Around about a year ago, I gave my father a Mossberg 500 that I won for being best of the worst in a vaguely IDPA-ish shooting match. In its original configuration, it was a pretty standard shotgun – wooden furniture, stupid-long barrel, minimal sights, etc. – but when my parents came to visit a few months back, he brought along an 18.5" barrel that we swapped out and operationally tested, so now we are getting more into the realm where I feel comfortable.
This time, while we were out visiting them, we hit up the range no fewer than three times in a week (something of a personal record for all of us, I think), and my mother discovered that the recoil from a 12 gauge slug (the range had something against birdshot/buckshot) is… considerable. As such, and in response to watching and thoroughly enjoying Zombieland
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Yeah. That works.
My only experience has been with the Blackhawk! Specops series of recoil-reducing stocks, but the KickLite versions
Oh, and speaking of my mother shooting firearms, she is scary accurate with handguns, even her diminutive PPK, and we are already working on getting her comfortable with something with a bit more "oomf" behind it…
Shooting with older folks is a hell of a lot of fun.
My father is getting, uh, venerable. He was an avid hunter and sport shooter (Silhouette) until his declining mobility forced him to give up his hobbies a decade or so ago. A few years ago, I got into firearms and sport shooting in a big way. I did a little IDPA, a bit of IPSC, and got to the point where I wasn’t sucking as bad.
Unhumble man that I am, I was pretty sure I was hot shit.
On a visit back to the homestead, my brothers and I took my folks out shooting. One of my older brothers brought along a compact-sized Springer XD in 9mm. It was a cute little gun, and I comported myself decently with it, regularly landing hits on a paper plate at 20 yards.
My father was intrigued and asked to try it out.
He proceeded to chew a ragged, half-dollar-sized hole in the middle of the plate at the same distance. He shot groups easily a quarter the size of mine.
I guess one function of old men is to properly humble young men when they start to get too full of themselves.
Maybe your Dad needs to get your Mom a 20-gauge given the recoil. They wouldn’t be giving up anything really in stopping power. After all, an ounce of shot is still an ounce of shot regardless of whether it is in a 20 gauge or 12 gauge shell.
Heh. Reminds me of my Leo.
@ John Richardson:
I have a number of shotguns, two of which are single-shots differing only in gauge: one is 12-gauge, the other is 20-gauge. Same manufacturer, same configuration, same butt pad. Same, smae, same.
The 12-gauge is quite pleasant to shoot. On the other hand, the 20-gauge hits your shoulder like a mule kicking down hill. I can’t explain why it should be so.
@ AMB: Well, there is that quote about old age beating out youth, you know
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But, yeah, when my father was complaining that the sights on the PPK might be a little off, my mother went and tore a two-inch-hole in the target at 15 yards. And when we overloaded the center of one target with my dad’s 1911, he punched a new hole, and then made it one large, ragged one. I sure as heck cannot manage that with much of anything quite yet.
@ John Richardson: That may be next on the list of options, but I am fairly certain that with the recoil reducing stock and a reduced recoil buckshot load, my mother will be comfortable with the firearm… And that is really the problem – no that she could not control it, just that she did not like it.
@ Erin Palette: Great minds and all that
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@ Sendarius: All boils down to perception… bigger rounds with slower burning ammo will yield a “reduced” recoil, or at least a less-sharp one.
Which brings us back to one of the big complaints I have with firearms in general – largely being unable to try before you buy
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