 hours ago, wolc123 said:

Having mostly used shotguns , It always amazes me when anyone even mentions recoil concerns with any center-fire rifle or pistol.
 

it was a big eye opener for me , when I fired my neighbor’s Ruger #1 .458 win mag a few times.  The recoil of that thing was nothing compared to my 16 ga Ithaca featherlight.  
 

My Ruger 77 30/06 is fairly heavy and it’s recoil seems comparable to my .410.   I also thought that the recoil of my buddies .44 magnum pistol was almost negligible, compared to the time I tried a pistol grip on my short barreled Remington 870 12 ga.  My wrist  was sore for weeks after firing a few slugs with that.  

The weight of a gun is usually built to reduce recoil  , when it's a feather weight your removing weight which make recoil higher  Ithaca 37s were light guns that packed a good punch..  still not close to 835 with 3.5 in turkey load..  

[LET EM GROW]

Also, Most people dont really understand the difference between a 410 and a 12ga turkey load... when people say is 410 even legal? well yea, it shoots a pattern or pellets and flies at the same velocities.. you just have to adjust your max yardage per payload/pattern like anything else when we do our part and get good with our equipment.. I have a 410 that will shoot better than most normal 12 ga patterns. its light, extremely ethical and birds dont flop.. guys can shoot 3-1/2" factory standard turkey load and barely make a killing pattern at 50. Bump up to my 28ga and its a stone cold killer beyond 60.. 

My 535 and 835 mossbergs are flat out shoulder dis locaters.. but they pattern lead and non toxics better than most shotguns.  My 535/835 guns with a 3.5 or 3" handload will flop a turkey at very very long ranges, but will also roll you back  harder than the 3.5" lead turkey load .. I rarely hunt with them, but tinkering is fun.  

attached is a 3.5" 2.5oz handload pattern from my 535 at 35yards. Theres roughly 640 pellets in that pattern #8 Tungsten that has 1.25" deep gel penetration out to 95 yards

[Five Seasons]

The kick or boom of a gun has never bothered me when it's directed at an animal. I shoot 3.5" mags out of my mossberg 835, which is a little more forgiving than it's little brother the 535. I also put a limb saver recoil pad on it, but when I was pattering it in I will admit that I had to try real hard on my flinch. That baby has a kick. I don't shoot my 3.5" at the range for plinking so I'm good with it haha.

[Grouse]

I've been using my Mossberg 835 for goose and turkey for more than 30 years now.  I've shot hundreds of 3.5 in rounds through it.  The first time I shot it, I hurt my cheek bone.  After a few more rounds, I learned how to hold it tight and roll with the punch.

Realizing I would never use it for deer with buckshot and only used it for goose and turkey, I took the recoil pad off the hollow butt stock and filled it completely with pennies I had in a jar.  The I replaced the recoil pad.  Putting that extra weight in the butt stock made a big difference in the felt recoil.  I always carry it with a sling, so the extra weight doesn't affect hunting with it.

BTW, the back bored barrel was used to give better patterns from fewer deformed pellets.  It doesn't really affect felt recoil.  What does affect felt recoil is the turkey choke.  The tighter a shotgun's choke, the more the felt recoil.  The purpose of the 3.5 in 12 gauge round is to supply the same amount of pellets used in a 10 gauge round.  More pellets means more felt recoil too, but also a more dense pattern on target at longer range.

Just like shooting a big dangerous game rifle, a 3.5 in 12 gauge requires knowing how to shoot it properly.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Grouse

[Water Rat]

12 hours ago, G-Man said:

This is scientifically proven so if you shoot an 835  with 3.5 in you can handle anything.....

That is interesting….. thanks for posting it.

[grampy]

The turkey's I have killed, have all been with a 12g, two and three quarter inch #6 shot shell. I see no reason to abuse myself, with magnum loads. The best part of turkey hunting for me, is seeing how close I can get to them. That's what excites me most about turkey hunting. I've never shot at one farther than 35 yards. most were much closer. But to each their own.