What if the reason your gun still doesn't feel quite right has nothing to do with your length of pull (LOP)?

That question stops a lot of women in their tracks. Because they've done the work. They adjusted their LOP. Some have had their comb height sorted out too. They walk out of a fitting better than they walked in. 

And then they come back a few weeks later with that nagging feeling that something is still slightly off at the mount, or that tenderness after a range day just won't quit.

What most of them haven't been told?

There's another dimension, and it's called pitch. Most women in competitive shooting have never heard of it. And it just might be the exact reason you're still walking off the range sore.

What Shotgun Pitch Is, and Why It Matters

Shotgun pitch is the angle formed between the butt of the stock and the barrel axis. It determines exactly where the recoil pad makes contact with your body when you mount the gun.

Simple concept. Massive impact.

Most shotguns come with a standard downward pitch. That angle works reasonably well for a male physique, where the chest is flatter and the shoulder pocket tends to receive the pad fairly squarely. 

For women, that same pitch often lands the recoil pad directly against breast tissue or across the chest in a way that creates pressure with every single shot.

The result can look like a recoil problem. It can look like a bruising problem. It can feel like a mount problem. Swap the recoil pad, adjust the LOP, and nothing changes because those dimensions are doing different jobs. 

And very likely, nobody checked the pitch. Pitch is the angle. LOP is the distance. Comb is the height. 

Get one wrong and all three suffer.

Why Women's Bodies Make Pitch Critical

This is something the gun industry spent decades dancing around. 

Women's anatomy affects shotgun fit in ways that a standard men's gun simply does not account for. Sloped shoulders, higher cheekbones, a different chest profile, these aren't minor variations. 

They change how a shotgun contacts the body at every single point of contact. Pitch is where that difference shows up most directly. 

When a gun's pitch doesn't account for a woman's chest, two things happen. 

First, the recoil pad can't make full, even contact across the shoulder at the mount. 

Second, when the gun fires, the recoil energy travels along that angled pad and drives into soft tissue rather than absorbing into the shoulder structure the way it's supposed to.

That's where the bruising across the chest comes from. It’s the tenderness that shows up in a slightly different spot than women expect, and that doesn't respond to the usual fixes because nobody has looked at the right dimension yet.

Tracy Kienitz has seen this play out over and over again at Passionate Outlaws. Women arrive having been told their equipment is fine, that they just need more practice, that the bruising is normal. 

It's not normal. It's a fit problem. And pitch is almost always part of the answer.

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If this sounds familiar, this is exactly the kind of thing Tracy works through during a fitting. Book a demo and feel the difference when all the dimensions are right together.

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The Signs That Pitch Might Be the Problem

Not every fit issue comes down to pitch, but certain patterns point there specifically.

Chest or upper-breast tenderness after shooting

Shoulder bruising is usually a length of pull problem. But that nagging tenderness across the chest, especially in the upper breast area? That's almost always the recoil pad landing somewhere it shouldn't. That's a pitch problem, not a pad problem, and swapping pads won't fix it.

A mount that feels slightly unstable, even when LOP is correct

If the recoil pad isn't making full contact with the shoulder because the angle is off, the mount feels slightly loose or unpredictable even when the gun's length measures right. 

Some gals describe it as the gun shifting just a hair at the shot. Enough to throw them off. Enough to make them wonder if it's them. It's not them.

Recoil that feels directed rather than absorbed

A properly pitched gun spreads recoil across the shoulder and upper arm evenly. When pitch is off, the force concentrates into one spot. 

Women often describe it as the gun pushing them in a specific direction rather than simply kicking back. Bam, same place, every shot.

Any one of these, especially on a gun that's already been fitted for other dimensions, is your signal to look at pitch. Don't keep adjusting the things that have already been adjusted.

How Pitch Gets Fixed

Good news: pitch is fixable. Here's how it works.

The most straightforward option is changing the recoil pad. Different pads create different effective pitch angles, and for mild issues that's sometimes all it takes. 

For more significant adjustments, shimming between the pad and the stock can fine-tune the angle without touching the stock itself.

In some cases, the stock itself needs work. Less common, but it happens, and a good fitter knows when to go there.

The cleanest solution, especially for women who shoot competitively and want to stop fiddling with adjustments, is starting with a gun where the pitch is built correctly from the beginning. 

The Lady Outlaw series, designed by Tracy and manufactured by Kolar Arms, is built with women's anatomy in mind across every stock dimension, pitch included. 

When the gun is designed for your body from the factory, the results show up fast. Sometimes within the same session.

What Tracy Sees When Pitch Gets Fixed

Over the past three-plus years, Tracy has worked with more than 1,500 women at Passionate Outlaws on gun fit, shooting fundamentals, and performance. Pitch comes up more than most people expect. 

And it almost always comes up in women who've already done some of the other fit work, which tells you exactly how long it goes unaddressed.

When pitch gets corrected alongside the other dimensions, the mount changes immediately. Women who've been fighting a slightly unstable feel at the gun describe it as locking in. 

The tenderness stops. And the confidence at the line goes up because the gun finally stops being a distraction.

That's the eyes-widen moment Tracy talks about. Not a dramatic overhaul. Just a woman realizing that something she quietly accepted as part of the sport was wrong all along, and that it was fixable the whole time.

Fit creates the conditions for performance. Every dimension of it. 

Pitch is one more condition that has to be right. And now you know it exists.

Quick Answers: Shotgun Pitch for Women

What is shotgun pitch and why does it matter for women?

Shotgun pitch is the angle between the butt of the stock and the barrel. It controls where the recoil pad contacts your body at the mount. For women, standard pitch often places the pad against the chest or breast tissue rather than across the shoulder, which causes bruising and throws off the mount. Tracy evaluates pitch as part of every full fitting at Passionate Outlaws.

How do I know if my shotgun pitch is wrong?

Look for tenderness or bruising across the chest or upper breast area after shooting, a mount that feels slightly unstable despite a correct LOP, or recoil that feels directed into one spot rather than spread across the shoulder. If you've had a fitting but something still feels slightly off, pitch is worth examining.

Can pitch be adjusted on my current shotgun?

Yes. Pitch adjustments range from swapping the recoil pad to shimming the existing pad to stock modifications for larger corrections. Shotguns designed specifically for women, including the Lady Outlaw series and the Syren line, are built with correct pitch from the factory, which means less time adjusting and more time shooting.

Does Passionate Outlaws address pitch during fittings?

Yes. Tracy's process looks at all the stock dimensions that affect how a gun contacts the body, not just length of pull. Pitch, comb height, cast, and drop are all part of the evaluation during a fitting session. Book a demo fitting at passionate-outlaws.com/book-demo and see what a complete fit evaluation covers from start to finish.

So, What Does a Gun That Truly Fits Feel Like?

Let’s give this the answer that question deserves.

It feels like nothing is fighting you. The mount is automatic. The pad makes full, even contact. The shot fires and the gun moves back, not into you. There's no tenderness the next day that you've been writing off as part of the sport.

THAT’S what a fully fitted gun feels like. Every dimension of it, including the one that's been getting skipped.

Pitch is that dimension. It gets looked at every single time at Passionate Outlaws, as part of a fitting process that doesn't stop at the obvious stuff.

Your next step is simple.

Book a Demo Fitting

Shop the Lady Outlaw 

Find a Demo Center Near You

Call Tracy's Team: 406-209-8922

Come in. Shoot. Find out what the fit feels like when every dimension is right.

Be Relentless.