New shotgunner!

A guy and gal new to shotguns met me at the range today to try a few. On hand I had:

20 gauge double
12 gauge pump
12 gauge semi-auto

The fellow had done some hunting with a pump, and had shot a single-shot, but had never tried a semi-auto. The gal had never fired a shotgun.

1. They had a LOT of fun! :grin:
2. Both of them absolutely loved the gentle shove of the semi-auto 12 gauge instead of the typical sharp slap of the pump shotgun.

It was a fun afternoon. We blew up some targets! :mrgreen:

Nice. Sounds like fun.

JD338

You're doing some excellent work introducing others to the shooting sports, Guy. Good on ya.

Great stuff!

Got to get out to try out my new Benelli M2 Tactical 12 ga semi, and my new-to-me Browning BSS in 20 ga that I picked up over the weekend.

My wife is somewhat sceptical, as the only shotgun she has ever fired was an old single shot 12 ga with a long full choked barrel that apparently kicked like her grandfather's mule. I've told her that I think that she will be surprised once she tries some 2 3/4" light loads in them, that shouldn't abuse her shoulder.

I'll keep you posted.

A trick to taking some of the kick out of a shot gun is to lengthen the forcing cone in front of the chamber. But beware it will also tighten up the pattern.
A pump, double or single shot shotgun actually kicks you 3 times and a rifle twice. The shot gun hits you when the round goes off ,when the forcing cone releases the load and when the choke releases the load out the barrel and the semi auto lets you have it 4 times because of the bolt slamming to the rear when the shell is discharged. The rifle when the shell is discharged and when the slug leaves the barrel.
Actually in reality the person shooting the gun causes the gun to punish the shooter since the shooter slams the gun back into their shoulder as the forcing cone, choke and muzzle releases the load and we pull the gun back into our body. You can see this in slow motion photography.

Was fun - we only shot at a big ol' sheet of paper from about 15 yards.

The little 20 ga was choked ICyl and Mod, with the predictable nice, wide spread of 7 1/2 shot.

The old 12 ga Ithaca 37 is choked full, really full. At 15 yards it was blowing holes through the backstop with a charge of 7 1/2's that barely opened up. No wonder I liked that gun for trap shooting in years gone by and Dad clobbered so many ducks and pheasant with it at impressive ranges... :grin:

We also put a couple of rounds of 00 Buck downrange, just for educational purposes... From my semi-auto Beretta 390. That Beretta was the favored gun yesterday, but by far the ugliest. It just shoots so sweet...

Guy