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I have noticed several posts recently with questions about reducing recoil.
I'd like to pass on a personal success story; I never used to have ANY problems with recoil. Even big bore rifles! After I had my chest opened up a couple of years ago, my brisket never went back together quite right. (My
Wife says I look like an accordion when I breath). The disconfort from recoil is very noticable and all in my brisket. I' ve tried many types of recoil pads. With some , but not much success. I shoot 200 to 400 rounds of 12ga trap each week. I use a Browning XT Citori. Changing the LOP is out of the question and shortening the stock to make room for a softer pad is costly. I couldn't stand to shoot more than one round of trap with my field guns.
THEN... the manager of my trap club put me onto a gadget called a "Murcury
Recoil Suppressor". They are metal cylinders filled with mercury that you incert in the butt stock hole. Lengths range from 4" to 5". Diameters run from 11/16 to 7/8 inch. Weights run from 8oz to one pound. They are easy to install and remove.
I was pretty skeptical. But I tried one in the Browning XT. WOW!!
What a difference! They even have one that fits in the 12ga chamber of
O/U or SxS when shooting singles. I have since added the stock incert models to my Red Lable 12ga., Browning A5 16ga. Great results. They do not alter the LOP or appearance of the gun at all.
I am not a salesman for this product but have had great success in recoil reduction and can now shoot all I want confortably.
If you are interested, check out the manufacturers web site. You can buy direct from them. Costs are no more than good recoil pads. Especially
since you don't have to have the stock shortened and the pad fit.
The company is " C&H Research " Their web site is;
WWW.mercuryrecoil.com .

Good Luck....Rabbitdog

AND THEY'RE IN KANSAS! Very Happy

Mercury recoil reducers do seem to diminish perceived recoil a bit more than what one would expect from the added weight alone, but will certainly change the balance of a 6 1/2# 16g field gun.
Hi-Grade Shooters Supply sells them at a substantial discount
www.higradeshooters.com

DOC, You are 100% correct about balance. As for recoil. The only real reduction in force comes from added weight. And that isn't much. The reduction in "FELT" recoil is a factor of time. The impact force, although constant, is spread out over a longer time due to the "Sloshing" of the mercury. ( as explained to me by a K-State physics professor / trap shooter).
Now for balance. I am convinced that a discussion about balance between shotgunners is as dangerous as discussing politics or religion ! No shooter can ever say what balance point is best for EVERYONE. I look at it this way;
Shotguns are like women. Some like them Front Heavy ! Some like them
Butt heavy ! And almost none of them can be considered to be "Perfectly
Balanced". ( if they start out that way, they rarely stay that way ) All you can hope for is to find one that you can get along with.

Rabbitdog

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: Michigan

I put one of those mercury recoil reducers in my son's Benelli Nova, when he was younger, and he said it made a big difference in recoil. Now the gun is only used for turkey hunting, so he leaves it in the stock for the 3" shells.

Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 380 Location: Northeast Ohio

My plain barrel model 12 has become my go to gun almost exclusively for every application. There is just something about the way it balances for me. This in spite of the fact that I've got (and had ) a couple of other widely accepted and popular, classically well balanced o/u's too. I don't know what it is about the small frame model 12, but I'm almost thinking if I had to choose only one to keep, it would be the one.

Guns of different weights and feel fit different applications and at 6lb. 10 oz. I thought I'd try to improve it for vintage skeet by trying a mercury reducer in the stock. I'm real recoil sensitive and am using strictly 7/8 oz. loads. I installed the reducer and after feeling the major difference in balance point and handling characteristics I removed it without ever firing a shot and soon will return it to the owner who was kind enough to let me try it before I made the investment to buy my own.

Was I too hasty? Who knows now, but if felt so wierd I didn't even want to try. I think it was the 8oz. version but it might have been heavier. Just my personal experience and comment. Not advice for anyone else.

I have a goofy low gun style forged and ingrained for the past 36 years which would probably benefit from some "unlearning" at the direction of a good instructor. I think someday soon I'll do just that. I'm not too stubborn to change but the many times I've tried, gun up with a target weight gun just is not fun or successful for me. I do better with lighter guns and hard buttplates.

I hope your plan works for you. Just be prepared for the possibility that you may have to adjust to a whole new "feel" with a mercury reducer. You're probably a good enough shooter to adjust and raise your skill level in the long run. So far I am not.

Good luck.

Grouse Gunner, Adaptation to the change in balance (and weight) has been necessary without a doubt. But a after about 500 rounds it all seemed
natural again. This last weekend I shot in a two day Registered (ATA /KTA)
trap shoot. My averages for 16's, had dropped from mid 90's to high 80's as
recoil discomfort appeared. Same with handicap and doubles averages.
I shot 100- 16's, 100-handicap, and 50 doubles (100) both Saturday and Sunday. Thats 600 rounds. Yes tha added weight of the mercury recoil reducer took its toll and I was more tired when it was all over. BUT.... ALL scores were 96 or above ! My best registered shoot ever.
We all know that trap shooting has little in common with field hunting. I wouldn't to carry the added weight around all day and very few shots at wild Kansas pheasants are taken from the "gun-mounted" position. I am sure
balance is far more important in a shooters favorite field gun.
For now the Mercury reducers will be in ANY gun I take to the trap range. But will probably not go hunting with me.

Good luck with your clay shooting. Be careful you don't get hooked !

Rabbitdog