20 Gauge for Female

[fabsroman]

Yeah, the single shot 20 ga. is not a good option unless it weighs a ton. There are several things that reduce felt recoil. One of them is the weight of the gun. The heavier the gun, the more the gun itself absorbs the recoil. Next thing you can look at is the action. Semi autos spread the recoil over a longer period of time which makes the recoil much less sharp (i.e., she doesn't get the entire recoil at once). The third thing to look for is what Billy mentioned, a pad that she can put on her shoulder to absorb some of the recoil. I wear a shooting vest with a pad on the shoulder when I shoot clays or I sight in my slug gun. Last but not least, think about putting a recoil reducer on the gun. I have a recoil reducer in the butt stock of my SBE, and when I shoot slugs out of it I use a recoil reducer on the magazine cap (i.e., I have two recoil reducers on the gun).

I have two sisters, one that is 5' 7" and around 140 lbs, and another that is 5' 5" and about 115 lbs. Both of them shoot my youth model Beretta 391 20 ga. semi auto when we go clays shooting and it doesn't seem to bother them much.

The one thing I wouldn't do in your situation is prop her up against a tree or anything else that doesn't move. Putting a tree, or other imoveable objecy behind her will cause her to be sandwiched between the gun and the object, and she will definitely feel every ounce of recoil from that gun, both in her shoulder and in her back.