Dear Great Guru of the Scattergun,

At age 65 I have again taken up the sport of skeet shooting. After an abscense Of 49 years I found it difficult to get back to the 23’s and 24’s I usually scored in my youth. Shooting an A5 12 with a polychoke, I finally returned to the 20+ range but found it was kicking the heck out of me even with the friction ring in the lower position. This was not good as I had a detached retina fixed a couple of years ago and surely did not want to have to go through it again. Switched to an old Browning O/U and although it shoots well for me, gives me a whole lot of face slap. Hate the sore jaw and the gun does seem to have more recoil than a gas gun would. Some reading suggests that the Fabarm XLR5 would be the solution to recoil (saving my eyesight) and adjustability(relieving the face slap.) It’s not an inexpensive shotgun but seems to be ahead of the competition in its many features. May I have your thoughts and recommendations?

Respectfully,

Mike

Dear Mike,

Welcome back to shooting! We missed you.

Now that you are older and wiser, avoiding unnecessary recoil is a very intelligent approach. Especially since you are smart enough to protect your eyes.

As long as you intend to stay with a 12 gauge gun, gas-operated semi-autos are definitely the way to go if you want to do it all with the gun. By that I mean that you can get real instant recoil reduction by reducing the amount of shot and the velocity of the shells you use. If you can get some 7/8 oz 12 gauge shells that don’t have pumped up velocity, you will be amazed at how soft shooting they are. The Olympic loads of 24 grams (almost 7/8 oz) are usually at 1350 fps and don’t lower recoil very much due to the speed. If you can reload, or get a friend to do it for you, a nice 1150 fps 7/8 oz load will cut your recoil by a great deal and won’t cost you any skeet targets.

But, as to guns…. The Fabarm XLR5 Velocity is an action which has been around in Europe for a while, though it’s new here. What makes the gun different is that it has every gizmo, doodad and thingamajig possible stuck on it. Almost none of which you need for skeet.

Save yourself some money and go get a nice used Remington 1100. If you can’t find a used one that suits you, get a new one for twice the money. They are one of the softest shooting autos ever made and have won more titles at skeet over the years than anything else. There’s a reason. The stocks are easily adjusted by any competent gunsmith.

I’ve owned a bunch of 1100s and always marvel at how soft shooting they are. Of course, some of that recoil absorbing is due to the compressing of all those beer-can parts inside. 1100s do break every now and then, but it’s no big deal. All the 1100 shooters I knew carried a little toolbox of spare parts that you could just stick in at a moment’s notice.

That’s not so hot for sporting clays, where you could find yourself a mile or so from the parking lot when something goes wrong. But for skeet, going back to the car for a part a couple of times a year isn’t so bad.

And, don’t forget, that the 1100s will run for quite a while without breaking anything if you keep a fresh mainspring in the gun. Replace it every 5~10,000 rounds and your 1100 will last a very long time. You don’t need a gunsmith for any of this stuff. It’s easy to do yourself.

Beretta makes very good gas guns. They are less likely to break than the 1100s, but the secondary exhaust system of the new 390, 391 and 400 make the guns recoil a bit more than the 1100s. The old Beretta 303 target guns were quite soft shooting, but they have achieved cult status and you’ll have to fight someone to get one.

Of course, if you really want to save on recoil, you can always shoot skeet with a subgauge gun. 410 and 28 gauge new ammo is stupidly expensive, but cheap to reload.

Lots of options.

Best of luck,
Bruce Buck
Shotgun Report’s Technoid