Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Guns that have made me say OUCH! What say YOU?

Having been pummeled into a quivering mass of gelatonous matter by several big rifles and shotguns over the years, it has occured to me that some of the worst beatings I ever took were at the hands of front stuffing firearms, and I shoot big centerfires quite a bit so here is a question for ya'll..... please relate for our twisted amusement some of the worst mule kicking frontloaders OR centerfire rifle or pistol experiences you have ever endured. Here are my three:

1) At the bulletproof and knowing it all age of 18 (a rather long time ago) my cousin and friend borrowed from an old neihbor a really long - perhaps six feet - and heavy 8 bore punt gun. Designed really to be fired from over the bow of a john boat, not stood behuind and such like I tried to do. Steel buttplates were the norm on these. I scrounged some musket caps, we poured what was likely about 1/4 lb of 2F down the muzzle followed by a wad of aluminum foil, then some torn sheet material, then about a half cup of reclaimed #8 shot then an over wad of more aluminum foil and torn sheet material. Can't exactly recall where I got this "recipe" Since I was the biggest and strongest and ...... well, you know, PLUS it was my idea to try to fire the damned thing I manned up to the tortu.... uh.. shooting station and placing a cap upon the nipple and cocking the massive hammer I tensed up and leaned forward and pulled the trigger and.... pop! Just the musket cap..... Dang it! two more trys gave the same result so, not recognizing the providential hand of a loving and protective God I came up with yet ANOTHER of my bright ideas, a touch of green dot under the nipple! Simple, really.... just unscrew the nipple, drop in a few flakes of modern gunpowder to 'help' things along and... Well, that flat WORKED!!!! Had I not ran backwards several steps upon being slammed by the 6 foot tall punt gun I would have been thrown to the ground and hard. THAT one made me go OUCH! But just a little

Fast forward to the still knowing it all years and buying a kit to build an early Lyman Great Plains 54 caliber rifle. NICE looking guns, these, and I wanted to take an Elk with mine so off to the range with my good buddy Rufous from here at 24hrcf. Forgetting that Black powder guns CAN generate some backwards thrust and ignoring the sharp edged, deeply curved and thin STEEL buttplate I had so carefully inletted to the Walnut stock I proceeded to pour 120gr of 3F down the tube, folowed by a Hornaday Great Plains bullet of great weight (540grs?)and inertia meaning a great desire to stay put right there in the barrel and not move forward without extracing some wampum in return from the firee - me. THAT one hurt like H%!! and I have NEVER tried to replicate the event! Me likey round balls in that rifle now!

Much more recent..... Cape Buff Client wants to take a big African Buff with a custom muzzleloader soooooo.... he proceeds to have built for him a side by side rifle in 54 Caliber BUT with a very fast twist rifleing so that it will stabilize with SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY GRAIN SLUGS! backed by TWO HUNDRED GRAINS OF 2F! in each barrel. Here is how this deal works..... Intrepid hunter wiggles up to unsuspecting big black Mbogobuff, takes careful aim and Ka-BOOMEY!!!! when the considerable smoke clears, whomever gets back up first from the dual blows just delivered has won that round and we do this again, unless it is considered more pleasant to simply allow the buff to now merely plow us under rather than to fire the other barrel of that miserable rifle!

So, what tales of woe do my buds here have to tell?

PS still shooting hot loaded 416 Rigby and a titanium/scandium framed 44 MAgnum (329PD) so I guess I am a little low on the learning curve.......

Most people learn from bad choices after the first one....or two

Like I said, I am a tad slow on the learning curve as am still getting pummeled by several currently owned rigs. Happiness at the range is a concussion headache, no?

My face caught some backsplash from shooting steel with a .40, which kinda hurt pulling it out. Does that count?

3.5" 12 gauges and 14" ported .223's (ears).

Remmy 16" Mohawk .308 with hard plastic butt plate and 180's. I was young and wasn't expecting recoil from a puny .308 having had several magnums previous to picking that one up. Learned something.

3 1/2 12 gauge out of a synthetic stocked 870

The worst kicking gun I've ever shot was a T/C Encore Katahdin barrel (18"?) in 3" - 12 gauge with a Nitro Company Turkey load. Gun came in under 6lbs and when I would light it off with that heavy turkey load and extremely tight choke it would rock your world!

had a Iver Johnson single shot 12 gauge that belonged to my grandfather that i got when i was a kid.it had a dangerously lite trigger and on more than one occasion it got touched off before the gun was pulled snug to my shoulder. man that thing hurt

Had a 10 gauge single shot that would give me headaches shooting it. Paid $79 for it brand spankin' new. My two best days with the gun were the day I bought it and the day I sold it. The rest I don't worry about..I've shot a friends 50 bmg a lot and it's a pussy cat. My win 375 HH is sharp but not painful. My SBE gets your attention but no headaches. But that darned 10 gauge....good riddance.

I forgot about the ole H&R 12 ga single shot. Must have been a mental block. I used to loan it to "friends".

I had a very similar experience with a similar 8 Ga punt gun. This was orchestrated by my father & grand father to teach me a lesson. IT WORKED!

A couple come to mind.

A Brit Enfield #5 Jungle Carbine

my 458 Winchester Model 70

a Ruger #1 in 416 Remington

my Uncle's 10 ga Parker DBL

I have an 1896 Spencer Ejector 12 gauge with a 18 inch barrel I got from my dad when he passed. Light and mean. Ain't worth $5 but wouldn't sell it for $1000 because it was my dad's. Also don't shoot it anymore.

My Mossberg 835 with 3.5 in turkey loads is something that will get your attention.

But my BFR SA revolver in 450 Marlin takes the prize...and I still like shooting it.

Two Rifles come to mind:

1. Marlin Lever in 44 Mag with straight stock. Gave me a bloody nose every time from thumb hitting nose each time I fired it. Don't have it no more.

2. Browning bolt rifle in 300 Win. Not only did I get Weatherby EyeBrow (had to have stitches) but recoil brain and nearly passed out at one session.

Those two rifles simply did not fit me and I don't have them anymore. I am able to shoot heavy recoiling rifles as I have a 338, a 375, a 416 and a 450 Nitro that i am able to shoot with no problems.

I bought a Marlin '94 in .44 Mag several years ago. Pretty straightforward levergun, 20" barrel, walnut stock and forend. Like I said, a normal looking lever-action; except for the comb on the stock. It had a squared off comb like you'd see on a carbine type gun such as on a 10/22.

Shortly after I bought it, I took it to the range and fired 75 rounds through it and then sold it off as quickly as I could for what I paid. That squared off comb damn near re-located my cheek bone up near my right temple.

I'm actually a pretty fast learner.
My Dad bought a Benelli M2 cop shotgun. With an EOTech on top, eh? So what better to sight it in than with slugs? From the bench?
So Dad did the honors of the first shot and instantly started giving me the line that, as a senior citizen he shouldn't have to put his rotator cuff at risk, blah blah.
As things are, it's now great fun to shoot clays and buckshot, but both of us are ambivalent about setting it up with slugs. I kind of feel sorry for hunters that have to use slugs. Even a 200 WBY is more fun than slugs.

8mm Rem Mag in a M700.

Sharpest, nastiest recoiling thing I ever shot.

It's no longer here...

All my "recoil epiphanies" have come via heavy loads in light shotguns, with one of the most visibly apparent ones (massive bruise on shoulder & cheek) coming from a .20ga H&R cut down to 12" LOP and weighing around 5lbs.

Having been pounded enough by 3" Turkey loads, I have never, and will never (knowingly) touch off a 3.5" shell.

An old mentor of mine talked me into shooting a .458 Win. mag that he had just built. He had some 500gr hardcast handloads that were loaded to about .45-70 level, and out of the 10# Mauser, the recoil was negligible.

Being the sneaky old Bastid that he was, he couldn't keep from slipping a full power load in the magazine when I wasn't looking. While I was surprised by the recoil of the full power load, it was not painful, even from the bench. Shotguns have hurt me a lot worse.

My dad had an old Stevens single-shot 12 ga. that I used to shoot when I was growing up. Haven't shot anything that hurt that bad, since.