Been working on setting up a shotgun for my boys to turkey hunt with for several years. My oldest son is 8 now and I wanted him to be behind the shotgun this season. I wanted to build something that was light and compact yet didn’t beat you to death while shooting it. I bought an 870 compact and started tweaking it. The Blackhawk/Knoxx stock has a built in recoil reducing spring in it that really helps with recoil. The pistol grip also helps as well. I also had the forcing cone lengthened which they say helps with recoil. He had never shot a shotgun before. I waited until I thought he could handle the recoil. The last thing I wanted to do was start him on a bad flinching habit or him being scared to shoot. We went to the range yesterday after he got home from
school. He was nervous as most of us were the first time we shot a shotgun. He squeezed the trigger and after the shot he gave me a big grin. LOL I knew we were good to go then. I let him shoot at targets up to 35 yards away. He did a great job and his shots were true. I did everything I could think of to try and reduce recoil on that shotgun but as we all know, it’s still gonna kick. I loaded him up some 20 ga. 2 3/4” #10 TSS 1 1 /8 oz. loads. With the Trulock .585 the pattern is exactly what I was looking for. Lots of room for error at 35 yards.
For the gun guys this is what I ended up doing to it.
870 Compact with 21” Barrel
Forcing Cone Lengthened
Aluminum Follower
Timney Trigger
Blackhawk/Knoxx Stock
Non-MIM Extractor
Polished the barrel
Cerakote
Trulock .585 Chock
Burris 336 Mount
Burris Fast Fire 3
school. He was nervous as most of us were the first time we shot a shotgun. He squeezed the trigger and after the shot he gave me a big grin. LOL I knew we were good to go then. I let him shoot at targets up to 35 yards away. He did a great job and his shots were true. I did everything I could think of to try and reduce recoil on that shotgun but as we all know, it’s still gonna kick. I loaded him up some 20 ga. 2 3/4” #10 TSS 1 1 /8 oz. loads. With the Trulock .585 the pattern is exactly what I was looking for. Lots of room for error at 35 yards.
For the gun guys this is what I ended up doing to it.
870 Compact with 21” Barrel
Forcing Cone Lengthened
Aluminum Follower
Timney Trigger
Blackhawk/Knoxx Stock
Non-MIM Extractor
Polished the barrel
Cerakote
Trulock .585 Chock
Burris 336 Mount
Burris Fast Fire 3
