870 recoil pads?
 

I sighted in my 870 Express turkey gun the other day ( red dot scope) with 3" Federal turkey loads. Lord, did that gun kick my head off! I have been shooting my entire adult life (63 years) and have never experienced anything like that. Upon examination the recoil pad that was on the gun was about as soft as a hockey puck. Is there a pre-fit pad that I can change out and use? What say you? Thanks...

It's not the pad, it's sighting in a shotgun, probably sitting at a bench. The next worse thing is patterning a shotgun. We just don't realize how much they kick, till we shoot at anything other than a hunting experience, or skeet/trap. If you want a real experience, try shooting a slug at a target, in a rifled bbl.

I suggest getting rid of the 870 and get an Rem 1187 or a Mossy 935 or some other semi auto. I shoot the 3.5's out of my 870 which came with the R3 recoil pad and I didn't think it was all that bad. Bench shooting aka patterning a shotgun is the as bad as it will get when dealing with recoil. Not everyone is tolerable to recoil either.

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.

I don't think any of the pads mentioned so far come pre-fit...

Limbsaver makes a pad for the 870 that is prefit.

I think that is for the Wingmaster, not the Express.

http://www.cabelas.com/fryprod-0/pro...8893.uts.shtml

There is one I found. In the field, I never feel my 870 kick with 3.5 BBB's. I fear shooting it while practicing. It's amazing what adrenaline will do.

Gary,

Fold up a bath towel about 8 times and place in over the stock and down around the butt when shooting a shotgun from the bench.

I have an express. The Rem R3 pad is pre fit for synthetic stock 870s. Buy one, your shoulder will thank you.

See, this is the kind of drivel that set me off in my thread. Read closely: HE DOESN'T WANT TO TRASH A PERFECTLY GOOD GUN TO BUY YOUR FAVORITE GUN! He wanted a suggestion on reducing recoil on the gun he already owns! It seems the turkey hunters on this board have been conspiring to tick me off...

OP: Pachmyr makes a recoil pad called the "Decelerator." I use one on one of my rifles and it works. You can also buy a mercury-filled tube and have it fit inside your stock. The sloshing heavy liquid metal absorbs some of the recoil. I suggest doing both, and both together are rather cost effective. Both are easy for your gun, too; just about any gun shop could install both.

Im pretty sure they make one for the wingmaster(wood) and a seperate one for the express(synthetic). Im pretty sure thats what i saw. i do have one of these slip on pads except its for my deer rifle, but it does do what it was designed to very well

and dude he doesnt need a new gun. if he did hed be asking about one. and seriously a mossburg?? i dont know who in their right mind would trade an 870 for a mossburg!!

Get a grip Mac and you too Dude. I wasn't trying to get him to shoot my favorite gun. I shoot an 870 super mag as a matter of fact and have owned an 870 for over 45 years. I would explain my post except I don't owe either one of you an explanation. My post wasn't intended to be malicious though and I have never owned a semi auto and no one ever said to trade in a 870 for a 835. Sheeeeeeesssssshhh!!!! Doesn't sound like it takes much to tick you off anyways Mac and it doesn't sound like it is a rare occasion.

GaryO, I was not trying to persuade you to buy a certain gun or trying to be sarcastic regardless of what any rubes on here say. I was only trying to pertain to the fact that some folks are just not recoil tolerable. It is not meant to be a slam or a question of anyone's man hood just a fact that some people notice recoil more than others. My post was only meant to offer a suggestion that semi auto's reduce felt recoil and that was all it was meant to suggest. I apologize to you if my post was out of line in any way. To the two who jumped on the band wagon so quickly as I am sure is a habit for both of you, "get some class".

A person needs to make a statement and then stand by their statement. If you don't believe the statement that you made to be true - don't make it.

As plain old rubber recoil pads gets old, they will get hard and not absorb as much energy as would a brand new pad.

These so called gimmick pads might work, then again they might not.

I would take the gun to a qualified gunsmith and have them install a recoil pad on your gun for you. That is the reason why they go to school to learn a trade. Just as you wouldn't take your car to a butcher to get it repaired or new brakes put on by a road construction worker - so too it is with guns.

I don't know why it is that people wants to save money and do everything themselves. I don't know if it gives them some sort of satisfaction that they did it - which in their minds might make them feel as if they are some sort of gunsmith themselves. Or that they just don't want to pay someone and expect everything to be a slip fit - where all you have to do is buy it, bring it home and put it on yourself.

If you check with some gun sites for skeet shooting - you can find slip on gun recoil pads for most any model of gun. Its just that not all models are going to reduce felt recoil to the point of where you are not going to feel it anymore.

Not a matter if it was true or not, just the way it was interpreted. If GaryO had interpreted it the worng way I wanted to apologize to him for not making myself more clear in my intent. GaryO is the only dog in this hunt that I am concerned about.

Limbsaver pads definitely work. I have one on my 870 while I shoot slugs and it feels great.

That pachmayer will work just fine GaryO. If you want more recoil taken out of it you can install a mercury recoil reducer in the buttstock while switching the pad. http://www.mercuryrecoil.com/ I installed the Limbsaver Pad and one of these in my wifes Mossberg 500 and it took out probably 50% of the recoil its a joy to shoot that gun now. All you will need to do is take your buttpad off and there should be a hole in the stock that is 1/2 - 1" in diameter measure the diameter and figure out how far into the stock it goes at that diameter and order the one that is closest in diameter either exact diameter or slightly smaller and correct length again exact length or slightly smaller. If you get one that is slightly shorter than the hole is deep you can pack a piece of a dowel rod into it or do like I did and shove 3 pennies in behind it they fit perfect on her gun and 3 Cents is alot cheaper than a $1.50 dowel rod to cut roughly 3/16th of an inch off of. All you do after you slide it in and put the pennies or piece of wood in there is just screw your buttpad on again. Easy install you don't need a gunsmith to install it. You also don't need a gunsmith to install a buttpad.

My wifes gun, just to give you an idea of recoil, was leaving bruises on her shoulder shooting low brass birdshot (she bruises easy), after I installed the pad and mercury tube she now can go to the range and literly shoot a 200 rounds of birdshot and not have a bruise on her shoulder. When she shoots high brass duck/geese loads 2 3/4" they now feel about like the bird shot did before installing the pad and reducer. She has not shot slugs out of it yet but once she does I will let you know how that goes. If you have any questions PM me.

I changed out the factory hockey puck to the Limbsaver prefit pad on my 870 and that made a HUGE difference. The fit of the Limbsaver is not perfect but close enough for me.