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

Worst one for me was my cousins 70's vintage M700 adl in .308! It just plain hurt after you pulled the trigger! My 45/70 GG or my 375 H&H never hurt us like that rifle did..

I once bought a rifled slug barrel for my 870 and bought four different kinds of 3" mag slugs and headed to the range to see which one my barrel liked best. After two of each brand shot off of a bench, I dedcided that I did not like any of them and sold the slug barrel.

A sadistic H+R single shot 12 gauge shotgun, plastic recoil pad, 3 inch slugs.

Custom stocked .338 WM. Bad angle to the pad. S.O.B. would hit you so hard in the cheek it would raise a welt.

Yeah, another one was a single-shot Baikal 12 ga 3 1/2".. Dang thing weighed about 4 pounds.. Friend of mine owned it and his kid (big boy -6'2, 200#) wanted to give it a try.. Stuffed a 3 1/2" shell in it and touched it off..

It took over six weeks for the quarter-sized piece of meat to grow back on his cheek.. THAT was enough of THAT..

I'll add 1 more : T/C Encore 12ga Rifled slug barrel. Brought it to the range to sight it in for my slug only town. Remington Buckhammer fired 1 time and it cracked my synthetic stock right at the pistol grip. Pinch my hand when the crack closed. T/C gave me another stock for free and I sold the Buckhammers. That Hurt !!!!!

Ken

For me it was a 10 gauge shooting 3 1/2 inch turkey loads, 2 1/2 oz of shot from a over/under 10 gauge. I was trying to do a bit of patterning and 4 shots in a row was all I was interested in!

Shooting a Browning 1886 with a metal cresent buttplate and stout 45-70 loads when I was 12 and about 90 pounds. Gave me a flinch I'm still trying to correct.


ddj

Know another guy who picked up a custom rifle with a very
light trigger in 270 Win. Next day at the range after he
had sighted it in, he was trying his luck offhand at 100 yards
as he was chambering a round and bringing it up his shoulder
it went off and gravel flew everywhere about 15 feet in front
of us. It just about jumped out of his hands from the recoil
and he jammed his finger bad. Later on after he cooled off
and did several function checks, the gun was not the issue and
he admitted to having his finger on the trigger while bringing
the rifle up.

I have not found any slug to equal the recoil of a Buckhammer.

Got bit between my thumb and trigger finger when shooting
1911s in the USArmy.

Lightweight Ithaca model 37 12 gauge riot gun, with slugs.....no recoil pad. That bastid was unpleasant!

Ken

NE arms Turkey gun. 3.5" 12, 20" extra full, 5.5# fricken ouch!

My cousin has an H&R 10 gauge he bought for turkey huntin', but he's scared to shoot it now.

I don't get that at all. I've killed two turkeys with one shot at 30 yards, with 2 3/4" shells. What more could a person need? Either you can call 'em in, or you can't........... Long range sniping isn't shotgun work......

460 Roy from a bench, 10 ga. SP10 lying flat on my back shooting geese.

As a kid (75 lbs soaking wet, shooting in the summer with a tee shirt), tried my new Marlin 1894 44 mag with full house loads, 240 grain bullets. After the pain of that, missed everything I shot at with it and bought a 243 the next year.

Shot my Great Grandfather's 1892 44-40 with 240 grain handloads the following summer. That crescent butt plate really hurt (wish I could find the SOB that walked out of my Uncle's with that rifle!)

As an adult, an 870 Upland Special, only gun I had with me at the time and was invited to hunt deer with dogs. Figured it was like hunting rabbits so it was a good choice and stuffed it with 3" 00 buck, touched it off and when I got back to my feet saw it had the same effect on the deer!

338 WM Kimber Montana in the safe now for over a year, just don't have the desire to try it any more...

Threads like this one remind me of why I like my .221 Fireball, my .204s and my .22 Hornets (along with various rimfires) more and more every time I shoot them.

454 Casull. Slippery grips, sharp edge on back of frame. First shot opened a cut on knuckle of thumb. Follow-up shots the sharp edge hit the same open cut. Wasn't my revolver but I might have tried to smooth out that sharp edge if it had been mine. At least tape up the thumb. No long gun ever really hurt me as bad as moving a washing machine for my wife.

Never been scoped and I can't understand how that could ever happen unless you were firing left handed while hanging upside down from a deerstand.

However, 3" magnum OO in an 870 did make me a bit uncomfortable. We'd set up tactical courses at our range and sometimes run shotgun courses. Had a handfull of said loads and thought they might help knock down steel plates. Just about tore my shoulder off after 3 rounds. It took everything I had in me to finish that run. Whoo!

10 ga BPS w/ Fed Premium turkey loads

I've shot a .416 Rigby on a TC Encore frame that wasn't in the same ballpark... heck, not even the same freakin' sport... as that shotgun. Simply mind-numbing...

Mine was a sighting in session with a 300 Weatherby Vanguard in a synthetic stock. Sixteen rounds of 180 grainers and my shoulder was first black & blue then green and purple weeks later. I'm a stout framed guy but that was enough. I bought it when our lease was clearcut. Every shot I had with the Weatherby was under 40 yards. My 30'06 killed quicker. I sold it the next season. Cartridges were way too expensive too.