Low recoil turkey gun

I have yet to find any load or gauge that compares to a .410 in recoil characteristics. You can get close, but there are trade offs everywhere. A short stocked, gas operated 20ga with a great recoil pad might work for your wife. The good thing about turkey hunting is it’s usually a one-shot deal.

Otherwise, we’re into the basics of felt recoil management:
—Weight of gun
—Fit of gun to shooter
—Shotshell load in velocity and weight
—Quality of recoil pad
—Intangibles (loud gun, sharp corners, gun geometry, etc).

When we shot trap up north the recoil shy all shot the Remington 1100 20 gauge we had due to the lower recoil over the numerous 12 gauges that we had. I would not consider a 410 for turkey under any circumstances. A standard pheasant load (2 3/4 inch) of 5's would be just the ticket with a full choke and would not be too much recoil. FYI, the 20 gauge didn't have a recoil pad and that didn't seem to matter.

Here’s a decent recoil table from Hawkes


The recoil from a semiauto 20ga is minimal but still slightly more than a .410. With that said, I bought a Weatherby youth 20ga for my son when he was 10, he shot Longbeard XR and TSS with no issues. He ‘upgraded’ to a Winchester 12ga a few years ago.

You have lots of options for 20ga turkey guns and 20ga turkey ammo is seemingly everywhere this year.

The .410 will kick slightly less than the 20ga with turkey loads, and with TSS the .410 could be a 40 yard gun. There’s plenty of birds dying at the end of the newer .410 setups.

However, TSS ain’t cheap for the .410 and there are few turkey ammo alternatives, so factor in the cost of TSS ammo when thinking about the gun.

You can put a red-dot on both guns so that’s a non factor.

I personally can’t tell the difference in recoil (shooting turkey loads) from a 20ga SA and a .410 single shot, so I would personally opt for the 20 SA due to ammo choices and ease for followup shots.


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I own a Savage 410 single shot break action Turkey gun. I love it!! It comes with an extra full turkey choke. I have shot Turkeys at 40 yards plus. Recommend using TSS. Shells started out at around $7.00 per round, when you could find them. Shells are now around $9 to 10.00 per round, and harder to find!
In hind sight, I would have gone with the 20 gauge only because of more available shell selection.

GrtWhtHntr said:

Looking for a shotgun for my wife, it would be used exclusively for turkey hunting. She's recoil sensitive and smaller framed so it would need to be a youth model. It would also have to be compatible with a red dot scope. Debating between a youth 20ga semi-auto or a 410. Would a 20ga semi-auto be comparable with a 410 as far as recoil goes? Any info would be appreciated.

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I have a Weatherby 20 semi auto, what I found is that it requires a minimum of 1300 FPS in order to cycle the shells, I can get lower recoil with less muzzle velocity, but it won't recycle. Something to consider.

I got an adjustable length Knoxx SpecOps Gen III pistol grip recoil reducing stock for my daughter’s Remington 870. (As the stock is adjustable, I didn’t need to buy a youth model 870).


She uses it for both turkey & deer with no complaints/flinching.

Although she uses Williams Fire Sights, it would be a simple task for a gunsmith to install a picatinny rail section on the top of the receiver for a Red Dot scope set up.

Pedroims said:

I have a Weatherby 20 semi auto, what I found is that it requires a minimum of 1300 FPS in order to cycle the shells, I can get lower recoil with less muzzle velocity, but it won't recycle. Something to consider.

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I probably have the same gun - did you try the different springs? My son’s has no problem cycling the reduced recoil low brass skeet shot.


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.410 ammo can be bought online just fine; not so much at the local shop.

For a turkey hunt it's worth forking it over for a box of TSS rounds & this gun is perfect for that.

I believe if you hooked her up with this h
gear, you'll never look back

Yankee#1 said:

I probably have the same gun - did you try the different springs? My son’s has no problem cycling the reduced recoil low brass skeet shot.


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I wrote an email to Weatherby about this problem, their answer was that for the ''break in'' period, the element shotgun requires 7/8 oz., 1,300 fps or greater. I switch ammo and the shotgun started cycling the shells, I have shot 50 rounds only, I am going to shoot another 50 rounds and will try other ammo after this, I hope that after this break period the shotgun can cycle without problem, it is a Weatherby element 20 by the way.