Your opinions for a good 20 guage shotgun for the girl friend

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upinsmokeweldinginc

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Hey like the title says im in the market for a good 20 gauge for the girlfriend to buy. She is defiantly a girl when it comes to pain and my 12 gauge just has way to much kick for her shoulder. Im trying to get her into the sport and im wondering what you guys have bought for your significant others. Thanks for your help, im also not looking to break the bank either, something around the $500 mark should do the trick.

Cheers
 
That's what I did I bought an older 1100 20ga had the full choke opened up to lt mod . best part is the gun has had very limited use :D .
 
My girlfriends got a 870 express compact with the pick camo. She loves it. Her problem was that the 12 ga was to big for her to handle...hell it's almost as tall as she is lol
 
$500 gets you the Weatherby SA-08 20 gauge with synthetic stock...got it for my 10 year old son and he shoots it fine. The gas action lightens the felt recoil, and it comes with a light and heavy round gas valve, so you can shoot light 7/8 ounce 2.75" loads in it that are a soft recoiling load.
 
Ithica model 37 with ladies stock. 20 gauge only. It doesn't just have a shorter length of pull, the entire stock was designed with a female framed shooter in mind.
 
I picked up an older Ithaca 900 in 20 gauge with the intentions of letting my wife and kids to shoot. It is light, long recoil semi-auto (like the Browning A5) so there is minimal recoil. I use it for trap and it shoots great with full choke. I picked it up on the EE for $200 and was my favourite shotgun until I found a Breda 12g.

 
There are two things to bear in mind concerning recoil on a shotgun.


Recoil is proportional to the weight of the gun; Heavy gun =less recoil, or lighter gun = more recoil.


Secondly, A heavy or light load will affect the recoil. An ounce of lead from a 20gauge will have the same recoil energy of a 12 gauge with an ounce of lead; given that both guns be the same weight.

I like 20g but don't be fooled that a slightly smaller bore diameter alone will reduce recoil, or the fact the gun gun is lighter or smaller. A youth shotgun will kick more unless you are shooting reduced loads.
 
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pisces-guy said:
$500 gets you the Weatherby SA-08 20 gauge with synthetic stock...got it for my 10 year old son and he shoots it fine. The gas action lightens the felt recoil, and it comes with a light and heavy round gas valve, so you can shoot light 7/8 ounce 2.75" loads in it that are a soft recoiling load.
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If you can't find the Weatherby SA-08 20ga, the Mossberg SA-20 is supposed to be the exact same gun, but with a mossberg label instead of weatherby.

A gas operated semi will really knock down the recoil. I have shot a Mossberg 930 and 500 side by side, and even though the weight is about the same for both, the 930 was a kitten compared to the 500.
 
Tons of good advice here. Everyone is "on target". Especially the part about a light gun appearing at first glance to be easy to handle, but turns out to be nasty on recoil.
 
fiddler said:
There are two things to bear in mind concerning recoil on a shotgun.


Recoil is proportional to the weight of the gun; Heavy gun =less recoil, or lighter gun = more recoil.


Secondly, A heavy or light load will affect the recoil. An ounce of lead from a 20gauge will have the same recoil energy of a 12 gauge with an ounce of lead; given that both guns be the same weight.

I like 20g but don't be fooled that a slightly smaller bore diameter alone will reduce recoil, or the fact the gun gun is lighter or smaller. A youth shotgun will kick more unless you are shooting reduced loads.
Click to expand...


^^ This. Use a heavier 12g with light, lower velocity loading loadings. Keep in mind, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

You might also consider adding lead to the forstock and butt on a 20g and shooting lighter loads. But unless her hands are very small, I don't know why you would...

IMO.
C
 
dand883 said:
If you can't find the Weatherby SA-08 20ga, the Mossberg SA-20 is supposed to be the exact same gun, but with a mossberg label instead of weatherby.

A gas operated semi will really knock down the recoil. I have shot a Mossberg 930 and 500 side by side, and even though the weight is about the same for both, the 930 was a kitten compared to the 500.
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When I was doing my homework before buying it, I ran into one major difference between the Weatherby SA-08 and the Mossberg SA-20 that made the Weatherby a no-brainer. Weatherby includes a heavy gas valve and a light gas valve with the SA-08, and with the light gas valve you can shoot lightly loaded 7/8 ounce shells that have little recoil but still handle grouse, etc., just fine. Mossberg's SA-20 only comes with one valve, and from the factory it won't cycle reliably with those light shells. The fix involves polishing everything in the action to reduce friction, and it supposedly works until the gun gets a bit dirty and again stops cycling the light loads well...until it's cleaned. If you're looking for an inexpensive semi auto 20 gauge, and you'll want to shoot the lightest 7/8 ounce loads through it, then go with the Weatherby. To be fair to the Mossberg, once you move up to one ounce standard loads it cycles reliably, it just won't work well with light 7/8 ounce loads.
 
Gas operated semi with light loads is the ticket... 1oz of lead is 1 oz of lead, no matter 12g or 20g. Fit is a major issue- if it fits better the recoil is less problematic. Poor fit is a major cause of recoil discomfort. If you can't find a 12g that fits well, find a 20 and get the weight up as mentioned above. A weighted up youth shotgun with light loads could be a good route. A 20g can be made smaller- smaller receiver, smaller barrels, smaller everything and so remains a popular option for fit when a 12g is too big.

FWIW I typically shoot a 1oz light target load in my 9lb O/U 12g and it is a pussycat- same load in my 6.5lb pump field gun and you do notice it after a round. Gun weight matters!
 
CV32 said:
If skeet is the intended application, get her a 12 and shoot the lighter loads.
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A big +2!!


My slender 135lb 5 foot 8 inch wife started out this year with a silver pigeon 20 gauge....she toughed it out for 3 months in addition to spending about 1500$ on lessons and a professional fitting. She still wound up bruised and sore after a round of clays, and one day I borrowed her gun to just have a feel. It felt like someone was slapping me in the face with a bat!

She then tried my 12 gauge over under with some winchester low recoil low noise AAs....she fell in love and promptly claimed my gun (I had to buy another....nice problem!) which she tweeked just a bit to fit her better (cynergy sporting synthetic).

She then proceeded to beg me to take her clay shooting every week. Her score literally doubled within the next few weeks and now it's 50/50 whether or not I can beat her. We are having a total gas together!

I've also hosted many of her female friends out at our farm skeet range. I set them up with 12 gauge 870s...I have several I use as loaner guns and they all have different length stocks (all with soft recoil pads) so I can be sure to have one that sort-of fits just about anyone.They all shoot my wife's ammo (12 gauge 970fps 26 gram low recoil low noise win AA) they all wind up breaking clays by the end of the day, and no one is ever sore.

Cheers, and good luck!

Brobee
 
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My girlfriend finds the Browning Citori 12 gauge kicks less than the 870 youth 20 gauge. She hates the 20 gauge. The way the gun fits her plays a very big role.
 
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