Let’s talk hard hitting guns/ammo

3.5s are like 60# of recoil on par with 458s and 500 safari rifles.
Shoot a 3.5 12 or 10ga in a pump gun and it will make you rethink if you really hate animals enough to kill them.

I had Sako 300 Weatherby and you are right about this. My Son-In-Law owns it now. It kicked worse than any gun that ever shot.

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on par with 458s and 500 safari rifles.

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And some people duck hunt with that shite. Over and over and over and over

Yeah I have sbe2 it’s probably almost 20yrs old now and it’s probably had less than 20 3.5s through it. I would never buy another 3.5 but since it’s left handed I will not try to really replace where it fits in the rotation of guns I use.

No form is going to make 3.5” buckshot a joy to shoot. You chose that life.

That said, 3” TSS out of a 20ga used to be something I dreaded patterning until I learned not to fight the recoil. You need to soften your shoulder and get behind the gun as much as possible. Same goes for anything above a 308 in a sub-8lb rifle, the more tense you are in anticipation of the recoil the worse it is, the gun is literally bouncing off of you rather than you moving with the gun.

A 458 lott pushes a 500gr bullet at something like 2200 fps.

A 12ga 3.5" heavy TSS is moving 2.5 Oz (1094gr of shot, add a wad to that )@ 1000 fps. More than double the weight of a heavy 458 lott load.

3.5" 12ga shells are STUPID amounts of recoil. Its horrible.

Duck and goose hunting with a thick jacket and multiple layers, with adrenaline shooting a 3.5” is one thing.

Yes, sitting on the ground on a nice March day on the range with just a t shirt and shooting a 3.5” turkey load with 0 adrenaline reminds you to rethink your life choices with a quickness…

Worst recoil I’ve ever experienced was a 3.5” turkey load out of a mossberg 835 with 24” barrel (their turkey gun when they were first introduced in the 90s).

I was sneaking down a fence line and this crow was following me screaming the whole way warning anything within a mile. After about 100yds I got sick of it and shot it. It almost knocked me down. It gave me a massive headache it was so bad.

I still have that gun but haven’t shot it in no telling how long.

I will say that 3.5” duck loads really don’t bother me at all. I don’t notice them. Steel is way lighter than lead and I’m normally shooting 3.5” BB.

When I could buy 3.5” for $10.99/box that’s all my sbe hk would shoot. 2 cases per season like clock work, only bothered me when shooting straight up.