Recoil pads are nice but not necessary. The woman friend has a Mosin Nagant and it has a solid metal butt plate, some of the shotguns we had up in washington were old Mossbergs with sold plastic butt plates. The only problem I've ever had shooting any of them is if I don't shoulder it properly. Being a relatively skinny dude, don't have a lot of coverage on my collar bones and one time during some rapid fire, one of those old mossbergs slipped off my shoulder and onto my bicep. That wasn't particularly enjoyable.