I always just shake my head when I read that 300's are heavy and kick too much.
My Ex wife shot a sub 7.5 Brown stocked 30-338 and never once complained about recoil. In fact on her first trip to South Africa killed 14 animals with 14 shots, out to a shade over 300 yds.
Horror of all horrors with 180 Corelocks at a bit over 3000 fps.
She weighed a bit under 135 lbs.
Recoil tolerance varies a good deal among individuals,and has little to nothing to do with gender,or physical size.
Assuming a person has no impairments,the felt recoil to the shoulder is not hard to take from anything up to and including a 375 H&H,and for some , beyond that. Rather, heavy recoil can effect smaller body parts to a greater degree, and the amount of muscle tension that needs to be exerted in order to shoot well,as well as he ability to manage the recoil from a variety of awkward, but sometimes necessary, field positions.
The effect on the face, and neck from the heavy, fast recoil of a 300 magnum will leave some people a bit punch drunk after any extensive shooting. One old pal of mine finally left his 300 Win Mag home after several African trips,and borrowed my 270 because he said you shoot a lot every day in Africa and a 300 Win Mag finally wore him out. He was only 6-7" tall and in great shape since we played college basketball together....but he was smart enough to know when he'd had enough.He probably had 7-8 full blown African safari's under his belt at that point.
I hunted various 300 Magnums pretty extensively for years,and can still pick one up cold and do good work with it for a few shots.....but they require another level of muscle tension to control and in general the drop down to a 7mm Magnum has done more good than harm for me....the animals have not noticed the difference.
That said,there isn't any doubting the game killing capabilities of the 300 Win Mag,or it's ability to serve as a one gun battery. I would take a 7mm magnum with the best bullets myself...it will kick less and kill the same game just as thoroughly.....but that's just me.
