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

Update: I figured recoil on my rifle around 25 years ago and come up my earlier posted number.Using the link posted,my rifle only produces 49ft/lbs recoil.I guess that I'm a bigger "puss" than I thought.Even with the reduced recoil,I'm still a little sore in the shoulder on day two of extensive shooting/testing! memtb

I'll admit that a .338 Win Mag is about the limit of what I can shoot properly and even that isn't something I enjoy.

The harshest gun I've ever fired was a Ruger #3 in .45-70 that was loaded with 500g Hornady bullets to about 1800 fps. I have no interest in shooting that again.

I have a lightweight MZ that I load to max and shoot with 350 gr bullets. That tiny little buttstock hurts a lot more than my M70 Win in .416 Rem Mag.

BH63

Sighting in My Ruger #1 in 416 Rigby off a Bench was not a Pleasant experience. Memoriable, but not Pleasant.

You may be making the common error of assuming it's the caliber/cartridge that's unpleasant, which is rarely the case. Rather, it's the fit of the gun to the shooter that is most important!

My 338 Mag Sako kicks the bejesus out of me, and my Kimber 375 H&H shoots like a lamb in comparison. Why should a 225 gr bullet @ 2900 fps muzzle velocity hurt me more than a 300 gr bullet @ 2600 fps? Primarily, it's the fit of the rifle to the shooter.

BTW, Ruger No. 1's are notorious for kicking the schit out of taller/longer-necked guys. All the guys I know who love Ruger No. 1's are shorter/stockier guys.

Your "limit" is probably not as low as you think it is.

Agreed.

^
What is interesting is that some people still shoot big bores fairly accurately even though they might "flinch" on an empty chamber.

I wonder if perhaps flinching is not necessarily bad, as long as you do it consistently and sight in the rifle to take in consideration of the flinch. In other words, it just one more individual variable that comes into play.

The few times I've inadvertently clicked on an empty chamber produced little or no movement, but it did produce a "mental" anticipation of the recoil.

BH63

I know damn will I'd 'flinch' while shooting a heavy kicker. this rifle does ~60 ft/lbs and is about the most I can shoot and keep the scope off my noggin.

From what I've read, all of them RUMs are real beasts when it comes to recoil.

Nice shooting!

BH63

Recoil bothers me off the bench, even my 264WM gets me every now and then when I can't help 'crawling' the stock.
I cannot, and will not, shoot my 458 Lott or 505 Gibbs off the bench, no way, no how!
Both have had ONE shot fired of a bench, both were full power loads, and both made me cry. My 416 Rigby does not have this level of recoil, I can quite comfortably shoot it off a bench. As well as my 404 Jeffrey. All of these rifles are CZ 550's, go figure.
The only rifle I have ever shot off-hand that I would not shoot again was a Mark V Weatherby in 378 Weatherby un-braked. Not only did it hurt my shoulder, but my cheek, and forehead where the scope got me, luckily, I wasn't cut due to my beanie on my head.
Never AGAIN.

Cheers.

Biggest hitters I ever shot were a .458 WM 77 tang safety, a ,416 Rigby in an Encore, a #1 .416 Rem and my 8.5 lb. all up .375 Bee. Not a one of those I would hesitate to bench 10 or 15 from.

But there's this BPS 10 gauge in my safe........... I shoot it well and shoot it often. But I'd just about as soon have an axe swung into my forehead and a 16 lb sledge into my shoulder simultaneously.

A '95 Win in four hunnert five can suck pretty bad too.

I've been mildly flamed for my thoughts before, but get a compensator. If you're hunting lions in Africa, take it off. My Leupold scope could care less and it reduces the punch of my Ruger 375 dramatically. Without it, I change shoulders every shot, with it, the 375 kicks like a WW2 M1.
And yes, a scope cut seems to bleed a lot, for whatever reason.

Like DocR stated, poor stock fit can make even some of the lower recoil rifles/shotguns painful to shoot.

BH63