Gun Dog Forum

My wife bought a Benelli Montefeltro youth 20Ga and shot it for the first time last weekend. She is small and it seems the gun fits her fairly well as she can shoulder it easily and she broke many more clays than she missed. Overall, I am impressed with how well she shoots given her inexperience with shotgunning. She hasn't complained at all about shoulder recoil but she does have a sore cheek and a visible bruise after about 50 rds on Sunday. The Montefeltro has a shim kit to raise/lower drop of the stock, which I hope might help. I am also considering a cheek pad for the gun.

I learned to shoot just by trial and error. I'm hoping someone here knows enough to help us work through this more quickly and can give us advice. Any help to avoid the cheek pain would be greatly appreciated. I really want her to enjoy shooting and bird hunting beyond just her love of watching our britts work.

Has she ever had a similar problem with a different shotgun?

I've never had the problem except with one Remington 3200 O/U that I happened to shoot like a house afire. We tried a great many things and nothing helped.

We finally installed a Griggs Recoil Redirector http://griggsrecoil.com/ . It cured the problem immediately.

For what it's worth,

Greg J.

There are different causes, different fixes and different cures for that problem.

It can be from a person holding their head off the stock at the last moment either thru looking for a better view of the bird, loss of contact in poor follow-thru or simply through fear of recoil....often unrealized. Distance can lead to slap bruises if close enough.
If recoil induced...that often gets worse thru a round.
It can be from comb shape...I have had some Berettas slap and some not. Some SKBs are known for thin combs.
It can be from how the gun is pitched so pushing the comb up into the face on the shot.
It can be from too weak a back hand grip.
It can be from too long or too short a stock and from an improper mount.
It can be from the shooter losing contact with the stock on wider angled birds or ones that got the jump on them.
It can be from a mix of problems.
It cna be from the unfamiliar new gun syndrome as well.
And so on, and so on.

A proper and consistent mount, firm trigger hand grip and keeping wood on wood may help.
So may any manner of soft-combs from the expensive adjustable jobs to the stick on types such as from Meadow Industries.
The stick-on will raise the point of impact so one must watch that issue.
Other mechanical fixes can help.

I would suggest considering different shims since that option is there and cheapest....but it can be a fit and try at best.
Then, the lowest possible recoiling shells to reduce recoil while working on mount, keeping the head down and follow-thru.
Fiochii 3/4 ounce trainers are good light 20s but may not cycle well.
Adding a Meadow pad may be the quickest answer but not necessarily the best answer.
Might try and borrow some other 20s and see if anything works better for her....always a good excuse for another scattergun.

Good Luck.