My shoulder hurts. It feels heavy

[akoba]

First time shooting a shotgun. The cheap one i got here few months ago. I bought a box of winchester heavy load 12g. After shooting all those 25 rnds , i feel like i came from work out. I try to find a low recoil round for my wife but no avialable so she didn't try it. Now she is afraid of that 12g shotgun. She said she will just stay in her sig 238 and my 1911.
Any advice for a shotgun noob ?

Thnx

[Jet Setter]

Just takes practice and a proper stance/shouldering. Keep at it. Look for some 1200 GPS or less loads to get your wife to try it. Really is not that bad.

[ham]

also dosen't hurt (pun intended ) to get a limbsaver pad, either the slip on or a screw on one. makes a big diffrence.

[nastyhabts26]

Get a good recoil pad and dont worry about the wife shooting it.
Teach her how to handle it, load it and use it safely, but she like my wife will probably not want to shoot it.
If you are dead set on her shooting a shot gun look into getting a 28 gauge or 410 for her to shoot, they wont hurt to shoot.
My wife now claims my 28 gauge as hers.

[Grumpyoldretiredcop]

Proper buttstock placement is more important than pads. Before learning where shotgun buttstocks should be positioned, I hated shotguns just like almost every cop I know. Once shown how it should be placed (and it's one of those "now why didn't I think of that!" moments), I could fire slugs and buckshot all day without bruising or getting a sore shoulder. It's like night and day.

Get someone who knows to teach you and your wife; you'll be glad you did.

[enorbit3]

like jet setter said, make sure you got the proper stance and have the gun pulled in tight. gotta shoulder it properly and get a good cheek weld. keep up the practice.

[actium31]

1) Take your dress off and leave the tea party...
2) Let your wife shoot a gun she's comfortable with.

Everyone was thinking it! I just said it

[SonofWWIIDI]

Buttstock placement and proper stance will solve most of your issues.

A good recoil pad and a shoulder pad will also help. But first the basics!

[Merc1138]

First time shooting a shotgun. The cheap one i got here few months ago. I bought a box of winchester heavy load 12g. After shooting all those 25 rnds , i feel like i came from work out. I try to find a low recoil round for my wife but no avialable so she didn't try it. Now she is afraid of that 12g shotgun. She said she will just stay in her sig 238 and my 1911.
Any advice for a shotgun noob ?

Thnx

Do you even lift?

But seriously, it's either how you're shouldering it, or something drastically wrong with the fit like the length of pull being way off for you. Same goes for your wife. You know those dumb videos on youtube of women shooting shotguns and having it fly out of their hands, or getting knocked over? It's because they weren't mounting it properly.

I'm sure you can find some videos on youtube that may help explain it, but it doesn't hurt to simply have someone show you how to do it.

[slopoke]

Experiment with different positions of the butt to your shoulder and find the "sweet spot". Big difference on how the recoil feels.

[Thefeeder]

><

Women with 12ga shotguns shooting 60mph flying Zombies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEaB9dIQHG4

Watch the gun mount.....watch how much time after the gun is mounted that the shot is taken. They don't adjust the gun once mounted

[jpscoot_21]

Winchester AA Powder puff loads.
Also, "pull the gun apart" front hand forward and back hand back. Recoil at the waist. Keep back elbow raised.

[cduff]

If you find you like the shotgun and want to pursue it, there are several things to try. Eventually, if you are going to survive an entire round of Sporting Clays or several rounds of Skeet (i.e. 180 - 200 shots in an afternoon), you'll need to do everything right.
-- Agree with everyone that you need at least one session with an instructor or knowledgeable friend on the correct stance/technique
-- Proper mounting technique (buttstock pulled in tight). It sounds a little zen, but you should be absorbing a lot of that recoil in your waist, legs, not your shoulder
-- Consider buying/renting a semi-auto shotgun, which will have drastically reduced recoil
-- Consider a big, heavy 12GA side-by-side shotgun that will soak-up some of the recoil, something like a used Beretta 682 or Browning Citori
-- Consider something smaller & semi-auto for the wife, like a Beretta 391 20GA, which will have much less recoil
-- get a shooting shirt/vest that has a pocket for a recoil pad and experiment with different brand gel pads, etc. or even home-made ones of foam or varying thicknesses
-- Until you get used to it, consider Win AA light loads or Training Loads......you need to kick the recoil fear early or the resultant anticipatory flinching could ruin your accuracy for life

[akoba]

Thanks for the input guys. I really appreciate it. I'm going to take the shotgun class as others advice. As for my wife, I will try to find her a 20g or 28g.

Anyway the important thing happen yesterday is we both have a good time on our date (shooting and lunch) before i go to work. But before we left the shooting range, she lock the car and the car key was inside the range bag in the trunk. It's good that we bring 2 cars when we go in the range. We drive back to the house to pick up the spare key.

[sargenv]

20's are going to kick just as much.. it's not the gauge that judges the recoil, it's the recoil to weight ratio.. if the gun weighs 6 pounds, it is going to recoil more than an 8-9 pound gun with the same ammo.

The 20's made today are built on lighter frames, usually under 7 pounds, the 12's run the gamut from just under 7 pounds to about 10.. You should see about finding some very light target loads.. Winchester makes super-lite target ammo.. 1 oz at 1100 fps has been made and is out there. I've seen ultra low recoil 1 oz load loaded to 980 fps. It is made for cowboy action shooting. I've even seen some 24 gram (just shy of 7/8 oz) international loads but they usually cost a bit more.