[Philmo11]

I went ahead and served as range officer last season but the boys didn’t shoot. They are shooting this time and we just finished up the second meet. Oldest boy seems to be doing ok with his 28” Pardner pump 12ga.

My middle boy got pretty bruised up at the first meet. His little short T-Rex arms struggle to hold up his 20ga after the first 25rds. Arms got tired and he got sloppy. Managed to bruise the crap out of his bicep when it slid off his shoulder a couple times. This meet, he did much better shouldering but his accuracy suffered. Tried getting him to adjust to a boxer stance, which he did great 4 of 5 shots but then he went back to the way he was standing before and it went downhill directly.

This brings me to a dilemma. He is at a disadvantage due to being half the size of the next kid and about 1/3 the size of the older kids. The other issue is his 20ga only has 2/3 the lead shot the other boys are using. I’m wondering if I should get him a 20-22” 12ga and swap the stock for an AR style stock. Shorten that length of pull so he can get that left hand a little further up on the fore end to manage the weight a bit better. At least then he’ll be putting the same amount of lead down range and level the playing field a little.

Thoughts?

 

[jrbfishn]

Two ideas.
1; get a youth 20 ga stock and see if the 12ga will fit in it. Might have to do a little work on it.
2; have you looked at ordering him a custom stock. From Boyd's maybe. Although the AR style with adjustable stock might be just the ticket.

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[mjcmichigan]

Fit
Recoil felt. Sounds borderline with 20 gauge already. If the AR was a gas semi, might be ok.

I’d be careful as I’m guessing the AR style will increase the felt recoil. Solving one problem to make a new isn’t what you want either.

Any chance you can make the gun more balanced?

Most people identify my heaviest gun as lightest...it comes in at a 9# OU, but it’s completely balanced, so it feels light and swings steady.

Good luck.


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[Square target]

They used to make an inertia type recoil device you could attach to the underside of shotgun barrels. Basically it's a moving weight inside a tube that helps adsorb recoil. I seem to remember them weighing about a 1/4lb so if overall weight is an issue it may not help much. Not even sure if they still make them, it's been a long time since i seen one. I may even have one around here somewhere. A proper fitting stock is the best place to start though if it's too long.

 

[Philmo11]

Two ideas.
1; get a youth 20 ga stock and see if the 12ga will fit in it. Might have to do a little work on it.
2; have you looked at ordering him a custom stock. From Boyd's maybe. Although the AR style with adjustable stock might be just the ticket.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

He has a youth 870 he is using. Short little T-Rex arms are still a bit too short. He needs to be working on building some shoulder strength, it would help with pooping out early.

 

[Philmo11]

Fit
Recoil felt. Sounds borderline with 20 gauge already. If the AR was a gas semi, might be ok.

I’d be careful as I’m guessing the AR style will increase the felt recoil. Solving one problem to make a new isn’t what you want either.

Any chance you can make the gun more balanced?

Most people identify my heaviest gun as lightest...it comes in at a 9# OU, but it’s completely balanced, so it feels light and swings steady.

Good luck.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

For felt recoil we can dampen with a gel pad to take the sharpness out of it but wouldn’t make up for the push from the lighter stock. That little 20ga has a good amount of kick to it already.

For the balance issue, I think it’s because he can’t get that left hand out far enough on the forend and he’s fighting leverage.

 

[Popeye]

An already short wooden shotgun stock can, with relative ease, be made shorter.

Also, these work: Mercury Recoil Reducer at Brownells