Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Shooting a Winchester 1300 for trap

This past summer I got into shooting trap every week. My only shotgun is a Winchester 1300 turkey gun. I know a lot of people dislike the 1300 but I love mine. I caught a lot of ribbing from the guys shooting trap guns but I can hold my own. I had a 20 out of 25 average this summer which suits me just fine. Also did ok at sporting clays but there's room for improvement there. My only problem is the god awful headaches and black and blue cheek I get after an evening of shooting 75 to 100 rounds. I'm assuming that this is from the guns 13 1/2" LOP? Could this be it? I really don't want to put a longer stock on it because I like the shorter stock for turkey hunting. A dedicated trap gun would be awesome but it's just in the budget right now, even a used one. Any options or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know much about the 1300, but 100 rounds through other than a dedicated gas gun, your gonna feel it.

Instead of shooting of shooting standard 1 1/8 oz factory loads from Walmart try some 1 0z factory target loads you likely can find online or your local gun shop. Recoil reduction will be about 25 %. Also consider adding a Kick-Ezz pad to your Winchester 1300.


Doc

Not shooting Wal-mart specials, hate that place anyways. I've never seen 1 oz. loads at the LGS. Currently shooting Federal target 1 1/8oz. 8 shot. That's been the one that has patterned best in my gun.

Just checked into the Kick-Ezz. That seems like a great solution. Thank you.

You will have to special order 1 0z loads from Remington or Winchester throough your local gun shop. Save the hulls you might be reloading 12 ga ...SOON.


I load 7/8 oz in the 12 gauge and shoot trap, 5-stand and sporting clays with the same load. Lighter recoil than a 20 gauge target load.


Doc

Stopped at the gun shop today and they had 1 oz. Remingtons on stock. Will give them a shot next time out.

I would love to get into reloading. Unfortunately time and money are an issue right now.

Maybe not, but effects that serious-they are long term-out of only 100 are not shell or the type of shotgun used related. 100 is only a warm-up for those that shoot.

Good chance your stock has too much drop and you are getting slapped combined with what would be considered a LW trap shotgun. You could try putting a pad on the comb which may help some. Would also raise your POI which isn't bad for rising trap targets. Could also be an excessive amount of pitch built into the stock. Pitch is an easy change for a guy that knows how to fit a better recoil pad correctly. Most field shotguns have more pitch than dedicated trap guns. Try some other guns at the range and see what shaping works. A trap stocked semi-auto would be a good first choice.

Lot of ways to straighten out a stock that wasn't made for the game of trap. Then it would be relatively inexpensive to buy another field stock for your 1300 when you wanted to use it.

Addition: Removable weights for the magazine and stock, balanced out right would also help more than a little.

battue, gave you good advise I shot my 870 field gun at trap for years and still do at times.. To me something is not fitting correctly if you are getting headaches from trap loads... 1 oz loads are certainly enough for shooting trap....

Unless your 4 feet 6 inches tall 13.5 inch LOP is probly not even close. Go get fit and use something close to a target gun or your just gonna keep getting pounded and in the end wont shoot trap.

As others have said try and find a 870. 870 trap grade guns, TB/TC, can be had all over the place for 500 bucks.

Batttue - Thank you for the reply. I'm well aware of the long term effects from shooting like this. That's why I started this thread. We shot a few rounds this morning and the slip on recoil pad did wonders. It may have even improved my shooting a bit. If I can find a slip on cheek pad I think I would be golden. My gun has a laminated stock so it weighs a bit more (I think) than a composite or walnut stocked gun. But I'm not sure how balanced it is. How do you know if a gun is balanced? I'll check into buying an additional stock but, would rather not if I can get away with it.

WyoCoyoteHunter - Thank you for the reply. Will definitely be buying 1oz. trap loads the next time out.

Passport - I apologize for being taller than 4'-6" and not being made of money. This what I have to work with now, I'm fully aware that this is less than ideal. But if you had an extra $500 laying around I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands.

Mole skin added up to what you arrive at to be the right comb height, then topped off with that old standby Duct tape makes a fine comb adjuster. Go up and not so much off to the side. Keep the beads lined up is what I'm saying.

Empty shells filled with lead shot-sealed off with????-you got it, Duct tape in the magazine tube and a "Mule" in the stock will do wonders for cutting recoil. Check those shells on occasion, in that if they unwind it does get messy. Or they make lead tape. Run it under the barrel till you get it right.

Balance? Handle a couple dedicated trap guns, find one you like and come as close as possible.

All can be removed when you want to take it back to hunting configuration.

You should be able to set up your 1300 to adequately shoot trap with. battue and the others have given great advice. Here's how I'd roll:

1. Lengthen LOP. Probably 14"+ depending on the person.
2. Get a better recoil pad. Limbsaver, decelerator, kick eeze, etc.
3. Weights as battue suggested. This chit can be cheap. Use shot where you can. Make your own if you need to. Drill some holes in the stock and add weight there too. Trap guns are generally heavy with long barrels to slow and steady the swing.
4. Run lighter loads.
5. Think about reloading your own. With this, you can load some really light loads and make it more enjoyable to shoot. 7/8 oz. loads work great for singles and doubles.
6. If you step back further than 16 yards, go to a fast 1oz. load or slow 1 1/8 oz. It doesn't take more than a 1200 fps load of 1 1/8 oz. to shoot handicap. I'm not talking about "shooting from the porch" or "long bombs", that's a different load altogether...
7. Glue on cheek piece like someone else mentioned. Kick eeze makes these. You can also use adhesive moleskin, felt, or vetwrap/coban and foam pad, etc....

Keep shooting your 1300 until you can upgrade, just don't let it force you to make bad habits. An improperly fitting/hard recoiling shotgun will induce flinching and make you do dumb things like raise your head off the stock and stop your swing. It also induces fatigue........Good luck with your trap shooting...

Not trying to bust your chops. Just been there and done that and if you put a bunch of money at a turkey gun its doubtful you will really be happy in the end. Its just cheaper to keep that gun as is and take the 200 buck you would have put into that gun trying to make it work and look for an 870.

passport, has a good point also.. I won a lot of stuff with my old 870 field gun, but it fit pretty good anyway.. I picked up a trap model, one of the best buys of my life.. I would get a second with fixed chokes , I came buy it at a good price..

I think the point is most of us have been down the road you are going, and we just hope to make it a bit less expensive than our trip and still have you enjoy trap shooting...

Used to reload shot we scraped up off a flat field. Put it in a bucket, ran water thru it, then dried it on a sheet in the sun. We were reclaiming shot before it became common practice. Also picked up used wads and ran them thru the washing machine and then the dryer. Many expanded back to almost close to original dimensions and we used them. 16 yard practice scores suffered little.

The only thing unused in the shell was the primer.

I appreciate all the help guys, I really do.

Passport - I apologize I kinda took your post the wrong way. It just frustrates me how everything how has to do with (more or less) money anymore. All I want to do is shoot and have fun. I do plan on upgrading to a dedicated trap gun some day but the way things are going it will later rather than sooner.

You all have given some good information and some things tinker with over the next few months. Thank you very much.