Dad bought a Savage 24 Model .22/20ga combo rifle for me when I was in my early teens. First time I shot that 20ga with that plastic ribbed butt plate I thought I broke my shoulder. It left a pretty good mark. I never will forget when one of my buddies came over with his dad's Browning 12ga right after I got the Savage and we went rabbit hunting. At some point after bagging a couple rabbits we swapped guns cause I was being a typical teenager and bragging my 20 ga had more kick than his dad's 12 ga. He took one shot and let out a few expletives, handed the gun back to me and the argument was settled. Later that week we had a baseball game and he was our star pitcher but that week his shoulder was so bruised from shotgun episode he could barely throw a baseball let alone pitch. I got put in as the starting pitcher and threw such a great game I was given the starting role permanently. Funny how things turned out.
Another funny story about that gun... Had a best friend in high school that was a city boy. He was a really smart but scrawny kid. He was always fascinated with the outdoors and loved to go fishing and come hang out on the farm. He had never shot a gun before and one day when he was there we decided to have some fun. I was always hunting ground hogs and often on the way back to the house I would find some excuse to unload my gun on a target rather than pocketing the ammo for another day. One of my favorite ways to unload the shot gun was to find a suitable fresh cow pie and blast it from 10-15 yds (if you know, you know). So on this particular day I grabbed the gun a handful of shells and told my buddy to come on, let's have some fun. After going thru some basic firearm safety and a demonstration shot on a rather fresh pile and the resulting holy crap jubilation of seeing cow sh#@ being "blown up" he gets his turn. We pick out a rather soupy looking cow pie and he lines up his shot and he misses. Remembering this was his first shot I encourage him, give him another shell and watch as he lines up and misses again. At this point I am pretty sure its a flinching problem but I don't want him to be discouraged and he's determined to hit his target so I give him another shell and watch as he moves in closer and blast that soupy cow pie from about 10 feet... and promptly is covered with it. He stands there for a few seconds and turns and looks at me with what can only be described literally as "a sh#@ eating grin", wipes his mouth on the inside of his t-shirt, holds his hand out for another shell and says "let's shoot some more"! I am rolling with laughter at this point and he's still grinning and I'll can think to say is "sure, but you're walking home"