Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Your worst recoil experience?

Didn't think about handguns. The most impressive (although not really painful) was with an SASS single shot on a 1911 frame.......in .308 Win.

When I first got this conversion unit I sort of expected that it would "buck up a bit" (as my daughters used to say) due to it's light weight and powerful round. What I didn't consider was the muzzle blast that would occur.

I mounted a scope on the unit and set up....as I always did.....on the kitchen table with sandbags. The table was 15 feet INSIDE the room with the back door open to shoot out in the back yard. I'd done this many times before with various rifles and handguns......but never with a 15" barreled .308!

I settled in and squeezed off the first shot. The pistol recoiled above my head, as expected. Then the muzzle blast hit the room.

There was a "storm" of paper in the air as notes were blown from the fridge, a calender flew from the wall and paper towels were ripped from the roll on the wall. Spice jars were blown from the shelf, a coffee cup sitting on the table was thrown to the floor and a dust cloud drifted around the room....thrown into the air from every shelf and cabinet that wasn't dusted recently. My hair was blasted up and stood straight out like an Albert Einstien imitation.

My wife, who was in the living room and didn't know I was about to shoot, ran into the room in a panic. Said the concussion from the shot was so strong that she thought the windows were going to crack and the lampshades wobbled....IN THE OTHER ROOM! She honestly thought the stove had blown up.

All further shooting was moved out in the yard. While the recoil was......vigorous......it was the blast that got my attention. The only thing that ever came close was the time I shot a .44 magnum revolver at a rabbit outside the passanger side window while sitting at the wheel. The muzzle was well inside the truck cab......not a good idea.