Of course, in the field your gun can kick like a cannon and you won't notice, but at that bench, OUCH! Get a Sims recoil pad. The Remington R3 pad is made by Sims. I put one on my 870 and the difference was amazing. I used to fear patterning that gun with turkey loads, it looked like I was repeatedly punched on my right side, all black and blue. With the pad, no more purple.