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

Easily my Mossberg 3.5" turkey gun. Brutal.

Three years ago I was running a stage at a CAS shoot. I was in a hurry that morning and grabbed a box of 12 ga. shells for the Stoeger SxS. Of course, carelessly rushing the stage, I touched off both triggers at the same time. I lost a hold of the shotgun and severly cut my trigger finger. The shot dazed me to put it mildly. It turns out I had grabbed a handful of 3" mag turkey loads. 6.5 lb. gun, no recoil pad ... it was almost a religious experience.

Ruger #3 in .45-70, 6 pound rifle, no recoil pad, just a hard plate, 400 grain Speer at 2200 fps at the muzzle.

I've run into some other kickers but that one stands alone way ahead of the rest of the pack.

When I was around 8-10 my dad let me shoot his 30-06 at the range. It had no recoil pad and hurt a lot. I've never shot that gun since.

You haven't lived until you've been 'scoped'. Myself and may others have received that half-moon, bloody, eyebrow. Sure rings your bell.

I've not been truly cut and bloodied, but I got whacked by a scope on a 700 XCR in .338 RUM hard enough to require an immediate trip to the chiropractor. It hit me hard enough to knock the atlas joint out triggering an instant headache so bad I had trouble not puking before I could walk to my truck.

Another time I was shootin' digger squirrels with a buddy's .458 and cast bullets. No prob. He slipped in a jacketed 510 grain factory bullet. Prob.

Another bad one I got ahold of was a SS Ruger #1 in .375. Somehow I got the point of the stock on top of a tendon near the base of my collar bone and when the gun went off I felt something crunch. I managed to keep the gun up on the bench but I hit the ground on my knees trying to heave. Couldn't shoulder a rifle for about 3 weeks afterwards.

Another real bitey one was a drilling I owned, 12x12x.35 WCF, about 7-1/2 pounds, with a steel butt plate. It wasn't any fun.

Funny thing, I don't own any of those guns anymore. Imagine that.

378 Weatherby!!!

Shot a Cape Buffalo with a .416 Remington mag. It was a very hot day and I was sweating real bad and when I shot with sweating hands the scope gave me a good cut between my eyes. All the pictures show blood running down my nose but I didn't care.

That would hurt...

Daughter #3 wanted to shoot one of my .45-70 460g/1812fps "Rhino Blaster" loads. I started her with the light kicker .45-70 loads and let her work her way up. Removed the scope from the Marlin 1895 before handing her one of the "Rhino Blasters". One was enough to satisfy her curiosity...

Worked those things up in a tee-shirt with the factory hard plastic buttplate. Ran about 40 through it that day. Oof.

my ex wife.

Years ago I had a .300 Weatherby.. shot it a few times and decided my ole .308 wasn't bad.

Mossburg 695 shooting 600 grain brenneke's.

I was shooting a Beretta 455 .470 NE and it doubled. Knocked my shooting glasses, earmuffs and hat off, but I did not drop the rifle. The Beretta Gallery gunsmith, Todd Ramirez, said there was a burr the caused the doubling to occur, too much dry fireing without snap caps. Sonehow I never really wanted to shoot that rifle any more.

Thompson Contender SSK barrel 375JDJ, recoil was straight back.
The 45-70 Contender barrel would hop up a little at least, not the 375

Browning A-bolt , plastic stock off sand bags , 220 gr. 325 WSM that belonged to a friend , first 2 shots almost touching next 3 opened up to about 6 inches as I began to flinch , danged thing kicks a lot worse than heavy load 30-06 220 gr. out of my model 70, about a week before I got full use of my right shoulder, he never shot it just sold it and as far as I know the next 2 owners were still working on the same box of shells that I opened and not 1 head of game taken , still don't know why it kicked so bad unless ity was a bad batch of factory ammo or the barrel was a little on the tight side but dang it hurt jrh55

Same here. I owned a S&W 340PD and it was easily the hardest recoiling firearm I have ever shot. I also owned the .44 Mag version and it wasn't nearly as fierce. I would compare the recoil of the 340PD to catching a fastball barehanded.

When I was 14 I shot a double barrel 10 guage pulled both triggers it made me take 2 steps backwards to keep from falling on my butt.
my tolarance now is below a 300 wsm it hurts.

Barrett 50BMG. the concussion coming back off the muzzle break knocked my cap off.

Next worse was a Remmy 700 in 338 ultramag. It hurt.....

1895 gov 45/70. P+ 300gr 18.5" barrel.

Worst I ever had was an H&R 12ga with the hard plastic buttplate. The 1 1/4 Federal Super Slugs were brutal. The 3" Magnum 00 Buck loads were even worse.