As some of you may have noted by now, I like to tinker. All of my shotguns have been modified, some extensively, and the process never stops.
Along with this, I'm a bit of a tightwad. Having a fixed income and three McCs in college will do that. I wear clothes and cars out before getting new ones, go around the house turning off lights and so on.
My latest(and newest) 870 is the TB that's a claycrunching death ray for trap birds. I've messed with the fit, added a Morgan Pad( A gift, told you I'm tight), learned to reload to save money, and so on.Thanks to the Hull Elf, who periodically leaves a bag of 500 once fired AA or STS hulls under my pillow, reloading costs are minimal.
And since I'm now shooting more than ever, I'm worried about building a flinch. Had one, fought to lose it, and don't want it back. And while I'm shooting light loads in a heavy gun, I'm shooting LOTS of them, and old trapshooters keep telling me how a flinch snuck up on them.
So, some of my obsession lately with tinkering has to do with kick reduction,on the Oz of Prevention Principle.
Anyway, I was on my way home from a good session with the Geezer League at AGC, when I started musing on the high priced recoil reducers like GraCoil,PFS,Edwards, etc. All of these do work, some better than others, and what they have in common is a weight, a spring or hydraulics to return the weight to the starting position, and a 3 to 4 figure price tag.
So, the little light bulb went off over my head. Weight, spring, weight, spring.....
After dinner, I sat in the room where most of my sports equipment is stored. With me I had....
A couple of trash hulls filled with shot and crimped.These are handy weights for getting shotguns balanced. A 2 3/4" hull filled with shot and crimped runs close to 4 oz.
A old 870 magazine spring left over from a makeover.
A set of wire cutters.
Both standard and Phillip's head screwdrivers.
The first hull went in the mag tube, just under the retaining ring. The mag spring was unaltered.
The second hull went in the cavity in the stock that accesses the throughbolt. Behind it, a piece of spring just a little longer than the cavity,so very slight compression was needed to get the pad back on.
The reason a gas auto has less felt recoil,per Brister, is the kick is spread out over a longer time interval. Instead of one big kick it hits like three smaller kicks, and as a result, FEELS lighter. Same idea here.
As the shotgun recoils, the shoulder and hands offer resistance,so the weighted shells keep moving just a little and are then slowed by the springs. These compress,storing energy and releasing it some milliseconds after the main recoil pulse. Result, some lessening of felt recoil.
So, now I need to figure out if the weight and spring really do cut the kick(felt recoil) more than just the added weight would, and there's a problem.
When shooting at something moving, like clay birds or game, I don't notice the kick.And I'm fortunately quite recoil tolerant. So, it's going to be difficult for me to tell the difference. Here's where YOU might come in....
This setup would have advantages when testing and zeroing slugs. Same for patterning turkey or waterfowl loads. Using both, fore and aft, means the balance stays more or less the same. Using just the aft one would not be a prob when using a pre mounted gun, or if one wanted a more muzzle light feel.
Anyways, I hope some folks out there will try this, and post their results. If this does what I think it does, lots of folks can benefit a lot from a minumum cost. What's the price of a new mag spring these days? of course, one needs some shot and access to a loader to crimp with, but that's not hard for most of us.
Thanks.....
Along with this, I'm a bit of a tightwad. Having a fixed income and three McCs in college will do that. I wear clothes and cars out before getting new ones, go around the house turning off lights and so on.
My latest(and newest) 870 is the TB that's a claycrunching death ray for trap birds. I've messed with the fit, added a Morgan Pad( A gift, told you I'm tight), learned to reload to save money, and so on.Thanks to the Hull Elf, who periodically leaves a bag of 500 once fired AA or STS hulls under my pillow, reloading costs are minimal.
And since I'm now shooting more than ever, I'm worried about building a flinch. Had one, fought to lose it, and don't want it back. And while I'm shooting light loads in a heavy gun, I'm shooting LOTS of them, and old trapshooters keep telling me how a flinch snuck up on them.
So, some of my obsession lately with tinkering has to do with kick reduction,on the Oz of Prevention Principle.
Anyway, I was on my way home from a good session with the Geezer League at AGC, when I started musing on the high priced recoil reducers like GraCoil,PFS,Edwards, etc. All of these do work, some better than others, and what they have in common is a weight, a spring or hydraulics to return the weight to the starting position, and a 3 to 4 figure price tag.
So, the little light bulb went off over my head. Weight, spring, weight, spring.....
After dinner, I sat in the room where most of my sports equipment is stored. With me I had....
A couple of trash hulls filled with shot and crimped.These are handy weights for getting shotguns balanced. A 2 3/4" hull filled with shot and crimped runs close to 4 oz.
A old 870 magazine spring left over from a makeover.
A set of wire cutters.
Both standard and Phillip's head screwdrivers.
The first hull went in the mag tube, just under the retaining ring. The mag spring was unaltered.
The second hull went in the cavity in the stock that accesses the throughbolt. Behind it, a piece of spring just a little longer than the cavity,so very slight compression was needed to get the pad back on.
The reason a gas auto has less felt recoil,per Brister, is the kick is spread out over a longer time interval. Instead of one big kick it hits like three smaller kicks, and as a result, FEELS lighter. Same idea here.
As the shotgun recoils, the shoulder and hands offer resistance,so the weighted shells keep moving just a little and are then slowed by the springs. These compress,storing energy and releasing it some milliseconds after the main recoil pulse. Result, some lessening of felt recoil.
So, now I need to figure out if the weight and spring really do cut the kick(felt recoil) more than just the added weight would, and there's a problem.
When shooting at something moving, like clay birds or game, I don't notice the kick.And I'm fortunately quite recoil tolerant. So, it's going to be difficult for me to tell the difference. Here's where YOU might come in....
This setup would have advantages when testing and zeroing slugs. Same for patterning turkey or waterfowl loads. Using both, fore and aft, means the balance stays more or less the same. Using just the aft one would not be a prob when using a pre mounted gun, or if one wanted a more muzzle light feel.
Anyways, I hope some folks out there will try this, and post their results. If this does what I think it does, lots of folks can benefit a lot from a minumum cost. What's the price of a new mag spring these days? of course, one needs some shot and access to a loader to crimp with, but that's not hard for most of us.
Thanks.....