My shoulder is sore.

S

Steamboatsig

New member
I went to the Oak Tree Shooting venue in Valencia, Ca this weekend and did some trap shooting with my new Remington 870 Wingmaster. It is not exactly new, but new to me. Although I did very well, my shoulder is very sore. I am thinking of getting the R3 recoil pad to ease my pain.

If you haven't been to the Oak Tree, it is a very nice venue with Skeet, Trap, Sporting Clays and a Pistol range with steel targets. It is very well maintained and professionally run. I highly recommend it.
 
3 rounds. 75 shots. I used Winchester Ammo, 8 shot, 2 3/4". I haven't shot a rifle in about 10 years so my shoulder wasn't really used to the recoil. But it was fun, nonetheless.

It did make me want to consider buying a Remington 11-87.
 
Are your arms short? If so have the stock cut 2in and have a Pachmayr Decelerator pad installed. I have shot a 20ga Mossberg with a full length stock and it beat the snot out of me. After the stock was cut down and a pad installed, the recoil was very mild. Keep in mind that I'm 5'7'' tall.

You can have a recoil reducer put in the buttstock to tame the kick further!
 
have yourself measured

Before just cutting off 2 inches and replacing the recoil pad, have yourself measured. Depending on your length of pull and your body height, you might need a smaller comb height or more height or drop in the stock as well as more length of pull. If this is something you plan to do often, I would definitely move to a semi-auto with the stock cut to fit you no matter what you plan to shoot. The right stock for you will make it a lot easier to shoot accurately as well as not pounding the shoulder and face as much.

I like the Simms Vibration recoil pads myself.
 
Stock fit means a lot but suck it up tight to your shoulder. Don't give it a running start! Don't try to stonewall it either, go with the flow of recoil.

A cheekpad helps a lot too. I put a Blackhawk cheekpad/ammo pouch on mine and couldn't be happier with it. No sore cheek.
 
Start with the software.

Review the old thread on proper mounting techniques for some ideas.

Be behind your weapon. Most of the folks I see getting punished on the range are standing sideways to the target trajectory like offhand rifle shooters.

Stand facing your break point. Step forward with your support side foot as if you're walking towards the break point. Your nose should be over the toes on that foot and your support side leg should have more weight on it than the other. Raise your firing side elbow up to form the cup just inside the ball of the shoulder. Pull the weapon into your shoulder to help turn it and your upper body into a unit.

If you're behind the weapon, your whole upper body turns into a spring to absorb the kick rather than it concentrating into a butt shaped area full of outraged pain receptors.

Practicing your mount at home 25 times or so a night WITH A WEAPON KNOWN TO BE EMPTY will help immensely.

Also, use the lightest loads you can find. Fiocchi's 7/8 oz loads are amazingly effective and so are Winchester's Superlites.

HTH....
 
If you are not accustomed to shooting soreness is to be expected.

Do mounting exercises every day as Dave suggested. And have an experienced shooter look at your mount and check stockfit.

As you shoot regularly it will go away.
 
I feel your pain, Just went to the range saturday with my .22 pistol and my 12 guage, some of the guys were giving me guff over shooting such a small calibre pistol so I broke out the shotgun with some slugs and showed off a little, Ive got a nice bruise on my shoulder.
 
Its just so fun to blow the bullseye out of a target and have every one looking around like "Good Lord who is shooting a howitzer", its an indoor range so most guys only shoot pistols there not used to loud guns.
 
I had a combat shotgun class and they taught us to shoot with the toe of the stock/butt placed right in the pocket under your collar bone when the gun was in firing position. THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOU HAVE A RUBBER RECOIL PAD!!! It's rather counter intuitive and at first I thought the guy was nuts. The butt rests squarely on your collar bone. But, after several hundred rounds of magnum slug and 00 buckshot, I had no muscle or shoulder pain, and my collar bone was not broken.
 
if you still have problems with the recoil after working on your stance you could also look into a recoil reducing stock...

http://www.knoxx.com has some good stocks that reduice recoil.. i might give the spec ops stock a try when i get my 870..
 
What does lol mean? :confused:

I'm pretty new to trap shooting. I've shot with a Winchester 1300 12/24 pump (big time recoil) and a Winchester Sx2 12/26 (kinda big time recoil). I just purchased a Browning Trap 12/32 and put a couple of boxes through it today. :D The recoil wasn't bad and my shoulder has never hurt from shooting anything. Once in a while I get a bruise mark that doesn't hurt, but that's from blood thinning medication some of us old geezers take to stay above ground.

Some folks suck up recoil well and some don't. 20, 30 years ago I didn't think shooting a handgun was fun unless the recoil blew the gun over my shoulder. (.357 & .44 Mag)

RedPhnx, I'd sure like to be able to shoot as well as you do.
 
its only about a 35 foot range so a bullseye with slugs isnt to hard, im young and still have good eyes so open rifle sites line up nice for me.
 
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