Most people don’t buy a car without first test-driving it to ensure it’s in good working order. But when you’re purchasing a shotgun off the rack, you don’t have the luxury of testing it before taking it home. You can’t run out and shoot a round of sporting clays or skeet to ensure it’s a good fit. So, how do you know a gun you have never shot is the right one? There are many ways to determine this at the gun counter, plus shotguns are adjustable so they better fit individual shooters.
If you are new to shooting, it’s best to try a variety of shotguns by borrowing from friends or using loaner shotguns from a skeet, trap, or sporting clays range. This will help you determine what platform or brand of shotgun is the best fit for you. Learning to shoot before you buy a shotgun is important. A shotgun may feel like a good fit before you begin a career of breaking clay birds and shooting real ones. However, as you progress in skill and find a shooting style, a different shotgun might be more suitable.
Check Your Sight Alignment
Start by going to a gun shop with a trusted friend who is an experienced shooter. If you don’t know such a person, find a locally owned store that has been in business for decades. Typically, there will be an honest person behind the counter who can walk you through buying a shotgun.
At this point, you should have shot a few guns and know if you want to buy a pump, break-action, or semi-auto. If there is a shotgun you feel confident shooting, bring it with you. That will help determine which gun to buy. Once you’re at the gun counter, ask to handle the shotgun you want.
Mount the unloaded gun with your eyes shut, bring your cheek to the stock, then open your eyes. If your dominant eye is staring straight down the rib, that’s a good sign that the gun fits. If your eye is to either side of the rib, the cast of the stock is not right for you. Shotgun cast is an angled bending of the stock. Most stocks with cast will bend to the right (cast off) because most shooters are right-handed. Stocks that bend left (cast on) are built for lefties.
If you’re still unsure about sight alignment, have your trusted friend with shooting experience or the person behind the counter stand at the muzzle of the unloaded shotgun and look down the rib to see if your eye is aligned correctly.
Finding the Front Bead
If the shotgun you are interested in has a mid-bead, located between the start and end of the rib, bring the gun to your shoulder and put your cheek against the stock. If the top of the mid-bead is just under or touching the bottom of the front bead or sight, that’s a good sign the shotgun fits. Some shotguns don’t have a mid-bead. If that’s the case, place a penny on the rear of the rib. If you can still see the front bead when the gun is mounted, that also means the gun is a good fit.
How much rib you like to see when shooting clays or live birds is a personal preference. But this method ensures that when your muzzle is tracking the target, you can see the clay or bird. This is particularly important to pass through shooters who begin with their muzzle behind the target and move it past the target before pulling the trigger.
Customizing Gun Fit
Semi-automatics and pumps offer a better fit than break-action shotguns. Most auto-loaders come with shim kits that allow you to adjust the height and cast of the stock. The shims can be placed between the stock and the receiver, making it easier to fine-tune the gun. Pumps don’t often include this feature, but a gunsmith can typically add shims to achieve a similar adjustment.
Side-by-sides and over/unders are not as customizable because they cannot be shimmed due to how the stock fits the receiver. Some break-action target guns have an adjustable cheek piece, giving you more flexibility. If a stock is too high, it can be sanded down and refinished. Low stocks are problematic. Wood will need to be added to make the shotgun fit properly. A skilled gunsmith can bend the stock and manipulate its cast with heat lamps and moisture, or build you a custom stock. Both can be costly.
Length of Pull Matters
The length of pull (LOP) is the distance between the trigger and the end of the shotgun’s buttstock. To ensure the LOP is right for you, mount the unloaded gun to your shoulder and rest your finger on the trigger.
The space between the back of your shooting hand thumb and shooting glasses should measure around 1½ inches. Hunters need to wear their hunting clothes, not just a T-shirt, when they measure for LOP. For instance, upland hunters should wear a jacket and shooting vest to replicate the clothes they wear afield. The extra layers shorten the LOP needed for the best fit. Too much LOP makes a shotgun difficult to mount. The shorter your LOP, the more felt recoil you will experience.
It’s simple to manipulate LOP. You can lengthen the distance from the trigger to the buttstock by adding spacers, which require removal of the buttplate, or a recoil pad that slides over the stock. If LOP is too long, the stock can be cut to fit.
The Right Shotgun
Unfortunately, there is not one shotgun that’s a good fit for everyone, but some come close. The Remington 1100 fits that bill. In the 1970s, it was one of the most popular auto-loaders for skeet shooters and bird hunters.
When the Beretta 300 series semi-autos debuted, they became popular as well. Why? Standard models of both guns have straight stocks (little or no cast), and their stock dimensions were consistent despite being production shotguns.
The Remington 870 is another good option for the same reasons. It’s a pump, so shooting doubles (two clays) will be difficult, but it’s also safer because you have to slide the forend to eject a spent shotshell, then return it forward to load the next shell.
Buying a shotgun off the shelf can be a daunting process, but if you follow the rules I have laid out, it will increase the likelihood that your new gun will be a good fit. Just remember that production shotguns are not always built the same. There can be minor differences from shotgun to shotgun. So even if you have shot a friend’s gun at the range and feel it’s a good fit, don’t just run out to the gun store and buy it. Put it through this fit test to be sure it’s the right shotgun for you.
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