Sorry to hear about your eye. Eyes are bad when they fail. Even a great eye doctor has limitation. Ive had both shoulders revised, one rebuilt. Recoil is not anyones friend. Hunting I rarely notice recoil. But then again I like heavier guns just fine and rarely use super light weight guns. I shoot a 20ga/30 Flues which is 5.25 pounds and a Pape 20 which is about the same. My Ruger 28 is 6.25 pounds and the Ithaca 28 model 37 is about the same. The model 12 is no light weight so recoil is not excessive. I just wish I could shoot lead shot in it at ducks like I did 50 years ago. I wish I had those ducks to shoot again as well.