Help my wife!

A good semi auto 20 guage is what you need fitted for length of pull that makes your wife comfortable. My buddy has a 391 12 guage with a 26 or 28 inch barrel and it is lighter than my 20 guage CZ 720 so it kicks more. Weight helps absorb recoil. Make a shotgun too light and you ruin the handling characteristics of the gun. I believe CZ has a 24 inch barrel version right now and they are a decent economical shotgun. I bought the 26 inch barrel and shortened the stock before adding a recoil pad. So now it fits and it handles very well and kicks very little. Remington 1100s are better guns but also a bit heavier with all steel receivers. You also have to consider weight for a woman. I have a beautiful Browning BPS I bought to take the ex wife skeet shooting. She was kinda a wus anyways, but the gun just was too heavy for her to hold and swing. It also kicked more than she could tolerate. What's wrong with the browning ladies/ youth pump? First of all the barrel is 22 inches so it doesn't have enough weight forward for a good swing. It handles more like a riot gun than a bird/clays gun. Also, the all steel gun is built like a tank but too heavy for a person with a slight build and limited upper body strength. So based on my experience, a light 20 guage semi auto with a 24 or 26 inch barrel would be my recommendation as the best choice for a woman who hates recoil from a 12 guage with 1 oz loads. The nice things about 20 guage autos, there are a bunch of them and most are great! If you are looking to save money, a mossberg 500 pump with real wood stock that can be shortened and 26 inch barrel is also a good choice. It just will have a bit more kick than an auto particularly if she plans on hunting with heavy field loads.
 
As others have said, litest loads, heaviest gun she can use, and semi would be a good start. A recoil pad is always nice as well

Though I had a GF that loved to shoot a 44mg revolver and a 12ga with magnum loads (she did not like the 10ga however) :eek:

My wife has shot a 500SW, but doesn't like recoil of anything over an AR15 or AK for long arms including target loads in a 12 ga.
 
Good news! I bought the Beretta 390 and we went out this weekend. She used the recoil pad that Vividia recommended and some Fiocchi 7/8 oz target loads. The sporting clays range that we shoot at has two courses. After we finished the first course, we had lunch at the clubhouse. After that, she was absolutely itching to go shoot the second course!

A hundred rounds of sporting clays on Saturday and all she had was a little muscle stiffness from swinging the gun around! Hot diggity! She's going to make an appointment for a lesson next Saturday. Now my only fear is that she's going to get as good at sporting clays as she is at small bore metallic silhouettes - and she cleans my clock every Thursday with her .22!

Again, thanks for the advice and suggestions!
 
Great Choice!

Is it safe to assume you got the 20 guage 390? My friend has a 12 and it's a great shotgun. I'm sure that your wife is absoluately loving that gun. Compared with a pump it's like going from a Nissan Sentra to an Escalade;)
 
Well, glad the gun doesn't kick too much with those light 12 guage loads. If factory, the biggest problem is they cost more! A 20 would have been fine, but in time she may be asking for 1 1/4 field loads please:)
 
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