Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 300 Mags and recoil

After shooting about a dozen rounds of 12 gauge 3”magnum slugs through my 870 from the bench, the 300 does not seem too bad.

Lol! This is very true 👍.....Hb

I’ve never found 300 magnum recoil objectionable, but its not the rifle I’d want to go shoot all day from the bench. None of the 300s I owned were much more than 8lbs field-ready, and none were braked. They cover all of my hunting needs. In reality, from deer in the open areas to elk in the timber, one 300 Win Mag would have it all covered.

But, I have a 30-06 that is handy and does great in the timber with a low powered scope. My 7mm Rem Mag with a mid-range scope is, IMO, a great open-country deer rifle. They are both versatile enough to be a capable backup for the other. Neither has near the recoil of the 300s I’ve owned.

I've a M70 .300 WM in a Brown Precision stock. A friend has a M70 .338 WM in the same stock. Similar scopes and rifle weights.
Side by side the .338 has more recoil. Not a lot, but enough to darn well notice. He said the same thing.
I don't recall his load. I was shooting 180's a bit over 3000 fps.

I can shoot either with precision, but likely not all day, especially the .338.

I had shot only my .300 for a few years. Went to check zero on it and a Ruger tang safety M77 .270 in a Brown Precision stock. I hadn't shot the .270 in a good while. I checked zero on the .300 first, then the .270. Hadn't thought much about it, but did notice that .270 did kick a lot less.

Most 300 WMs I have shot haven’t been bad at all. Not much different than a 7RM. Both seeming to be a slight bump above 30-06/270/280 etc....

Have a Howaguard in 300WM that’s a complete kitten.

I think stock design has a lot to do with it, my 7 3/4 lbs. 300 H&H sits in an Echols legend stock, although snappy it doesn't bother me much, even with a wrecked shoulder. At one time I had a 8 1/4 lbs. .338 win in a brown precision, a great stock, that doesn't fit me very well. That rifle was painful to shoot and got sold rather quickly.

That was probably a lot of it also. By the time I had that Abolt 300 I had been shooting 3” magnums for Turkey for a few years already.

I hunt every year with a 300 Wby. Shooting at game I never notice recoil at all. Never had scopeye from it either. Shooting several times off a bench it is a little sharp. The muzzle blast from several shots will give me a head ache though.

+1 for sure IME

+2

My 308 Norma Mag sure let's you know it's there when shooting off a bench, haven't felt it yet shooting at an animal! Lol!

My first centerfire rifle was a .30-06. About 10 years later I had it re-chambered to .30 Gibbs that pushed 180 grain Partitions out at a little over 2900 fps, which was about the same ballistics as a .300 H&H. That .30 Gibbs was my primary elk rifle for the next 20+ years, and I never felt bothered by it's recoil.

I wasn't until 2000 that I shot my first magnum labeled cartridge, a 7 mm Rem mag that I used on my first African hunt. I don't remember it's recoil being any harder than my .30 Gibbs was.

Then I booked a Cape Buffalo in Zimbabwe for 2005 so I bought a .375 RUM for that hunt. Most of my rifles have never fired a factory cartridge or at least not fired very many of them as I am just about a 100% handloads shooter. So the first day at the range with my new .375 RUM I only shot 6 shells when the recoil of that beast got the better of me. I researched porting and muzzle brakes and decided to have a KDF brake put on it. That brake took the sting out of the recoil and I was able to work up moa load with Barnes TSX bullets for it and had a successful African hunt with it. I later added a mercury recoil reducer in it's stock and that further tamed it's recoil. I then took that .375 RUM on another South African Plains Game hunt where it made one shot kills on a variety of animals out to 348 yards, and with several that were shot comfortable from prone positions.

For over 40 years I had admired Weatherby rifles and wanted a .300 Wby. Finally in 2009 I bought a Vanguard in .300 Wby. Before I ever shot it I had a gunsmith install a KDF brake on it. Then when I put the barreled action in the new Fancy walnut stock that I built for it, it included a recoil reducer. That Wby quickly became my favorite rifle. I have another Vanguard in .308 Win and my .300 Wby doesn't kick any harder than my .308 Win. The holes on the underside of the brake kick up a little dust, but I have no problem shooting that rifle from prone positions.

Agree wholeheartedly.
My first 300Win was an A Bolt and it beat me to death in the factory stock. Replaced it w a B&C Carbelite and it tamed it down considerably.

Ended up giving it to my brother when I bought a Howa 300 Weatherby.
To me that rifle was not any worse to shoot than an 06

Sold both of them when I built a 264 and a 7 STW

Perceived recoil is subjective
PhYsics is not.

Eg:1

.300mag-180 grain vs .375mag.-300 grain
Same weight rifles/same stock/same pad

.375 has more recoil energy & recoil vel.
- End of story.

Eg:2

again, identical rifle weight/stock/pad.

.300mag vs .338win (both pushing 200 grainers)
the bigger case/more powder .300 has more RE/RV
- End of story.

*****

Had two Roys, 270wby and 300wby
which weighed 8 and 9 lb respectively
with the same Brown Prec. stock/pad
the lighter .270 'felt' more snappy and
violent, but scientific fact remains the
.300 recoiled more by good margin
No matter what bullchit ones imagination
says otherwise.

I have owned and hunted with some excellent shooting 300 Winchester magnums. Mostly mule deer and elk I generally loaded 200 grains Speer's and Nosler Partitions. The first was a Springfield rechambered to 300 Win Mag. What a rifle though a bit heavy is shot everything well and for some reason it was a tackdriver with 150 gr. bullets. I shot exactly one deer with a 150 gr. Speer Hotcor spitzer and on hog with a 150 grain Remington factory load both at around 80 yards. Destruction on both was epic, so I went to 180's for a couple of years and then to 200 grain bullets. This gave me all I could ask for and recoil was up there but manageable. Somehow I traded that one off but still ran the same loads but this time in a Winchester "Black Shadow". That rifle once I sighted it in got a box run threw it a year and whatever rounds got used hunting. Recoil much more noticeable in it. That said the 200 grain bullets never failed to satisfy in either penetration or damage done. Maybe I should put another one together instead of a 7STW.

Perceived recoil is not the same as actual. Expectation, muzzle jump, noise, concentration, position/posture, stock fit, hold, even trigger pull affects the former.

My 77 .338 has less perceived (and likely actual) recoil than the "carbine" 77 '06. It is heavier, but that 17" barrel on the '06 is the major culprit. Much sharper felt than the .338 with it's 24" barrel, which also is muzzle ported.

Yep, the effects are cumulative.

I can put 20 rounds downrange out of a 300WM with no problem. After that, I start to flinch and will catch myself jerking the trigger. Regardless, I've never thought the recoil from a 300WM was bad.

It has everything to do with it.

The mildest 300WM I've owned and I've owned a bunch of them was a Weatherby Mark V SBGM (Super Big Game Master) which was the forerunner of the Ultra Light. The rifle was < 7 lbs all up. I attributed it to stock design and fit.

Recoil is the amount of energy rearward resulting from the amount of energy forward minus the energy absorbed by the standing momentum of the gun.

However, "kick" is what you feel, and what is felt depends 100% on who's doing the feeling.

Some guns seem to hurt me more than much more powerful guns because of stock fit and sometimes because of quickness of that kick. I have a friend who has arms like a squid and his 350 Rem Mag is stocked with a 15.3" LOP. That gun hurts me when I shoot it. But my 375H&H my 9.3X62, my 9.3X74R and my 404 Jeffery all are just fine for me. I feel no pain at all firing my 404, which is WAY more powerful then his 350. But let him shoot my 404 and he says it hurts him because it's too short for him.
Another example is a stock Weatherby Mk5 in 300 or 340 mag. Those just jab me. Neither is as powerful as my 375, my 404 or the 416s and 458s I had, yet I don't like shooting the Weatherby Mk5 in anything larger then the 7MM Weatherby mag. I restocked one I had and made it fit me and the kick seemed to be reduced by about half even though I know the recoil was about the same. Others say the Mk5 fits and feels wonderful. It depends of the shooter.

So speaking of "Kick" is not something we can give pat answers about. It varies from shooter to shooter. Recoil can be figured out mathematically, but that's not really all the helpful

Stock fit is more important my my opinion.

No rifle I ever shot was as punishing as my old Ithaca model 37 Deerslayer with Brenneke 2 3/4 magnum slugs, including .338 and .458 magnums.