I agree with the recoil but the benelli stock makes a huge difference. It has a slightly different angle and is a bit heavier than the original and changes the balance more towards the rear which I find helps with controlability and recoil. The pistol grip also helps a lot, as it makes splitting the shotgun (pulling back into the shoulder with the rear hand and pulling forward with the front hand, trying to split the shotgun into 2 pieces) easier which helps control recoil on such a light gun. It has more recoil than my 1100 or 1187, but it is much lighter. It has lighter recoil than my winchester 1300, which is the same weight. I use it for home defense and use the 2 3/4 winchester defender slug/buckshot combo rounds. 3" slugs it it would be painful.