It's been my experience that the gun being used has more to do with the recoil than the slugs. Those 3 inch mags kick a little more I guess and with the SLIGHTLY higher velocities it sure isn't worth it. My TC PH slug slinger is a very light rig so with that comes much more felt recoil. My old Mossburg 500 with the deer slayer barrel on it was fairly heavy (that barrel was a beast) so the recoil of it was far less "painful" at the bench.