Always a nice feature for a rifle to offer. I have to assume it is a function of stock design and fit.
As an example, I was shooting a few rifles yesterday that had received scope-swaps recently. One of these rifles is an older tang-safe Ruger M77 that I had rebarreled a few years ago with a 24" Lilja #3 contour in 7mm RemMag. I also bedded it to a McMillan Ruger-R pattern stock that pretty much duplicates the old tang-safe factory stock and wears a 1" Decelerator pad. Rotating through a few guns at the bench I was reminded of how dang gentle the thing is to shoot. I know a near-9lb 7mmRemMag shooting 160's about 3,000fps and burning 69gr of powder shouldn't be a bear or anything, but it barely rocks me out of position on my bags and comes back to my point of aim very quickly. Recoil calculators show it should generate a bit over 20lbs of recoil, while a .338WM M700 I also shoot should turn up about 25lbs. Certainly feels like a lot more than 4-5lbs of difference there. The Ruger just seems to shoot "soft".
So apparently, Ruger's straight stock design on those old tang-safe M77 is a good fit for function, when it comes to my build and shooting style. Anybody else have a rifle that surprises them that way?
