The Edwards Recoil Reducer is one of those useful inventions that is all but unknown outside the world of shotgun trap shooting. The company’s rather unassuming booth is full of sealed metal cylinders about the size of cigar tubes that promise relief from the jarring effects of discharging firearms for those averse to recoil. Its function is simple and ingenious: “The … design is based on a piston, suspended between 2 springs of unequal ratio, being placed in motion by the reward movement of recoil. The recoil compresses the piston against the strong spring which, in turn, forces it against the weaker spring. This action happens numerous times every time you fire a shot, thereby reducing the felt recoil. Such devices have long been used to mitigate the cumulative effects of recoil on competitive trap shooters, but what caught my eye here was a model the company calls the ETR (Edwards Tactical Reducer), which is designed for easy installation into the mil-spec buffer tube housing on collapsible-stocks combat shotguns. I plan to request a sample and will endeavor to install and test it in a future blog.
