The stock shape makes a good deal of difference in my experience, particularly the crown and surface area of the butt. An example is (or was) the Brown Precision Classic stock with a very straight crown. Add a Pachmayr recoil pad and you’ve gone a ways to mitigate recoil with the rifle itself minus a brake of any kind, which I tried once and then threw it away.
Then with a shooting pad, work-up at the bench wasn’t so bad.
An example of just the opposite was the one on the older Browning Stainless Stalker. It had a comparatively narrow butt with much less surface area. A friend had one in 338. We called it the Flying Wedge. It was much more unpleasant to shoot off the bench than my 340.
Up top was how I set up my 340 with that Brown Prec stock. Even scoped and with a sling, it was only 8.5 lbs — my idea of the hunting weight of the 33’s to the 375’s.
But, no doubt the effect over the years is cumulative. I took my last two bulls with a 30/06 and a 284 Win. They worked fine.
