Trap (and upland game bird possibly) gun for my wife

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grimblyd

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So my wife and I have been shooting trap and we really love it. She's been using my Mossberg 500 pump shotgun, but as she is 5'1" and weighs about 115 lb, it's been a bit of a struggle for her. one of the fellows at the trap shoot brought his 20g Wingmaster and a couple boxes of shells, so now I have to track down a 20g that will work for her...

She wants to keep the cost down, so looking at a wingmaster or possibly a Mossberg. Targeting the $300-$500 price range.

I THINK what we want is a 20g with a youth stock, and a 26 or 28" bbl with adjustable chokes. There are plenty of options in a 22" bbl but

She's vetoed 'pink camo or pink' guns as she feels people won't take her serious if she shows up with that. I personally thought it would be hilarious, but I don't want to do anything to discourage her from joining me in shooting sports.

So my questions for you folks are

Is the above (in italics) the right choice? She wants it for shooting trap, I want her to also have something that she could later transition in to hunting game birds with me using the same shotgun.

If it is the right choice, I'm thinking that I would hunt down a wingmaster or Mossberg 20g then special order a youth stock. Or is having a gunsmith just cut down the stock on it an option we should consider?

Thanks in advance for your input!

PS: going to cross post this in hunting shotguns just in case some folks don't visit this forum, but might have some interesting input on how they set things up for their wives.

Dan
 
If it's recoil she's struggling with I am surprised that she found the 20 gauge 870 better than the 12 - my wife started out in the clay sports with a 20 gauge, both a pump gun and an over/under. Given the limited choice of ammo available for the 20 gauge, she was shooting whatever we could find.

By the end we had nicknamed her gun "the wifebeater".

She was never so happy as the day she tried a 12 gauge 870 with a youth stock, and some Winchester AA low recoil/low noise shells. She's since "moved up" to shooting 7/8oz 1200fps challenger extra-lights, and there is not a bird on the course she cannot hit and break well.

My advise would be to skip the 20 gauge and go for a 12 gauge 870 with a youth stock. If you can't find one send me a pm as I can likely help you out. Re barrel length, if the club allows short barrels on youth guns I'd try to find a 21 inch vented rib barrel, barring that I'd settle on the 26 inch vented rib. Additionally, the forend on the gun will be important for folks with shorter arms. A corncob police style forend will force a small shooter to uncomfortably reach forward. A more conventional wingmaster forend will allow for a more natural hand position, and the new synthetic forend on the current express models comes back even further and is best IMHO.

Then in the ammo world buck up for the ultra-low-recoiling AA shells and if she handles that like a champ move her up slightly to some sort of 7/8oz 1200fps load, but no more. Avoid 1&1/8oz loads like the plague.

Good luck! Some of the best days of my life have been sharing time at the clay range with my wife and 11 year old daughter.

Cheers,

Brobee
 
In what way is she struggling? Gun fit? Recoil? Weight? Trap is a game of 35+ yard shooting. A 26" or shorter barrel is more of a hinderance than a help. Longer barrels provide much better sighting planes and swing characteristics so get her at least a 28". If it's a weight issue scaling down to a 20 ga may be alright but weight reduction generally means more felt recoil and a 20 ga built on a 20 ga frame with a standard 7/8 oz target load can have as much bite as a 12 ga with a standard 1 1/8 oz load. If it is a stock length issue get a qualified or experinced shooter or gunsmith to get a lop measurement and cut the stock to the proper length. I understand you want to come in on an under $500 budget but reality is you may have to spend a bit more on mods after the purchase to make the gun fit and work for her. Basically if it doesn't fit, you don't hit and that will spell losing interest as time goes on. Most people hope to improve as they go along, not continue to struggle. Another suggestion would be a good condition used autoloader like a Rem 1100. You can puck them up for under $500, they are reliable and soft shooting and many have screw choke barrels. That is my thoughts on the subject.
 
If it's going to be a trap and hunting gun, you may have issues.

For a target gun, I too would recommend finding a 12ga based on the experience with my wife. She has a (fitted) 20ga sporting gun, and while she like the weight to be able to handle it, it causes the felt recoil to be higher. For her it's a trade off, her arms are fine to shoot the 20ga all day, but she feels it in her shoulder. Shooting my 12ga (that is way too big for her!), she doesn't notice the recoil, but her arms give out significantly faster (6.5 vs 9lb guns). Recently she has been switching to the AA Low Recoil ammo after the first 100 or so rounds. She now wants a 12ga Zoli Z-Sport HR (the dangers of going to vendor demos...).

However if the primary use is hunting, I would definitely say go with a 20ga. For hunting a 20ga will do everything a 12ga can do, is lighter and easier to carry, and significantly less risk of using "any old hunting rounds" . Heavy 20ga 3" shells will definitely buck more in a light gun, but it's usually only a few shots, and adrenaline is pumping; however if she's using a 12ga the chance of getting a very heavy load is greatly increased, combined with the risks of improper gun mount due to a rapid shot, 1 good thump might end her day, not fun.

While I'm not a fan of shooting semi-auto's (personal preference) they are a good option. Generally they are quite light, do reduce felt recoil, and can usually be had quite reasonably (Weatherby SA-08 is under $600 new). However they can often be tougher to get a proper fit; unlike a wood stocked pump or O/U, there is not as much material to play with, and depending on a mechanism can restrict the ability to shorten the length or fiddle with the comb (especially on a synthetic, which most lower priced units are).
 
Sapper33 said:
If it's going to be a trap and hunting gun, you may have issues.

For a target gun, I too would recommend finding a 12ga based on the experience with my wife. She has a (fitted) 20ga sporting gun, and while she like the weight to be able to handle it, it causes the felt recoil to be higher. For her it's a trade off, her arms are fine to shoot the 20ga all day, but she feels it in her shoulder. Shooting my 12ga (that is way too big for her!), she doesn't notice the recoil, but her arms give out significantly faster (6.5 vs 9lb guns). Recently she has been switching to the AA Low Recoil ammo after the first 100 or so rounds. She now wants a 12ga Zoli Z-Sport HR (the dangers of going to vendor demos...).

However if the primary use is hunting, I would definitely say go with a 20ga. For hunting a 20ga will do everything a 12ga can do, is lighter and easier to carry, and significantly less risk of using "any old hunting rounds" . Heavy 20ga 3" shells will definitely buck more in a light gun, but it's usually only a few shots, and adrenaline is pumping; however if she's using a 12ga the chance of getting a very heavy load is greatly increased, combined with the risks of improper gun mount due to a rapid shot, 1 good thump might end her day, not fun.

While I'm not a fan of shooting semi-auto's (personal preference) they are a good option. Generally they are quite light, do reduce felt recoil, and can usually be had quite reasonably (Weatherby SA-08 is under $600 new). However they can often be tougher to get a proper fit; unlike a wood stocked pump or O/U, there is not as much material to play with, and depending on a mechanism can restrict the ability to shorten the length or fiddle with the comb (especially on a synthetic, which most lower priced units are).
Click to expand...

Really ?
 
To second what was said already, you're looking for a shotgun of opposite extremes. Upland(Grouse & Rabbit hunting) is generally a quick, close range affair and Trap is long-range affair. A 20ga pump that fits her and has screw-in chokes would be about as close to fitting both bills as you're going to get, Remington Express 20ga Youth or a Mossberg 500 Youth may work and would fit in your budget. Benelli offers the Nova in 20ga at the $650 mark, if it fits her this would be a better choice. Increasing your budget to $850 would put her into Browning BPS Micro Midas, that would be my recommendation.
 
grimblyd said:
So my wife and I have been shooting trap and we really love it. She's been using my Mossberg 500 pump shotgun, but as she is 5'1" and weighs about 115 lb, it's been a bit of a struggle for her. one of the fellows at the trap shoot brought his 20g Wingmaster and a couple boxes of shells, so now I have to track down a 20g that will work for her...

She wants to keep the cost down, so looking at a wingmaster or possibly a Mossberg. Targeting the $300-$500 price range.

I THINK what we want is a 20g with a youth stock, and a 26 or 28" bbl with adjustable chokes. There are plenty of options in a 22" bbl but

She's vetoed 'pink camo or pink' guns as she feels people won't take her serious if she shows up with that. I personally thought it would be hilarious, but I don't want to do anything to discourage her from joining me in shooting sports.

So my questions for you folks are

Is the above (in italics) the right choice? She wants it for shooting trap, I want her to also have something that she could later transition in to hunting game birds with me using the same shotgun.

If it is the right choice, I'm thinking that I would hunt down a wingmaster or Mossberg 20g then special order a youth stock. Or is having a gunsmith just cut down the stock on it an option we should consider?

Thanks in advance for your input!

PS: going to cross post this in hunting shotguns just in case some folks don't visit this forum, but might have some interesting input on how they set things up for their wives.

Dan
Click to expand...
Did she shoot the 20 gauge Wingmaster that the other guy brought out to the club? Did she like it compared to other guns she's fired? If the answer is yes to both questions that is what you should get even though other guns are being suggested. Otherwise you may find yourself in a position of saying "Yeah, well I know you liked that one but someone on Gunnutz said you should have this one."

There are pluses and minuses to cutting the stock vs. buying a youth stock. A wood youth stock isn't common and most are black or camo synthetic. The gun will look odd with a wood forend and black/camo plastic stock. Your wife with either have to live with it or you can replace the forend which on an 870 is best done with a special tool.

The aftermarket youth stock is a better idea if you intend to sell the gun at some point as a shotgun that is cut down is a harder sell. The cost difference of cutting vs. aftermarket won't be that great as you'll have to pay gunsmithing fees plus probably buy a new recoil pad. It would be much easier to sell the gun with the stock at the original length and then sell the youth stock separately.
 
Thanks for all your input folks.
And apologies The spank. I had indicated that I was posting in two forums in my original post, due to wanting input from both groups (target and hunting shooters) but will refrain from doing that in the future.

She did indeed try the wingmaster and liked the 20g size

The criteria we landed on was

Youth stock or cut down to fit
20g
not expensive as she didn't want to lay out a lot of money then get bored with it in 3 months
24" minimum barrel
adjustable choke capable
capable of 2 rounds or more, in case we tried doubles, but that could be pump, semi auto or O/U

my given preferred budget from her was $300, so it was quite a laundry list.

Found a Savage 20g pump with a 26" adjustable choke bbl, youth stock for..... $259 at Canadian Tire of all places. I came in under budget! She likes it, so we shall see how it works.

Again, really appreciate all your advice folks. some really good tips and such.
 
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