Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What round is a meaningful step down in recoil from the 30-06 (and isn't a 22 centerfire).

A standard recoil calculator shows the follwing
Cart. bullet wt. velocity powder wt. gun wt. recoil(ft lbs.)
30-06 180 2600 55 8.5 19
270 130 3000 55 8.5 17
7-08 140 2800 48 8.5 14
260 100 3200 48 8.5 12

So there is a steady decline in recoil force. Where any one person would say that there is a noticable decrease is subjective. To me, guns become pleasant to shoot in the 260 Rem./257 Roberts class, in part because of minimal recoil and in in part because the muzzle blast is modest.

But as cartridges drop in intensity, people tend to put them into smaller and lighter guns, which brings the recoil right back up. My NULA 257 Wby gnerates 28 ft-lb of recoil launching a 100 gr bullet at 3500 fps because it weighs less than 7#.