Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Recoil - Does It Bother You?

I've not shot a rifle that hurt me yet but I've not fired any of the REALLY big boys. 416 Weatherby is as high up the food chain as I've gone and that never from a bench. Kinda fun actually.

With pistols I've shot plenty of .500 S&W but two consecutive cylinders of the heavy/full power loads is about all I'm good for before accuracy starts dropping off.

Check this one out where they fire one with and without the muzzle brake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1KGzXaanEI

What he said.

I shot a friend's 8 ga double rifle off a bench at Pachmayrs years ago. It was more of a big shove than any kind of pain. Kind of like being suddenly shoved by a train.
I sighted in some of the big Weatherby rifles for people, and I definitely remember the pain. A Westley Richards 425 with a stock that was excellently designed to transfer energy directly to your shoulder felt about the same. Those were what I would imagine getting hit on the shoulder by a ball pein hammer would feel like.
No need to go through that again.

That's pretty harsh.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. ;-{>8

I have been shooting my 7 3/4# Win M70 375 H&H a fair bit in anticipation of a brown bear hunt coming spring. I am good for a couple boxes of 270 gr TSX handloads with something else in between barrel heatings. Any more and I start getting "tight".

I shot a 460 Weatherby once. I thought the whole exercise was ridiculous and vowed never to repeat it.I have sort of suffered through a couple of range sessions with a 470 NE double and found it a lot more agreeable than the 460.

I guess the 375 is the upper limit for me,and then in frequent, but small doses if I intend to use one on a hunt.. That goes for anything in the class of magnum cases from 300 and up.But in truth I don't bother shooting any of those very much any more.The 300's and 338's are long gone but once in awhile I shot friends rifles chambered for those cases.

Most 7 mags, 270's 280's,7/08's etc are a piece of cake. You don't fight to control them and they are easy to hit with in rifles of reasonable weight.

I just bought another 257 Roberts; and have two Creedmoors on the way. With good bullets you don't have to beat yourself senseless to get good terminal results.

Recoil bothers me. It bothers me when it gets tobe enough I can't watch the bullet hit. It bothers me when it rearranges my clothing.

I've had a few old shotguns with so much drop that even target loads rocked them back up into my cheek and that hurts after a while. The stock design can make a gun much more tiring to shoot a lot. Really heavy recoil is much more tiring than light recoil for me

I've only gotten a scope rash from one gun, and then it was a situation in which I was so cold I had to will myself to relax and concentrate solely on getting the shot done so I could go warm my hands in the guts. Forgot to hang onto the rifle and got my first and only scope rash.

My crossbow is very tiring to shoot even from a bench because it isn't well designed and balanced like a decent rifle, and the pattern of getting sloppy shows up exactly like when I shoot a rifle that comes back hard.

Recoil tolerance is analogous to draw weight in traditional archery.

Most people have more gun than they can shoot making accuracy a problem and most archers are over bowed causing the same.

A long time ago I decided o goose hunt with a nice 6 1/4# Italian made 12 ga O/U w/ 3" chambers. The forcing cones were european as well as the bore diameters(more like 0.715"). 5 shots w/ 1 7/8oz 3" loads left me w/ a bone bruised shoulder. Couldnt shoot anything bigger than a 22rf for 5 months. Now the biggest thing I shoot is a 375 Ruger on a Rubbermaid/Tupperware stock. I dont shoot more a half dozen or so rounds from a bench at a sitting. The biggest problem i have w/ bench shooting is my rt hand knuckles and bolt handles or the pistol grip biting my left hand. In the past I had some primer problems so I know I dont flinch when focused on shooting, at least not all the time.. BUT, I have found myself flinching and blinking when trying to shoot a crow w/ a Ruger 204. Your mind definitely controls your reactions.

Recoil bothers me a lot. I got some guns through my grandfather when I was about 13. Among them were a low number Winchester 70 in .375 and a Win 95 in .405. Both were old enough the recoil pads (not bad for their time) had fossilized. Another was a fairly light drilling, 12x12 with a .35 Win barrel under which had a steel butt plate. Between the three I did a lot of nerve damage to my shoulder.

I've spent almost 40 years with a flinch. It doesn't matter, boomer to .22 rimfire, when a stock hits my shoulder, even with the gun empty, stuff starts to flutter.

It doesn't seem a hindrance, I guess because I don't remember NOT having it, it's just another factor to manage when I shoot.

It was made worse somewhat recently (5 years?) when I had a Ruger #1H stainless in .375 H&H. At the range one day I let the lower point of the stock get too low and it crunched a tendon at the point of my collar bone.

When you talk about recoil problems, though, probably the two that come to mind were a Remington 700 XCR in .338 RUM and a Winchester 70 .458. The recoil on the shoulder was substantial but not specifically differently problematic than other things, the particular problem with them was being clocked in the head with the scope about 20-25% of the time. I've learned to manage impact on the shoulder over the years. I still have not gotten used to being smacked HARD in the head.

Tom

Not for everyone that is for sure. I know a few fellas with scope ring brows and they don't want to shoot my 378 anymore. Problem is they never were shown how to shoot a heavy hitter. Most fellas let the shoulder go back and get contact from the scope, but if you lock your body solid with your shoulder then your whole body including your head moves back with recoil. You can't fight it you have to roll with it. I've been shooting my 378, 338 Lapua, for many years, love it. Many a moose or bear would have not been knocked down in heavy brush after going through a few trees.

378Canuck - "...have to roll with it." - Agree with your statement. Have seen BIG guys do as you've described and real get a jolt, especially when sighting in from a bench. Ouch! Bet that hurts. Thinner folks seem to have less of a problem, more so if their ego doesn't get in the way. Face it, 50# plus of recoil will take a toll on you if you soak it up the wrong way.
Homesteader

I have always been abit confused about the "logic" that claims small people get kicked less than big folks.
If that were true it wouldn't it be safe to assume that smaller guys would win the heavy weight weight boxing division ?

I'm not a big man and I've learned to shoot heavy recoiling rifles from the bench by locking my upper body onto the rifle and allowing my body to shift the energy by letting my waist flex backwards and not trying to stop it.
If you watch the video posted above on shooting the .460, you can see this technique used quite well by a couple of the skinny guys.

And no, I am not going into the ring with even a middle-weight boxer again. Once around with the ND/SD Golden Gloves Champ was enough for me.

Ed

Ed, I thought for just a second that you were gonna say something bad about your drooler 458, in which case I was gonna come and slap you.

When I was in my early teen years the neighbor boys and I had a "Kickin shotgun" contest going. We found one single shot 12ga that was particularly vicious. We "doctored" the magnum loads and recoil was spectacular. We found that we could add powder by reducing other component space. We would then leave those loads in the kitchen stove warming oven for a week because we thought drying them out added some extra pop. Touching off one of those doctored loads in that kickin 12g split Ronnie's lip, loosened two teeth, and broke his nose. Bloody mess! That was the end of the kickin contest. That shot also broke the stock of our champion kicker. I had previously shot it with the doctored loads that day and firmly confirmed that though I could grin and say, "naw, it ain't bad," heavy recoil definitely is not a favored event in my life.

I have a lightweight 12ga Ithaca 37 and when it's loaded with magnum turkey loads it'll satisfy recoil cravings I might develop.

Jim

Phil, you still hope to find logic and recoil in the same discussion? Way too much Y chromosome vested in that conversation most of the time.

Not in this life! That's the easiest shooting .458WM I've ever shot. Has to have something to do with the stock that was laid out by Elmer Keith.

Ed