The manly Guide Gun is a rude little gun made to be shot by rude little men like yours truly!
At full power loads I use a PAST strap on recoil pad and it tames it down a little bit. Put .410's in it and you have a great close range chicken gun. (the patterns are terrible, so make sure you get close. Also, the hulls may have to be manually extracted.)
Are they worth 750 dollars? No, it is an absolute waste of money like all guns. I suppose a fella could save some money and take up a cocaine habit...but then you will end up looking like Bobby B. when you are half his age!
People are disappointed when they try and turn the Guide Gun into something it isn't. I consider mine an excellent carbine that is great out to 100 yards. Beyond that the trajectory starts to work against you. Put a peep sight or a slick low mag variable scope on it and you will have a fine little bush gun that is really hard to beat.