These gauges, too, are excellent for clay-target shooting. Many women start off with the smaller gauges because they believe or are told that such guns will have less recoil than the bigger gauges. In reality, of all the factors that determine recoil, gauge is the least important. The three primary factors are gun weight, gun type, and the kind of ammunition or load you're shooting. When we talk about the weight of a shotgun, we're talking, literally, about the physical weight of the firearm.
Shotguns range in weight from about five pounds to eight pounds.
If you shoot three shotguns that are identical except for their weight, with identical loads in them, the heaviest gun will produce the least recoil. He's trying to do the right thing, but making it the worst possible scenario. He buys her the lightest and least expensive 20-gauge. That's always a promotional field load no matter what company it is, and it's always a hot load. The result is just what you would expect.