Finish help

I agree with the comments about excessive recoil. A single shot, even in 20-gauge, is vicious, especially when you consider that the stock on the gun will have been designed for a man.

Men and women, you may have noticed, are built differently. For that reason, the bottom of gun stocks, the part called the toe, sticks out too far for all women shooters and a fair percentage of men.

When the gun recoils, that toe is jammed into the breast of women shooters. Or, after the first jab, they twist the whole gun to put the toe in their armpit. When they do that, accuracy becomes a thing of the past, never to return.

As far as the pink goes, it would be much easier to just tie a pink ribbon on the gun when you present it to her. Painting a stock and forearm can be quite a project since both should be detached from adjacent metal parts.

Take a look at the 3901 American Citizen RL Synthetic. Go to http://www.berettausa.com/product/produ ... s_main.htm and click on 3901 American, then find the RL synthetic. RL stands for reduced length. It is designed for women and youths.

That gun will offer a smallish young woman the best combination of stock fit, relatively low recoil, and moderate cost.

Let her practice shooting with light target loads (1 oz of shot, moderate velocity), then find some relatively light loads for hunting - the lightest that are adequate for deer.

The hardest-kicking shotgun I have ever fired was a 20 gauge single-barrel. I am probably a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than your girlfriend, but even with light target loads that gun knocked the livin' sh$% out of me. I wouldn't dare shoot slugs or buckshot in that thing! Why does it kick so much? Because it weighs less than 5 pounds, that's why!