Shotgun for the lady, need ideas.

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yidava25

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Good day all.

So I have a young lady for whom I would like to find or modify a shotgun. She is not (yet) very excited about the shooting sports but is happy to accompany me to the range, and I would like to see her try shooting clays with a gun that actually fits her so that she doesn't have to deal with awkward and uncomfortable recoil. She's about 5'6, average build. Does not enjoy recoil but is not a complete wimp.

So rather than spend $2000 on a Syren or a Beretta Youth only to find out that she doesn't really care for shooting even with the right gun, I am looking for a cheaper way to determine this.

I have a Win. 2400 synthetic that I would happily modify for her if there was an effective way to do so. A cousin of mine has an 870 youth 20g which she could try out, but from what I've read a youth gun is not necessarily a lady's gun.

Any thoughts? Experiences? Advice?

Thanks.
 
Single shot break open .410. Cheap reliable not too much recoil. Great for safe handling too when swinging around after clays. Big and heavy enough to be a real gun yet manageable for a lady. I even use it quite often myself just coz. Then again if I had a single shot break action 12 gauge ID probably use that more :p or a nice O/U... Well ... Now I'm itching for a new shotty...thanks so much...
 
From my expirience, my wife who is not afraid to get her hands dirty, hates recoil and frankly the loud bangs.... The funny things with girls is a lot of it is personal preference, I would borrow a couple let her try them out and or bring her to the store and let her choose what feels good.

Going to my example my wife will shoot my 308 and her brother non comp .223 and she has fun no complaints exept if she dies one to many shots in a row with the 308 lol. However I tried to get her excited to shoot my 9mm ASR and wow the reaction I got was like I put a 338 Lapua in her hands and said don't worry.... The moral of the story is let them decide what they like or you will forever be forking out money or worse she equates all shooting with a chore instead of fun. Just my .2 nothing more.
 
Used but not abused, Remington 1100 in 20 ga.

Not hard to find a replacement stock that you can modify easily & in a cost effective manner.
Keep the original stock for possible resale.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys, I am open to all options. I also have an 1100 Sporting 12 but you might be right, a sub gauge may be worth it.
Apparently LOP is not the only fit issue. Ladies have longer necks which means a Monte Carlo stock helps them get their cheek down far enough. Also the butt angle needs to be different and playing with the cast can help too.
 
If you are trying to get her interested in clays shooting, I do not think I would go with the .410. The only thing it offers is low recoil. Hitting a flying disc is a totally different matter. When you look at the amount of pellets in a .410 shell, you can see why. The .410 is actually considered by many to be a gun for experienced shooters unless of course you are shooting at sitting targets. So unless she happens to be an accomplished shooter right from the start, using a .410 could turn her right off of the sport if she can't hit anything with it. This is just my opinion but I know many others have the same thoughts when it comes to the .410.
 
My lovely bride is now as addicted to the clay sports as I am (and that's a lot!)....she now shoots a beretta dt11 12 gauge, but we have a lot of experience with your question as she started out with a 20 gauge that beat the cr*p out of her.

We tried lots of semis, and we also tried lots of 20ga guns...the end result was that she always had to stop prematurely because of recoil. She was getting beat up enough that she was on the cusp of quitting - my and her advice is to skip the 20 and skip the 12 gauge autoloader and go for either a pump gun or a simple over-under and use the secret weapon which is winchester low noise, low recoil 7/8oz 12ga AAs. My wife shot them very comfortably and grew to love the sport so much with her super-cheap 870 express that several months later we bought her a 12 gauge browning cynergy. This was the first gun where we experimented with fit, and wound up getting an adjustable comb so we could set her cast-off appropriately for being let handed, and an adjustable buttstock that's setup with quite a bit of drop. She shot this gun for about a year, and loved it so much that she's now invested in a custom-fit DT11 and uses it to repeatedly medal in ladies class, but it was that lowly 870 pump gun and the low recoil shell that kindled her fire.

As she was starting to get frustrated dusting (small amounts of dust off target but no break) targets further out, she's now moved up in the shell department, but I can say with certainty that if we had not started out for a year+ on the low recoil shells she would have quit and that learning the fundamentals on close curling birds with her powder-puffy shells got her having so much fun she's now as addicted as I am.

Last year winchester made available their featherlite shells available in 20ga....had they been available we might have tried them first. Since their introduction I've bought a 20 gauge 870 compact junior and have been using it to introduce my 10 year old daughter to the clay sports. To help with recoil I wound up machining a 12oz weight that went into the buttstock, and the combination of the weight and the low recoil shells now has a 75lb 4 foot tall girl going 100 clays and hitting regularly - she smashed her first rabbit last week and was so happy we had to have a party back in the clubhouse afterwards.

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I hope your young lady loves clay shooting as much as mine do!

Cheers,

Brobee
 
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I'm not too excited about the idea of a .410 for just that reason-even if you do everything well you will have trouble breaking clays, not to mention killing birds.

As for 20g vs. 12g, I would prefer to do as suggested and go with a 12 right off the bat and just play with the ammo. I have been wanting to get into shotshell reloading anyway so this might be the perfect time.

Great to hear your success story Brobee. Sounds like you have a lot of great times ahead of you!
 
My gf likes my Beretta 1301 comp 24 inch, it has lots of adjustability and shoots super smooth. It's nice and light too, so it's east to swing. Bad part: not cheap.
 
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If you are willing to hand load, you can make a pussy cat out of a any 12 gauge. I'd find a nice low pressure 7/8 oz recipe or start checking reloading forums to see what recipes there are using for low recoil.

I'd start with the commercial loads like Brobee suggested to see if a low recoil load helps before investing in a reloading setup though.
 
I want to reload shot shells anyway so I'm not too concerned about the cost of that. Cheapest target loads I can find are $75 a flat now so it's closer to worth it.
 
gunsaholic said:
If you are trying to get her interested in clays shooting, I do not think I would go with the .410. The only thing it offers is low recoil. Hitting a flying disc is a totally different matter. When you look at the amount of pellets in a .410 shell, you can see why. The .410 is actually considered by many to be a gun for experienced shooters unless of course you are shooting at sitting targets. So unless she happens to be an accomplished shooter right from the start, using a .410 could turn her right off of the sport if she can't hit anything with it. This is just my opinion but I know many others have the same thoughts when it comes to the .410.
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Giving her a 410, and having her miss pretty much every clay, is a terrible way to grow her interest in the sport.
 
By all means try the Youth 870 in 20 gauge. Use light target loads. If it shoots low, build up the comb.

Also, use GOOD hearing protection. Noise is often perceived as recoil.

Fit is important, but so is balance. A 28" barrel is going to feel very muzzle-heavy when the stock is shortened. This is even worse for a youth or lady with less arm strength.
 
I can see myself shortening the LOP and even raising the comb but I'm not sure about the trigger reach problem. She has small hands and it won't help if she can't comfortably grip the grip. I'm no carpenter by any means.
 
Look for a older remington 1100.in 20g or 12g. Very little recoil and will hold its value if you need to pass it in after she us done. A pump will have a lot more recoil. And a 410 is setting them up for failure. Dutch
 
You can handload 3/4 ounce 12 ga shells. They are becoming popular with handloaders because you save on lead. They are like a 28 ga. very soft recoiling shells. You can visit Hodgdon powders for recipes.
 
I went through this with my wife a few years ago. She shot my SKB 500 O/U with 7/8 oz loads, same ammo I use incidentally.
At the end of the day, she found the gun heavy, recoil didn't bother her at all. Decided shotgun wasn't for her, after all. Moving targets weren't fun for her.
Now, that gun is actually light by target O/U standards, weighs around 7 lbs I think.
The problem is twofold. First, heavy guns are hard to handle for small people. Second, light guns kick the snot out of them. Stay away from light, inexpensive over/unders like Stevens, CZ, Yildiz, etc. They're hunting guns, and will pound the living bejesus out of a small framed shooter after a few shots. She deserves a better chance to enjoy herself.
So, you need a light weight gun that doesn't kick much. That's a gas operated 12 or 20 gauge autoloader that'll reliably digest target loads. If it jams every second shot it'll piss her off royally.
Look at Beretta or Browning IMO.
Try to borrow one first, let her shoot a round or two of skeet or trap with it, she might hate shooting clays entirely.
If she does like it, that means you're going to be out of pocket about $1000 to $1500 for a good used one, but the good news is that even if she doesn't stick with it you'll have a nice shotgun after all is said and done.
If she does get hooked and wants an O/U down the road... Well, no one said shooting sports were inexpensive!
 
Didn't read all the posts, but when me and my now wife got together she declared she wanted a shotgun. We hummed and hawed 12 vs 20 gauge, kids, ladies, etc.

She ended up getting a 20g kids Citori (micro Midas).

Now, it's lighter, so she can handle it and swing it fine, but at 6.5lbs it kicks just as hard as my 7.5lb 12g....
 
My wife did not like my 870 12ga. She bought a 870 20ga youth with the recoil pad and shims to adjust LOP. We made a raised comb using yoga mat and vet wrap. She loves it now. No problem shooting it. Now, we don't shoot clays so I'm not sure what difference that makes. Her first use of it now is turkey hunting. We will see how it works for other things if she wants to try. I'd recommend it for someone who really has no desire to shoot. My wife wasn't really interested, but wanted to Turkey hunt, so we had to find something.
 
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