Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Worst kicking gun you ever shot.

A lightweight Win M70 .458 WM that was re-chambered to .458 Lott shooting 550gr Woodleighs, probably didn't weigh more than 7 pounds and with a small footprint that distributed the recoil onto a very small part of the shoulder. Brutal.

I have a CZ 550 I had re-chambered to .458 Lott which is not bad to shoot at all. That Winchester was almost unshootable.

My Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt with 320 gr Keith bullets at 1,200 fps is also a handful and very unpleasant.

This one just needs a bigger Break on the end of it.

My girl friend shoots my AR50 and I think she Orgasms with every shot and she doesn't take recoil very well.

I shot an 50 BMG EDM and it three shots I was done for the day.

Ruger #1 in 416 Remington Mag, no recoil pad to speak of. Open sights made the rifle even lighter. I believe we were shooting 350 gr factory loads.

Still much more manageable than the 460 Wby Mag somebody mentioned.

A double barrel 10ga. For me. I know my dad's vote would be his 30.06. He made the mistake of backing up his shoulder with a nearby tree once. (Only once!) That kind of mistake hurts for a long time. He said it was worse than when a mule kicked him. Blinding pain, and he saw colors he had no names for.

Rifle - 30-378 Weatherby Sako TRG-S
Pistol- Freedom Arms 454 Casull (300 gr full house)
Shotgun- Mossberg Pump 3.5" 4 shot

22 LR suppressed.

Clark

For me it was a 458 Win Mag. Felt the back of my thumb brush my nose so I got pretty lucky and am very thankful it didn't have a scope!!

H&R single shot with 3.5 12 ga. 2 oz. once was enough. As said, nearly broke my finger in the trigger guard not to mention collar bone. Close second is same frame with a 45-70 barrel, 405 at 1600. .35 Whelen in a different H&R kicks like mad.

Once I loaded 120 gr. FF and a 505 minie in a Zouave "just to see". Don't.

As for things that shouldn't, a Savage 99 in .300 with that steel butt plate kicks way over it's weight.

Look up the stories of 4 bore and specially 2 bore guns.

Had the opportunity to shoot a .416 double, nore of a push, and a beuatiful .460 LH Weatherby, I fell instantly in love.

The hardest to control gun I ever shot was a german Weatherby Mark five in .378 with lighter 24" barrel. with factory loads it jumped to 11 o clock fast!!!!

I also owned a Savage single barrel 10 ga. I used turkey hunting. I took the 2 lbs of steel out of the butt to make it easier to carry. Gun had a 36" barrel , but with 2 1/2 oz handloads would still raise the muzzle a lot and bury the hammer in the web of my hand!!!!!!!

Yep tried to sight in a turkey scope with that combination. The third shot I didn't have the butt fully into my shoulder, painful. Had a bruise around my upper arm and shoulder about 7" in diameter. What's really stupid is that I fired that combo 2 more times to zero the scope. Won't ever do that again.

Yes sir - first time I shot my Winchester NWTF pump with a 3 in turkey load I had to pry my thumb out of my eye socket and wrap the shoulder - to say I was surprised is quite the understatement. Next was a single shot NEF 20ga with a 3 inch that I was getting for my son - we passed on that pretty quick.

H&R handi rifle in 45-70 with stout 440gr handloads going 1700fps.

Gun must have only weighed 5 lbs with a plastic stock, made my 458 mag seem fun.

Winchester 1300, rifled barrel, with 1 1/4 ounce Remington Buck Hammer slugs off the bench. I thought that I had dislocated my corneas or something, but it just turned out that my glasses (as well as everything within a three-foot radius) were covered with snot. Through the ringing in my ears, I thought that someone was standing behind me, applauding, but that turned out to be the sound of my right shoulder blade meeting my left shoulder blade in the middle of my back.

835 Mossberg with 3 1/2" turkey load. Shot it once and sold it.

Rifle - Savage 110 .338
Shotgun - Ithaca 12ga Slug gun with Litefield Standard velocity slug. I can only imagine the 3 inch. Picked up the low recoil ammo and use my 1187 now.
Revolver - Charter Arms .357 snubbie. One shot with this one..it is safer in front of it than shooting it with magnums.

A great deal of it is in the stock. Years past a lot of rifles were made with Monte Carlo stocks. The worst dang stock design I can think of. Damn things bust you in the chops.

My Stevens double barrel 12, both barrels go off sometimes. It's OK, when you cut them loose in purpose, hell when you don't.

In long guns, the .450 Marlin and .330 Dakota are about on par. In handguns, the worst was the S&W 329 PD with full house, heavy for caliber, hard cast lead, .44 Magnum loads. Fired six rounds and it gave me a hairline fracture of a wrist bone that took a year to fully recover from.

6-1/2 lb short barrel Mauser in a fibreglass stock, chambered in 458 Win - from the bench, it hurt so bad that I thought I did something wrong. Yep, I shot it a second time and it hurt even worse.

An 870 twelve gauge with the short barrel and folding wire stock, darned thing brought tears to my eyes, still does just thinking about it.

Savage 99 in 308, surprising how often it has come up in this thread. I used one for a lot of years as my only big-game rifle and I developed a flinch that took a long time to get over.

I now shoot 223's and my big-game rifle is 243.

drover

I've shot a lot of old single barrels that were never designed to be fired with today's high velocity loads and with stock that were designed for sooting 2 !/2 inch 410. They all hurt but none to the point that I remember it distinctly.
I shot an 8 ga double rifle from a bench rest and got moved around a lot. I thought i'd been knocked out because the cloud of black powder smoke blotted out the lights in the indoor range I was shooting in. Impressive but the pain level was manageable. The one that hurt was a Westley Richards Bolt action in 425 WR. If I had another round of ammo I would not have fired it. It was fast recoil from a rifle with a beautiful old classic stock with a small sharp butt plate I think made of steel. There is a reason they don't build rifles like that any more. I think I forgot to stand up after the shot and my brother kept asking me if I was alright. I've never been hit by a hammer on the ball of the shoulder, but that would probably come close to describing it.