Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Unexpectedly Nasty Recoil

Three come to mind immediately;

A Remington 700 ADL in .30-06 with an aluminum butt plate (factory) with 172 grain military ammo shooting from the bench.

Red pad Ruger 300 Winchester Magnum shooting 200 grain handloads from a sitting position shooting steeply downhill. Lucky I didn't up wearing the scope.

Marlin 45-70 shooting 400 grain Speer handloads from the bench. These loads were character building at almost 2000 fps.

Just remembered another one but it is a handgun. An old style Contender with the 10" octagon barrel shooting Elmer Keith's load. The first shot I thought the thing had blown up. Then I thought that I just didn't have a substantial grip on the fore end. Wrong! I shot it four more times (apparently a slow learner) and the next day the base of my thumb and the web between my thumb and index finger turned yellow from bruising.

That's what I am going to do. Load up some 06' brass with less powder. I like 3031 for that!

I have the same rifle. I removed the straight comb Classic stock and replaced it with an old BDL stock with a Limbsaver recoil pad. I ditched the 250 gr loads for 225 grain Federal TBBC and same weight handloads. It is much nicer to shoot now. A Weatherby style Bell & Carlson stock might be an even better option. The Classic butt pad ( I hesitate to call it a recoil pad) is hard as a brick even when new. Happy Trails

I forgot to add my Savage 99 .358 Winchester. With 200 grain loads it’s brutal, with 250’s it’s intolerable. Happy Trails

+1

Although the champion shoulder buster in my collection is a 7 1/2 lb. Type B Mauser Sporter in 9.3x64mm Brenneke

My Rem 760 30-06. Engineered to kick the snot out of the shooter at the bench.

Only ONE M70 I own that gives me a real jolt is the LH SS/walnut version in .300WM... Dang - after about 10 rounds down range I put it aside and use a .22rf for a while till the pain goes away..

Hodgdon's 3031 start load under a 150 grain Ballistic Tip is 43 grains for approx. 2700 fps, right in top 300 Savage velocity territory. If the groups are good then it would be a mild to shoot deer slayer for sure.

TC Cherokee .45 muzzleloader. It's light but it's the way the stock fits my face that kills me. It cracks my cheek bone right under my eye. Don't notice the shoulder at all....but it hammers my cheek.

The old Remington 700 ADL’s with the walnut stock were just bad. It was lightweight, no pad, and a design guaranteed to hurt. I had one in a .270 that was far more unpleasant than bigger cartridges in other rifles. Oh, and the most vicious thing I ever shot was a Savage single shot 20 gauge with high brass shells.

Model 94 30-30 beat the dog snot outta me. Holy crap I hated that thing. Same goes for 3-1/2" Supermag turkey loads. On the opposite end, M70 338 WM wasn't near as bad as is expected.

t/c renegade has a stock design that will jump up, slap you in the face and call you susan

Maybe as I've become older my recoil tolerance has lessened, but my Marlin 45-70 gives me more that I want these days.
Kicks my ass like nothing else I've ever used.

That must be due to stock 'fit' for you > or UN fit. grin.

My very first Mzl was a T C Renegade 54 cal. I hunted it several yrs before I got a Knight. The Renegade did NOT punish me and I was using 'Buffalo Bullets', something about 425 grs. (?) I still have it.

Jerry

First to come to mind is a Ruger No. 1 in 458 Win Mag - recoil was not unexpected, but it was downright painful. Another was a Ruger No. 3 in 45-70 loaded up a bit - no desire to ever do that again. Those were both rifles owned by others - of what I currently own, a Kimber Classic in 325 WSM is my least favorite rifle to shoot and will likely become something else...

^^ this. I have one and the butt pad is made of granite. I ordered a limbsaver for it and should be in this week. I also had a savage 110 wood stock. very lite and would knock you tail off. Actually I had an older scope on it and the eye relief was bad. Cut my son between the eyes from the recoil. Sold that and picked up a Rem 700 .308.

I owned a Rem 760 Gamemaster in 30-06 that was built in the early 1960's and it had the steel butt plate that they used at that time. That sucker would blacken your shoulder in short order with 180 gr. loads and with 220 grains it was all I wanted. My boys at the time I owned it were teenagers and they named the rifle "The Hammer" and would not shoot it after the first few times they tried.

I own a Winchester model 70 in 35 Whelen and with 250 grain loads it also recoils a touch but the recoil pad and good stock make it manageable. I would not want to shoot a 760 chambered in 35 Whelen and 250 grain bullets very often with that steel butt plate.

My first rifle was a Remington 600 Mohawk in 308 that my dad so graciously sighted in with 180 grain corelokts. It just had a butt plate and felt like a cannon to a skinny kid. More recently was a zytel stocked Ruger in 338 win mag.

Custom Ruger # 3 45-70 with Winchester brass but plate, quickly went away beautiful to look at nightmare to shoot!

The first thing that needs to be changed on almost any ruger is that brick at the end that some call a recoil pad.
The only rifle I've had so far that I felt needed (and got) a muzzle brake is a deluxe 340 weatherby, very accurate though with just about any factory load, both before and after the brake.