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How much of a difference does lengthening the forcing make? Does it reduce recoil as well?

It can help but don’t expect a huge difference.
What kind of gun, ammo and use? Have you had it on a pattering board?

Many say an entire barrel overbore has a noticeable effect on patterns and recoil. I haven’t found that only doing forcing cones has any significant advantage for patterns or recoil.

Friend has a new overbore Beretta, and while I can’t notice much recoil advantage, his breaks at distance with IC chokes are impressive.

My personal experience with it is this. For heavy loads in large shot size it helps. The smaller the shot the more fluid like properties the shot will have. The larger the shot size the more room for realignment is needed. A forcing cone gives you that room to allow the shot column to rearrange.

I wish to amend my answer to clarify I am referring to standard bore and forcing cone barrels. Most newer ones already have this.

Then the question becomes how long of a forcing cone is needed? I’ll buy in on the overbore, not so much on the FC.

The forcing cone needs to be 2.5" long for the typical person to notice. Anything less and they think they got ripped off. Whether it does anything to improve patterns is a big question mark. I have seen a noticeable decrease in fliers when using buffered lead shot of #2 and larger with maybe a perceived evenness in shot distribution in patterns with smaller shot- maybe (repeated intentionally).

I've read mixed reports with longer forcing cones helping to prevent occasional pressure spikes with the larger sizes of steel shot. This seem so of be a phenomena like detonation in metallic cartridges, some believe it happens but it is difficult to repeat in the lab. I lean toward longer forcing cones helping as it can't hurt if enough steel is left in the barrel.

I haven't seen any change in recoil when forcing cones were lengthened and can't see how that could even be possible unless the velocity was somehow changed. Shot charge weight would remain the same and what little metal would be removed should have negligee affect on gun weight. It might have some change in the recoil curve but that is something that is determined per individual, gun, and load rather than a blanket statement.

I have shotguns that have been lengthened, some still rather short. My favorite that seems pretty soft shooting is a Perazzi with longer cones and .740” bores, all factory.

I agree that the benefit is quite small. As a sporting clays instructor, I see the greatest benefit to my clients in good gun fit and technique.

The foundation of shotgunning is in those two. Without them, you can have FC's that really do produce, and you will still shoot poorly.

I've read the same, however the pellets are randomly encased in the shotcup. Ignition jostles them around some more, and then they get jammed into a longer forcing cone and they somehow are consistently rearranged into a more pattern consistent shape. Not sure I can buy into the theory. I can see how any overbore reduces the amount of pellet deformation, which will certainly improve patterns, but a 2.5inch FC consistently causing an improvement in pellet arrangement that will be seen downrange? Perhaps it is so, but as of yet I'm not buying into it.

In addition, this improved rearrangement consistently happens in milliseconds?

To paraphrase dead Johnny Cochran of OJ fame, if it don’t fit, you can’t hit.

I have read lengthy posts on this and chokes and the most knowledgeable repeatedly say you won't know until you pattern it in your gun with your loads. If you shoot heavy waterfowl and turkey loads it may be worthwhile. But going from a 2.5" to a 3" you may not be able to see or feel any difference. The pattern might improve but probably not much more than the amount of normal variation you would see.

I do believe a longer forcing cone combined with a slight over bore does work better and slightly reduces recoil or the recoil curve. I would spend money on getting the stock fitted first before any barrel mods.