my experience has been that shorter barreled shotguns are generally back-weighted, and that causes the gun to "jump". My 870 turkey gun with a 23" barrel jumps so much I won't shoot it for anything but turkeys. I'd borrow someone's 20ga with a longer barrel. My girlfriend shoots a benelli 12ga with 26" barrel and doesn't have any trouble with the recoil (she weighs about 120 lbs), although she's never shot anything that kicks more than 3" lead turkey loads through it.