Author: Tom Roster

All shotshell manufacturers now have them: high velocity steel loads. You probably already know that most steel loads have higher instrumental velocities than most lead loads. Well, each company now offers even faster steel loads.

Evil recoil – both actual and felt – and their causes and solutions have been detailed in the previous two installments of this column. I’d like to finish off this treatise on recoil by examining some important ammunition specifics.

In the June installment of this column we examined the first form of recoil called actual recoil. I pointed out that all actual recoil comes from the shotshell load itself. As the shotshell load shot charge weight increases and as the velocity of the load increases, so too does the total value of the actual recoil force generated by that shotshell load. Gauge is irrelevant.

Most shooters recognize sooner or later that recoil is the biggest single negative to their shotgun shooting success. The smart ones recognize this sooner; the recoil-challenged usually later.