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Shotguns and the Third Law of MotionThat means women who want a good-fitting shotgun find themselves lumped in with the kids. You want a gun that fits reasonably well off the rack? Well then buy yourself a shotgun for 12-year-olds.
Search around for a shotgun and you find yourself up against the laws of physics. It boils down to Newton’s third law of motion -- for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Fire a shotgun and the gas from the ignited powder forces the pellets out of the hull, along the barrel and toward the target -- with an equal reaction manifesting itself as felt recoil.
If your shotgun weighed as much as your shotshell, the felt recoil would be unbearable. But your shotgun doesn’t weigh in at two ounces; it weighs six to eight pounds. The added weight of the shotgun absorbs most of the felt recoil -- but not all of it.
The way the math works is that if you increase the weight of your shotgun by 10%, you could cut felt recoil by about 10%. Conversely, if you opt for a lighter gun you will increase your felt recoil. This proportion is not always linear, but it does provide a satisfactory theory for your average shotguns and shells.
