I'm late to this party. I'm bumping eighty, on blood thinners (pacemaker), no serious shoulder disorders, but on a dove outing last weekend, my Beretta 687 SP4 12 ga beat my shoulder up pretty badly, shooting AA 1 1/8 heavy target loads. The second day I switched to my old Pigeon Gd Superposed shooting 1 oz field loads, and as this discussion reflects, there was not much difference in recoil.
The last two years, I had opened dove season with my Winchester 42 in .410 bore. It is a heck of a lot of fun, but it is a 25 yard max gun, and I had not limited out. This year some of our regular gang were absent due to a dumb young man getting married on the east coast over the week-end. His dad obviously did not raise him right to allow his bride to interfere with hunting. LOL....I thought the extra firepower might help as we couldn't keep the birds strrred up as much as usual.
Additional information. The Beretta came with two factory pads. I had never removed the quick detachable thin pad that the gun was shipped with. The pad ripped down one side during the shoot. I will replace it with the pre fitted pad that came with the gun, but I'm not sure how much relief that will give me. Up until the pacemaker, my standard hunting load for quail was pigeon loads (3 1/4/ 1 1/4) and I never noticed recoil. High brass for pheasant, same no ill effect. ,
My first reaction was to turn the Bretta into a Benelli Legacy 28, but after switching to the light weight twenty and reading this thread, at least the serious part, I'm not sure that a five pound 28 will accomplish anything. One thing for certain, the PG Browning will not be cut for a pad.
Based upon what I read here, I'm going to get a couple of boxes of 1 oz AA 8s and a couple of boxes of the 26 gram loads (if I can find them) for the Beretta, replace the pad and give it another go next week-end. I do not like the strap on Past shooting pad. If I can find a shirt or a vest that contains the Past, I will get one. Worst case, I could get my loader out of storage. I don't really shoot enough to mess with reloading anymore.
I can't physically chase the blue (scaled) quail and pheasant any more. I do have a Kawasaki mule, so I can hunt Bob Whites plantation style off of it. That leaves dove and waterfowl and I really need a Twelve, but I do have four others but but I'm not sure any of the others will handle steel shot. They are all kind of "vintage", with softer steel barrels. I do have 28 ga Legacies available to try out. Daughter said I could use hers anytime.
Ramblings of an old fart,
Jack
