Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Largest cartridge you can handle?

416 Rigby for me. I reached my limit with a 416 Rigby.

I can easily handle a 375 H&H (sold) and my 9.3x64 Brenneke's are a lot of fun.

My brother (medicman) has or had a T/C Contender with a 12" 45-70 barrel with the muzzle tamer ports on it, and we shot a few 500 grain hard cast bullets out of it ay nose bleeding velocity -- for that platform for sure. Using proper shooting technique -- locked wrists, locked elbows, locked shoulders, that thing would unglue you. First thing that happened is that your wrists unlocked and then your elbows and then your shoulders, and then the grip would torque in your hand.

We both came to the conclusion that about 5 grains less powder would be a lot more comfortable to shoot. Can't remember for sure, but IIRC, the velocity was over 1,500 and maybe even closer to 1,600 ft/sec.

And the concusion from the muzzle blast would part the observe's hair.

I'm in the camp with the guys on the 3.5" 12 gauge. My Mossberg probably won't see another 3.5" unless I got them for free and I was out of everything else. They are brutal!
They most definitely kick worse than my iron sighted Stainless Stalker .375. I'd not be afraid to shoot a .458 after shooting that stinkin' Mossberg turkey gun.
My 300 Ultramag is fairly brisk but the stock has very little drop and it just comes straight back. I always use a shoulder pad when shooting from the bench and get a firm grip but I have never flinched when launching 200 gr Accbonds at 3200 fps.
Give me a well stocked rifle chambered in a medium bore magnum vs a poorly stocked '06 any day!

My 375 H&H gets my attention, but I love shooting it.

22 short in a 40lb target rifle ;-)

I know for a fact that Wby MkVs in .378Wby and .460Wby are definitely more than I can handle, or care to.

WUSSIE'S!!!!!!!!!!

The largest caliber I have used is a .338 Win Mag in a Tikka. Sighting in wasn't much fun, but I had a light O/U 12 gauge I used for turkey hunting that was probably worse.

+1

I will stop at my .375 H&H, thank you very much.

Shot a .378 Weatherby in a genuine Weatherby rifle with lots of drop. Gave me a hellova slap in the chops!

John

The biggest cartridge I have hunted with is a .458 Lott (500 grains at 2,300 fps), and I have hunted pretty extensively with my .416 Remington Mag in an 8-lb rifle. Both are a handful off the bench, but you don't ever spend a lot of time on the bench and I don't really seem to notice them when I hunt......

The biggest cartridge I've shot is a .577 NE and that was like a giant push.......

Back in the 70's i killed a few groundhog with the 458 Win Mag and i didn't think it was all that bad to shoot off bags. I don't really like recoil but i can take it and still hit what i aim at most of the time. If you can stand the 3.5 inch 12 ga from the Mossberg Pump shotgun then you can handle most rifle cals.

I forgot I did once pull both triggers on a 10ga sxs with full power 2.25 oz loads. I am not all that big, and it jumped out of my left hand on the forearm, the gun jumped straight up vertical and I got rocked back on my back foot and had to take two hops back to keep from tipping over. Another 100 fps would have toppled me. So I guess that was a tad over my limit. I have had several shoulder injuries over the years and now don't get into the recoil so much. I have turned down offers to shoot my brothers 500 jeffrey, not to mention rounds were $14 a pop and worse now.

i'm a 270 win or 30-06 guy now. i've had a 300rum, winmag, and wsm and they didn't do anything the 06' didn't do killing wise, so they are all gone. besides, i'm getting older. in another 10 years i'll just be a 270 win guy.

Thats a trick question..I have shot a 600 N.E. and shot it well. The kicker is when I shoot the .458 Lott and up, I have to first convience myself that its not going to cripple me and that is counterproductive to good "hunting" even though it only takes a brief second to focus myself...

I don't have to do that with the 40 calibers, so I shoot the 40 calibers in all my African hunting or Dangerous Game hunting...The 404 Jefferys, 416 Remington or Ruger. In double rifles I like and use the 450-400s mostly and the one exception might be the 450-3 1/4. It doesn't seem to bother me..I still have a spot for the great .375 H&H, and it gets the job done.

In the USA, I shoot the 30-06, 300 H&H, 270, 250 Savage, 25-35, 30-30 and 7x57 for the most part and none of them bother me anymore than a 22 L.R.

Recoil tolerance varies from person to person, it depends on how much one shoots the big bores, as well as body size, and other varies reasons, not to mention stock fit.

Hardest kicker I own is a 338RUM, shooting full tilt 250's.....I have shot a 375H&H but IMO was a pussycat compared to the 338.

Tony

The hardest kicker that I own is my 375 H&H, other than the gun wieghs a ton to pack I don't mind the recoil. I've killed a red fox with a 458 mag in a ruger #1. the recoil was managable.

With that said I care a Tikka T3 lite in 270 wsm 90% of the time unless I'm hunting dark timber then the 45-70 [1895 SGG]is gun of choice.

There are many factors that go into this question, perception of recoil not being the least. Loud noises and muzzle jump both increase perceived recoil, despite being largley harmless in themselves in the "recoil" equation. Recoil impact speed ( a hard iron butt-plate vs a Decelerator Pad, say), is also a factor.

Shooting my near-10 lb Mag-Na-Ported .338 (with hearing protection) across the bench with 250 gr. slugs beats the heck out of my non-ported 7.5 lb '06 with 180 gr. loads.

I'm betting i could put 50 rounds an hour through a well- designed and equipped 60 lb .50 BMG with no ill effects or flinching...

So this thread is largly meaningless without some parameters on it... IMHO.

have and use a .338 pretty regular, not a problem, don't have a .375 but have shot one enough to know it's fine too.


have only shot a .416 Rem Mag a few times and it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be.


pard has a .458 Lott, he can keep it too, shot it offhand, but I love to watch him shoot it off the bench, he takes an azz whuppin every time.

So why did you post on it then?

We all know that every gun is gonna recoil differently. We all know that a muzzle brake will tame recoil. Your entire post needs a big "well duh". And yet you claim this thread is meaningless. You're a genius.

Hoo boy! I guess my character defect puts me in the minority. 30-06 is the most I would care to shoot, and I wouldn't like it! the worst I have ever been slammed was with a buddy's short barreled 12 gauge riot gun, with a rifled slug. I wondered why he was a'grinnin when he handed it to me. Whoa! ONCE, that was enough, thank you very much.