Wife is Getting Back Into Shooting

[inchr48]

My wife currently has a Mossberg 500 20 ga. she got for her 16th B-day (30+ years ago). The stock was cut down and a recoil pad installed. We bought a Do-All Clay Hawk Full Cock trap (CH300, Cabelas's has for $50), and she burned a box of shells yesterday.

She now is excited about getting a new gun. She has trained Labs and GSP's in the past and upland and duck hunted. We are going to get a pointing dog this spring (leaning towards the Viszla), and she wants a new gun to upland hunt and shoot clays.

She is about 5' 3", and wants to stay with something less than 12 ga. I would like something with choke tubes to make it a more versatile gun for her. She likes the o/u's, but I know an auto-loader would make recoil less for heavier hunting loads.

Any suggestions? I also found she is left eye dominant and right handed, so may complicate getting a shotgun set-up that she can shoot consistently with.

[Jean]

I have a Browning Citori 20 gauge. I love it. It shoots better than I do. It is my quail, brush bunnies and occasionally pheasant womper.
With the stackbarrel she won't have the shells ejecting in front of he face. I have not looked at prices in a long time so forgive my igorance.
If there is a sporting clays place near by that rents guns, that might be something to look at for her to try different guns.

Just my two cents.

Jean

[NorCal Cazadora]

Wow, I guess it's really true that women are cross dominant really often! I'm the same way.

I shoot a 20 gauge Beretta Urika AL391 (in the picture in my avatar), and the recoil is negligible. It's bruised me once or twice early on when I must've mounted really badly, but I really don't even notice the recoil at all. Maybe after blowing through 100 shells in skeet my shoulder will feel vaguely sore, but that's it.

I'm told pretty much any gun with the gas recoil system is going to shoot smoothly - even a 12 gauge.

The most important thing I can recommend is, whatever gun she gets, TAKE IT TO A GOOD GUNSMITH FOR FITTING! When I got my gun last year, I took it apart and switched the cast spacer to make it work for left-handed shooting. But this year I figured out it just wasn't fitting right, so I took it to a gunsmith here in California who's been doing his job for 40 years, and he fixed me right up. I'm 5-8, so the stock length was fine, but I have a long neck, so he had to drop the stock considerably so I could drop my cheek on the stock without breaking my neck. He also increased the cast a bit, and I'm shooting much better now.

It cost me $350 that I didn't have, but it was worth it to start hitting ducks more regularly.

Good luck, and let us know what she gets!

[bob_lafrentz]

I just started my wife on shooting shotguns not too long ago. I had an old Remmington 870 Wingmaster 20 gauge. It is a unique 870 though, in the fact that it is a LW (light weight) model and youth gun. She likes it a lot. I added about .75 inch of a spacer between the stock and a limb saver pad. I highly reccomend these to someone that thinks they might be afraid of recoil. Better to minimze it right away than have to try working on a flinch complex. She's a small girl and has no complaints. I dont know if they ever made this in a left handed gun though. Good luck and have fun.

[NorCal Cazadora]

I shoot left-handed with a gun that expels shells on the right and I don't even notice them flying out of the gun - it's just not a problem. Not for me, anyway - I must confess I have winged my boyfriend with spent shells when we were shooting next to each other in a pitblind. Oopsie.

[Mntngoat]

I bought my wife a Franchi 720 auto loader. It's areal nice and soft shooting.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Mntngoat/DSC00007.jpg

Michael

[inchr48]

Thanks for all the comments. My wife has enjoyed looking at pictures of all the guns suggested. We will be hitting all the gun shops around to have her handle some firearms.

The data I've read, shows 70-80% of women are left eye dominant. Have any of you women had work done to your gun to improve your shooting? I will be conducting a test at work the next few weeks to see if this stat holds up. If I'm going to drop a grand or more to get my wife shooting well (to keep her motivated), I want to do all I can to get the gun set up for her to succeed.

Once again, thanks for the suggestions, and keep firing ladies, the birds will fall.

[NorCal Cazadora]

Aside from shifting the cast for left-handed shooting, the rest of the work that was required on my gun was because I have a long neck and high cheekbones - I don't think any special adjustments are needed to correct for cross-dominance.

I do, however, have another problem with dominance: I'm right handed and left-eye dominant, so I've always shot left handed, but I noticed really early that my right eye would sometimes take over and completely wreck my sight picture. My shooting instructor put a piece of tape over the right lens of my shooting glasses to keep the right eye from taking over (something they do for people who want to fight cross-dominance), but I HATED how it limited my visibility. So I recently peeled off the tape, and now, once I'm ready to shoot, I just shut my right eye. I know you're not "supposed" to, but who cares. Depth perception doesn't matter much anymore because I've already determined the bird's distance, speed and angle by the time I raise my gun.

That's really cool, btw, that you're investing so much in getting your wife involved!

[inchr48]

Thanks NC C,

They actually make shooting glasses that you can put a blacked-out lense in to do what your instructor did. Hope we don't have to go that route, but will if needed.

My wife turns the Big 5-0 next month, so that and 26 years + of marriage demands some "bling".

She has decided she would rather have a really nice gun rather than some jewelry (which she usually buys when she wants).

I'm cool with that since I will probably get something new also, and hope to get some fitting/instruction for the first time also. Is weird since I have hunted for over 40 years with scatter-guns, but never been fit or trained. My first rabbit, quail, and pheasant were all with a little H&R .410 2 1/2" single shot that a neighbor gave me around my 12th birthday. (Still have it)

[inchr48]

Well, my wife turned 50 last Monday, and we found her a new 20 ga. auto loader.

The local shop had a post-season long gun sale and had a Franchi Al-48 with a short stock. With vented recoil pad, works out to around 13" LOP, and fits my wife very well. It is a light gun, with 24" vent-rib barrel and screw-in chokes. I know there are guns with less recoil, but is a trade off on carry weight.

She is off to Milwaukee for the weekend to dog shows. She is hoping to get home tomorrow early enough to try some clays (is to be near 50 degrees).

Thanks for all your input. All the guns mentioned are fine weapons. Now the wife is talking about a 28 ga. SXS. If she gets back into shooting, this could get expensive............