12 vs 20 gauge and felt recoil

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4 Paws

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Looking to pick up a semi auto for a skeet league. I have done my homework and decided upon a remington 1100 sport series. I am on the fence between a 20 or 12 for the task. I have shot a 20 in the past and felt minimal recoil. My hunch is with the right load a 12 would be somewhat similar. Looking to hear from those that have shot both and their impression on the felt recoil.
 
Are you really stuck on the 1100? The reason I ask is that there are some better recoil absorbing autoloaders available now that may make more difference to you. Of course,those tend to come with a price. I'm thinking of the Winchester SX and Beretta A400, etc.
 
Are you really stuck on the 1100? The reason I ask is that there are some better recoil absorbing autoloaders available now that may make more difference to you. Of course,those tend to come with a price. I'm thinking of the Winchester SX and Beretta A400, etc.
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Trying to keep the price point around $1,000. The majority of the reviews I've seen on the 1100 have been positive. That being said, I would consider other brands if the price point and reliability are there.
 
Skeet is shot in 12ga, 20ga, 28ga and .410...../ so if you wanted to purchase a 20ga, you could use it in 12ga and 20ga events.

In terms of felt recoil on a gas gun ....if the weight of the gun is the same and the load is the same ( 7/8 oz of shot at 1200 fps ) the recoil will be identical in both 12ga and 20ga.

The 1100 is old technology / and the 1100 series was never that reliable ....there is a lot of newer technology out there...from Beretta primarily ....but Browning has the silver series of semi-autos that are affordable too / like the Silver Hunter model and its retailing for around $1,000. If you're set on semi-auto's....in the clay target games....Beretta has probably had 90 % of that market for the last 20 yrs...with Browning/Winchester ( the same company now ) picking up most of the rest of it ...but Over Unders dominate all of the clay target games.

There are a lot of good used Beretta's out there in semi-autos / you'll just have to see what's available in your area.
 
What you say about the right 12 gauge load shooting similar to a 20 sounds about right. The trick is selecting a 12 gauge semi that will function properly with a 7/8 ounce load. Someone familiar with semis may be able to point to one.
 
The Remington VersaMax is the softest recoiling shotgun on the market and with the ability to reliably run the low recoil loads (1.75 to 2.5 drams) that no other auto-loading shotgun will run (at least un-modified) it most certainly has recoil levels below that attainable with factory 20 gauge loads.
 
You can get a new Winchester SX3 with a plain black stock for about $900 new on Gunbroker. A little less for a nice used one.
 
I shoot non-comp skeet with an older 1100 (450 dollars) with a 3/4 oz load and 16 grains of Clays. Runs and hits fine.

I also shoot an 1100 20 ga (500 dollars) with 3/4 oz of lead and 15.5 grains of Universal Clays. Runs and hits fine. No recoil worth mention in either.
 
BigJim, you're wrong on this one. When the 1100 was introduced it ran everything else off the Skeet ranges faster than anyone would have believed possible. An unreliable gun would never have done that. It totally dominated until the O/Us got popular. I have had an 1100 since 1963, it has over 115,000 rounds thru it, it won league high average in Skeet in 1964, and it still runs like a finely tuned machine. I have had 12 others thru the years, still have five, and have probably shot hundreds and worked on hundreds. I have personally had one (1) extractor fail in all that time. There is not a more reliable semi auto made. I don't care if you are a worshipper of newer fancier designs with more bells and whistles and catchier foreign names, but don't tell me about an 1100. Yes, there are "newer" designs - some keep changing every few years just for marketing. In my opinion Beretta peaked with the 390, but you can't sell guns to the guys who just have to have the newest betterest thing out there unless you have a brand new design all the time. It does work to make money. I am not saying Beretta doesn't build a good gun too; I am saying I don't see where they are a bit better for most users, just different. Yes there are gas systems that will run cleaner/longer, although I have never had an 1100 stop on me even running filthy Blue Dot reloads, and yes there are lighter designs that use aluminum instead of steel, and yes there are designs with adjustable this and that, but to me not one bit of that makes them "better". There are guns now that will shoot anything from 2-3/4" thru 3-1/2". Great innovation if you only have one gun, but I take the gun I need with me out the door. Nowdays that's a 3" 12 gauge for waterfowl and usually a 20 gauge for anything else. Are there different guns;yes. I have owned all of them - except an inertia gun, and they have all come and gone.
The original 20 gauge 1100s were built on the 12 ga size receiver. In 1970 they introduced the LW20 on the 28 ga sized receiver. In 1977 they changed the design slightly to the LT20. Some target shooters still prefer the originals for the extra weight, but in my opinion the LT20 is such a joy to shoot and the steel action sleeve on an 1100 soaks up peak recoil forces so well I would much prefer one of those. And parts are growing scarcer for the originals after 35+ years out of production.
The new 1100 Sportings are designed to function with light loads. They do have an admonition on the barrel about using heavy loads. IMO those Light/Target Contour barrels handle as well as the old fixed choke barrels. If I needed a new gun to shoot targets with I would get one, but none of mine are close to worn out yet.
 
this last spring i bought early a remington 1100 heavy framed 20ga in mint condition with a 28" barrel with IMP fixed choke for 400.00 and shot a few rounds of skeet ( best was 18-25) with it and as i am pretty new at skeet with a 20ga i,m not too sad. i sent it to mike orlen and had it threaded for choke tubes(75.00). i have close to 1000 rnds of cheap wally world federal 7/8 oz #7.5 shot thru it with only two cleanings with out any problems at all and there is not enough recoil to bother a 13 year old girl who shoots it. eastbank.
 
Honestly, for me, recoil would not even be a consideration in choosing between 12 and 20 for any type of common skeet load. Unless you are shooting magnum loads or slugs, or firing from light single shots, both have what i would consider mild recoil, especially from a gas semi.
 
i don,t have any problem with recoil, but a few friends have bad shoulders and it does bother them along with new young shooters. the new young shooters grow into it and the guys with bad shoulders go to lighter recoiling guns. eastbank.
 
Can't speak for semi-autos, never trusted them but in the field and for trap and skeet I've always been partial to a 12ga. with 28" barrels for trap and pheasant, a 12ga. pump for ducks, geese and trap. When it comes to skeet and grouse I find a 20ga. with 26" barrels very fast and quick handling. Follow up shots are amazingly quick and the shorter barrel aids in thick brush work when Grouse hunting.
 
As an update to the original post, I purchased a Remington 1100 sport 20 last evening and had the chance to take it out today. Put on a skeet choke and went 15 for 25. Having only shot skeet twice before I felt this was not too bad. Fun sport with the challenge to improve. Recoil as anticipated was minimal using a standard skeet/target load.
 
I use my 1187 20ga for skeet and love it. Very dependable and affordable. The guy behind the gun is still learning how to shoot skeet/trap though:D
 
There is a lot of overlap between 20 and 12 gauge loads. Twelve gauge loads can be had as light as 7/8 ounce and there's even loading info for 3/4 ounce loads. However, those "superlight" 12 gauge loads don't reliably cycle all autoloaders. Also a twelve gauge gun is likely to be heavier than a 20 gauge and weight is a proven recoil tamer. If you want to shoot skeet and trap all day long, and the gun you pick up at the store does not weigh at least 7 1/2 or 8 pounds, put it back. A 8 pound 12 gauge will kick less than a 5 pound 20 gauge shotgun.

Another issue with superlight 12 gauge loads may be barrel regulation in a double. Double barrel shotgun bores are not parallel but converge. This is because the gun jumps more when the top barrel is shot than when the bottom barrel is shot. When you shoot ultra light loads, you may find the bottom barrel patterns higher than the top barrel because of the lesser barrel jump during the time the shot travels through the barrels.
I'm not sure if it's enough to actually make you miss birds with a shotgun.
 
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