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We went to the range this morning to break in Mrs. Me's new Taurus M85 UltraLite and my Winchester 1300 Defender.

Good news: she loves the revolver.

Bad news: she hates the shotgun, forever.

She was a little surprised by the recoil of the little 17 ounce Taurus, but after we worked on her grip a bit she never even noticed. We burned up 50 rounds of 158grn LRN (I only shot 10; she shot the rest), and then she fired a cylinder full of 125grn Gold Dot +P. Big grins all around.

Then I loaded up the 1300 with #7-1/2 shot, and she was quite impressed by the huge hole seven rounds left in the IPSC cardboard from 15 yards. Then she fired one round and said that was enough. She got some flesh pinched by the recoil, and didn't like that at all.

Then I tried some Aguila Mini slugs, which are about the coolest thing ever. With just a bead sight, I hit the 6 inch steel plates about 50/50 from 25 yards. Almost zero recoil.

Then I switched to the Aguila Mini B&B, with 7 No. 4 buck, and 4 No. 1 buck. Again, no recoil, and you can stuff 11 of them in that 1300 magazine. I convinced Mary to try them, and she relented. First shot, no problem. No recoil, no pain. Second shot, bounce-back from a steel plate or frame, and a pellet smacked her in the head, hard.

Ouch.

It broke the skin just under the hair line above her left eye. Good lesson in the importance of eye protection. She spent the evening laying down with an ice pack on her head. I feel like crap because she got hurt, and she keeps telling me it's okay, not my fault, etc.

But she still loves her Taurus.

Kevin