Hi Dogwater,
I'll answer your question and add a comment as well.
I own and shoot several double rifles. I have a vintage 1896 Charles Osborne 450 400 3-1/4 (10#) a Krieghoff .470 (11#) and a brutal Armeria de Madrid .500NE (10#), The .500 is borderline abusive and I can only shoot it about 6-8 times with full power loads. I see stars, my molars bleed. It resembles being hit in the side of the face with a lead pipe. I do not believe I am recoil sensitive at all. (GeorgiaBoiler has shot it as well)
Now my comment. I just signed up here last week, I used to post on AR quite a lot, I left for several reasons. One of which is the dick measuring contest in their DR forum between several posters. One a doctor, and one an ex-ariforce pilot whose name resembles the Sears line of lousy sporting goods.
These guys shoot .500's, .577's and the behemoth .600NE. These guys are constantly bragging about how far they can shoot off hand, how many shots they can take in a day (one claimed 100) and even post their targets to prove their manhood to one another. One of them bragged about shooting 200 rounds (IIRC) of his .600 overkill in one afternoon.
As we all know, weight is the best defense against a vicious recoiling big bore. These clowns are now asking the Heym rifle guy to build them 11-11.5 pound .577's and .600NE's. Even the Heym representative is telling them that makes a rifle nearly impossible to handle. A .577 should weight nearly 13#'s and a .600Ne should be 13 minimum. The pre-war Brits knew how to build these things weight correct for caliber.
So, to my point, you are not less man for feeling this amount of recoil is uncomfortable and excessive. There was a big bore expert and writer over on AR for year's his screen name was 500grains. He has told me personally that shooting his .600NE was the nearest thing to an automobile accident he has ever experienced.
This comment is simply my opinion; When a man shoots rifles that violent, and brags about his ability to handle it "with ease" and please build my next one lighter, he is compensating for some felt inadequacy in his life somewhere. I DO NOT EVER want to shoot a rifle with more felt recoil than my 10# .500NE.
PERIOD.
I now step off my soapbox..
