Recoil - facts and fiction?

[2eagles]

Seems to me physics suggests a load of bird shot driven down the barrel at a constant velocity will have about the same recoil if it's shot from a 12g or a 20g. So I'm saying 1 1/4 of shot at 1200 fps will have the same recoil in a 12 and a 20. Since the 20 will weigh less than the 12, given the same load, the 20 has more felt recoil. Bet the 20 gauge guys are arguing already!
Hmm. I found a recoil chart on a Chuck Hawks page to back up what I'm thinking. I think it was info published by Handloaders Digest.
20g 3" (1 1/4 at 1185) 6.5 gun   31 ft pounds recoil
12g 2.75" (1 1/4 at 1330) 7.5 lb gun   32 ft pounds recoil
After a neck surgery in December, I haven't been able to shoot my shotgun this season. When I can shoot again, I think I'll keep shooting my heavy, old Browing Silver to avoid as much recoil as possible.

[3bailey3]

I was shooting a 870 Rem 12 with 3 1/2 loads and now I shoot a m2 20 with 3 Inch fed Hevy, and I can tell you there is way more than one pound of difference in the two!!

[Yoder409]

You could definitely do worse than the Silver for recoil impulse. 

My SX2 (basically the same gun) is relatively nice to shoot, even with 3 1/2 inchers.  If recoil remains an issue once you're back in the saddle again........ I'd highly suggest you look at an SX3 in 20 gauge. 

[silvestris]

One factor would probably more friction with the 12, but that is as far as I am willing to use brain cells; I don't have a lot to spare anymore.

[yelpy]

Seems to me physics suggests a load of bird shot driven down the barrel at a constant velocity will have about the same recoil if it's shot from a 12g or a 20g. So I'm saying 1 1/4 of shot at 1200 fps will have the same recoil in a 12 and a 20. Since the 20 will weigh less than the 12, given the same load, the 20 has more felt recoil. Bet the 20 gauge guys are arguing already!
Hmm. I found a recoil chart on a Chuck Hawks page to back up what I'm thinking. I think it was info published by Handloaders Digest.
20g 3" (1 1/4 at 1185) 6.5 gun   31 ft pounds recoil
12g 2.75" (1 1/4 at 1330) 7.5 lb gun   32 ft pounds recoil
After a neck surgery in December, I haven't been able to shoot my shotgun this season. When I can shoot again, I think I'll keep shooting my heavy, old Browing Silver to avoid as much recoil as possible.

Yepper.

Sent from my SM-J727VPP using Tapatalk

[spaightlabs]

If fired from the same model gun, then yes.

If fired from a pump 12 gauge and a gas operated 20 that weigh the exact same, the same payload delivered at the same speed will feel noticeably harder recoiling in the 12, and vice versa.

The gas operation of a gun bleeds off gasses that contribute to felt recoil. 

[Marc]

There are a number of factors that come into play for recoil...

As Straightlabs noted, the action of the gun...  Given the same weight for a gun, a gas-operated gun will kick less than an inertia gun, which will kick less than a pump or breach action gun...

Given the same payload, faster velocity ammuntion will have more recoil (and more energy) than slower velocity ammuntion.  The more energy pushing foward, the more energy must push back...

The weight of the gun...  Given the same action shooting the same loads, a lighter gun will have more felt recoil than a lighter gun...

The payload of the ammuntion...  Obviously the larger the payload for the same speed, in similar guns, the larger the recoil...  But the payload is not just the shot, it is also the wad, and possibly the poweder...  In some of the newer shells (especially steel and harder denser shot) those wads are thicker and add to the payload being pushed out of the gun...

And, then there are other factors such as the thickness and effectiveness of a recoil pad...  If you do not think a good recoil pad makes a difference, take yours off and try patterning a turkey load...

[2eagles]

I was shooting a 870 Rem 12 with 3 1/2 loads and now I shoot a m2 20 with 3 Inch fed Hevy, and I can tell you there is way more than one pound of difference in the two!!

You obviously missed the part about the loads being the same.

[HFultzjr]

I know my Mossberg 500 with 20" barrel and 3 inch mags, kicks like a mule on paper.
I don't think I ever remember feeling any recoil when I shoot at a bird.

[LaLongbeard]

When I was a kid we had no youth model anything. If you wanted to hunt with my Uncles or Dad you used what they had 12 gauges. We did use mostly 2 3/4 loads because most of the 870s were not magnum 3". I had one Uncle that had a 16 gauge 1100 but that was the exception. Even at 9 or 10 we had no problems with the 12 gauge shooting squirrels rabbits and even buckshot for deer. And if we'd had a complaint about recoil we would have been left at home the next trip. This didn't happen in the 1940's I'm talking 80's-90's.
Look at older 12 gauge shotguns most had no recoil pad from the factory and the guns weighed the same now as then. What has happened in the last generation? I've heard grown ( mostly over grown overweight men) complain about 20 gauge recoil lol. They'd have been at home cooking and cleaning if they'd tried that with my Uncles. I used mostly shotguns for deer till about 14 my first deer rifle was a Rem model 700 in 7mm Rem magnum. I'm not boasting it was just the way it was no one was buying a watered down gun because of recoil that lasts one second. I don't know when the recoil fear got this bad or if it is a regional thing .I guess shoot a 10 pound .410 with a scope and reduced loads if that's what you have to do , you could make your daughter go hunting with you every time in case you run into someone you could say the gun was hers lol.

[howl]

If you want lower recoil you need to go to a Federal TSS .410 or use reduced handloads. If the lightest 12ga target loads are  soft enough for you, then you should look at duplicating those loads using TSS #10s. I had a pretty easy time getting there with 7/8oz out of a lightweight 20 gauge.

http://www.omahamarian.org/trap/shotshellenergy.html is a handy calculator to project what recoil you might produce with a given load.

Low recoil is an option, and you can do it without giving up any range compared to lead shot from a 12 gauge.

[Gooserbat]

To many factors.  I can change choke and shell but keep the same 2 oz payload, and change the recoil.  An example is my 3.5" 870 with a .655 jebs and 2 oz longbeards vs same gun and a .655 ballistic specialties choke and 1 7/8 oz fed HW.  The ballistics /HW combo is nothing but brutal while the longbeards/jebs is manageable. 

[IAGobbler87]

2Eagles, sent you a pm

[Greg Massey]

Recoil is not a factor , if i'm shooting that animal... i never think about recoil... recoil becomes a factor if i'm shooting paper...lol

[MDSTRUTNRUT]

Carried a 20 several times with Fed  HW #7's but never pulled the trigger.   Killed a bird with my 12 ga 870 with 3" Heavy 13 #7's and she KICKS PRETTY  BAD!   Have a 12 ga benelli sbe2 that is much lighter and kicks less but usually gets grabbed up by JR or his SIS.   Right shoulder replaced and left is waiting for titanium  so a lighter less recoil 20 is ideal for me, looking into an inertia driven and some TSS #9's to be available.