Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Most felt recoil

I know it's subjective but what is the most felt recoil you have experienced?
The worst gun I have owned was a custom 338 win mag that weighed just under 6 lbs with the scope. I shot one elk with it before it sheared off the base screws and I got rid if it.
The worst recoil I have shot was a custom built by Dennis Olsen of Plains MT. He chambered my Lilja bbl 7 mag and when we went to the range to test it he brought along a 600 nitro double he had built. It felt heavy at around 14 or 15 lbs and I wanted to give it a try. I shot one of his "proof loads". It was a 900 gr at 2400 fps. I considered myself an experienced shooter and I thought i was prepared, offhand, standing. It felt like I got sucker punched. My right thumb came back and gave me a fat lip and bloody nose. I checked a recoil calculator and it showed well over 130 foot lbs of recoil. I only was man enough for the one shot.

The worst thing I have ever shot was a Win M70 .458 Lott that belonged to a buddy and weighed less than 8 pounds. I had some Lott rounds loaded with 550gr Woodleighs that I loaded for a PH buddy and after the first shot from the bench I felt like I'd been stunned. The same loads in my CZ 550 .458 Lott are not bad at all but that M70 with its light weight and narrow footprint on the shoulder was brutal, much worse than either my Lott or my .470 DR.

One of the bad ones was a Remington 700 in 375 Rem Ultra Magnum. Without a scope, it really didn't weigh a whole lot. The absolute worst was a polymer frame Stoeger 12ga shotgun shooting 3.5" 18 pellet 00 buckshot. It was just painful.

+1
When I first got my Rem 700 .375 RUM, I mounted a 2-7x Leupold on it, took it to the range and it only took 6 or 8 shots to convince my that it was not a fun gun to shoot, in fact it was the hardest kicking gun that I have ever shot.

So I put a new custom laminated stock that fits me on it, had a KDF muzzle brake installed, and eventually added a recoil reducer in the stock. After those modifications, I've shot several hundred rounds through it, I've taken it to Africa twice where I used it to make my longest and shortest one shot kills on a big game animal with a rifle, 348 yds on a gemsbok and 30 yds on an eland. I also shot several animals from prone positions, all with no ill effects from reciol.

It will also shoot 3 shot moa groups at 100 yds with both 270 and 300gr Barnes TSX bullets.

It's also the gun that I am holding in my avatar photo.

460 Weatherby....no doubt about it for me.

Lesser items that got my attention was a wildcat equivilent of the 358STA;the 375AI;and the 458 Win.All are rude.I found a 470NE double sorta easy goin' by comparison.While on the subject, the 300RUM absolutely sucks....fast,abrupt,and hard.

this .375 Ultra. i have one a few ounces heavier that kicks noticably less with the same loads

.500 A-Square, 600 grain bullet running 2450fps. The rifle weighed 11 pounds four ounces when I bought it in 1996.

Geeesh....

Hi Dogwater,

I'll answer your question and add a comment as well.

I own and shoot several double rifles. I have a vintage 1896 Charles Osborne 450 400 3-1/4 (10#) a Krieghoff .470 (11#) and a brutal Armeria de Madrid .500NE (10#), The .500 is borderline abusive and I can only shoot it about 6-8 times with full power loads. I see stars, my molars bleed. It resembles being hit in the side of the face with a lead pipe. I do not believe I am recoil sensitive at all. (GeorgiaBoiler has shot it as well)

Now my comment. I just signed up here last week, I used to post on AR quite a lot, I left for several reasons. One of which is the dick measuring contest in their DR forum between several posters. One a doctor, and one an ex-ariforce pilot whose name resembles the Sears line of lousy sporting goods.

These guys shoot .500's, .577's and the behemoth .600NE. These guys are constantly bragging about how far they can shoot off hand, how many shots they can take in a day (one claimed 100) and even post their targets to prove their manhood to one another. One of them bragged about shooting 200 rounds (IIRC) of his .600 overkill in one afternoon.

As we all know, weight is the best defense against a vicious recoiling big bore. These clowns are now asking the Heym rifle guy to build them 11-11.5 pound .577's and .600NE's. Even the Heym representative is telling them that makes a rifle nearly impossible to handle. A .577 should weight nearly 13#'s and a .600Ne should be 13 minimum. The pre-war Brits knew how to build these things weight correct for caliber.

So, to my point, you are not less man for feeling this amount of recoil is uncomfortable and excessive. There was a big bore expert and writer over on AR for year's his screen name was 500grains. He has told me personally that shooting his .600NE was the nearest thing to an automobile accident he has ever experienced.

This comment is simply my opinion; When a man shoots rifles that violent, and brags about his ability to handle it "with ease" and please build my next one lighter, he is compensating for some felt inadequacy in his life somewhere. I DO NOT EVER want to shoot a rifle with more felt recoil than my 10# .500NE.
PERIOD.

I now step off my soapbox..

Those clowns on Accurate Reloading are full of schitt. Nobody shoots 100 rounds of .577 NE, .600 NE, or .600 OK in an afternoon and if they claim to then they are full of schitt.

Accurate Reloading used to have some knowledgeable and experienced posters like 500Grains but Saeed and Don ran them off long ago. That site has long since devolved into a competition between the elderly fat guys who can afford to go to Africa and come back and tell lies about their bravery, the sandal lickers who lick Saeed's smelly Arab arse in the hopes of getting a free safari, and the egomaniacs like Ted Williams and that fat doctor who claim to be impervious to recoil and are petitioning Heym for a 5 lb .577 NE double. LMAO!!

I've owned and shot many big bores. Everything from 375's up to the 458 lott. I've owned 3 lotts and fired many rounds. The one that is the worst is my 375 rum. In factory trim with full house loads, its pretty brutal. I've changed out the stock and backed down the handloads a little and its much more enjoyable now. With the brake, its like shooting a 3006. Dont use the brake much but nice to know its there if I want it.

I have a .378 Weatherby Mark V with a classic style stock and it kicks very hard and very fast. It does not have a muzzle brake on it.

.458 Lott is a great cartridge and in the right rifle very shootable. Love it.

The worst I ever experienced was a 458 Lott on a #1. #1's do not fit me and I only shot it once, never again. A 338-378 on a #1 wasn't much better.

^^This^^ !!! Got a buddy that has the exact same rifle. Felt like I had a concussion afterwards...

I don't think your too far off track on some of this!

I've yet to shoot any REALLY big boomers.

I have done a LOT of bench time with my 8.5 lb .375 Wby. I have done SOME bench time with one each a .416 Rem and a Rigby. I ran about a box and a half through a .458 Win one afternoon pretty quickly. But the absolute most uncomfortable thing I ever benched is a toss-up between a Browning BPS 10 ga. with 2 1/4 oz. turkey loads and a '95 Winchester four-hunnert-five with a steel buttplate. YOWZER !!

.500 A-Square, .460 Weatherby and a too light .450 Ackley.

My very worst kicker is an 8-Bore rifle, it fires an 850 gr round ball over 300 grains of FFG Swiss powder at 1400 fps.

The rifle weighs 10.0 lbs even, and IIRC churns out about 190 ft. lbs. recoil energy.

Gunner

Man, I heard that. I have a #1 tropical in .416 Rigby and it is a bear.

I shot this 4 Bore in Australia, it weighted 19 pounds. It was a late 1800's era Bland. It shot a 1500 grain lead ball. It was a pleasure to shoot at 19#'s

There have been a couple that were memorable, a 7.25# all up Jarrett 358 STA that broke scopes and pegged out my fun meter pretty quick, a custom 458 Lott that was a bad idea at 9.5 # (my previous 458 Lott was an A-Square that I thought was too heavy) and I took a pretty good ass whipping sighting in a friend's unbraked 416 Weatherby.

I've not shot many doubles, nothing was over 470 NE but I didn't find them unreasonable, nice weight and balance (fired offhand or a standing rest).

A new Sharps shooting 50-140 smokeless loads was pretty grim.

Thats cool as hell, was it a double rifle?

Gunner

Agreed about the .470. A 10.5-11# .470 is pleasant to shoot. Nice cartridge.

My friend has a 505Gibbs. The rifle is heavy enough but everytime I fire it, it feels like I've been punched in the face. I have a 500NE which is pleasant in comparison.

Nope, It was a top break single. The thing looked like it was just a couple years old. It was actually over 120 years old. The guy shot about 5 buffalo, a donkey and some other stuff with it. He loaded his ammo every night. You can only fly on Qantas with 5 kilos of ammo. So, he brought loose lead balls, and unprimed cases. We stopped at a gun shop in Darwin, he just simply walked in and bought primers and powder.

Most unpleasant for me was a Ruger No. 3 Carbine, crescent butt plate, with full house 45-70 loads.
Both my shoulder, and several fingers of my right hand bled.
Just the snottiest little rifle I ever shot.

460 Wby for me. My 458 Win is positively pleasant in comparison. My 375 H&H more so ....

I've owned a couple of #1's in 416 rigby. I had some hot loads that were moving a 400 gn hornady along pushing 2600 fps. They were pretty uncomfortable. Still not as bad as a light weight 375 rum though.

That is really cool. Would love to shoot that bad boy.

In my experience, any big bore shot seated at a bench will really hurt. Best to shoot offhand, from a standing rest or from the sticks. Rifle fit is of critical importance with a big bore.

My .470 is quite tolerable offhand for 10 to 12 rounds. More than that and I have a headache later in the day.

The two rifles I usually bring to Africa are a .416 Rigby and a .470 N.E. Neither is punishing regarding recoil. And I practice a lot with them in the months preceding the safari.

Most unpleasant rifle was an issue 1903A3 Springfield. The stock design was very poor for me and the rifle didn't fit me at all. Shooting it from the bench just plain hurt.

.460 Wby.

You will all laugh when I tell you this, well, those of you who have never fired one! The most violent recoil I have ever experienced? Perhaps a 12 gauge single shot with 3 inch mag goose load? .375 H&H? .458 Lott? None of these. It was the Smith and Wesson J Frame Scandium revolver in .357 Mag. That damn thing felt like a bomb going off in my hand! Honest to god, it was like someone hit me in the hand with a 2x4! I bought it for an ultralight backpacking gun (it weighed 11.4 oz) but sold it after firing three boxes through it. After firing a full box of .357's through it one day, I couldn't open a door knob with my right hand for a full two days afterwards!

As far as long guns go- has to be my Benelli Super Black Eagle II with 3.5 inch buckshot through it. Weighs way less than my .458 Lott and will buttstroke the hell out of you off the bench! The .458 Lott is a "nice push" in comparison.

-John

Shot some max book loads through a T/C Encore 416 Rigby, weighed a little over 7 lbs. That was brisk!
I quit shooting 3.5" shells through my Mossberg 835 12 gauge. It recoils more than anything I've ever shot except for the 7 lb Rigby.

Shot my friends Ruger "Alaskan" 2 1/2" barreled revolver in 454 Casull with full house loads. There's absolutely no fun in that.

Worst? Mossberg 500 with 3 1/2" turkey loads. Next, 375 H&H Ruger #1H w/ 300 Partition Hornady High Energy. Beautiful gun, just kicks.
Would Much rather shoot my 300 Weatherby than that turkey load though.

My 6.5lb 300 ultra without a brake. I have a marlin 1895 in 45-70 that kicks something fierce when stoked with lots of varget under a 400gr Speer. It really helps that it has no recoil reducing pad of any kind on it. Those two make most my 8.5# 375h&h feel Iike a spit wad shooter.

I think Bob said those were 1800 grain balls belching out of that cannon. I shot it with slugs (2100 grains IIRC) before and with full loads it'll get your attention!

Here's a couple of other pics of shooting it.

5.5 lb 3.5 12ga with 2 1/4 oz turkey load. tore skin off my cheek

Hey there Mike, fun trip eh? Cal did tell me with full house loads that Bland is a nasty piece. Those loads Bob had were very pleasant.

So as not to keep everybody wondering what the results of said trip were. This was a DR trip to OZ a bunch of us did in June this year. Noted Double Rifle author and gentlemen, Cal Pappas was on hand and wrote a nice article that came out in Dangerous Game magazine last issue.

Dang, that thing kicks so hard it tore the right side of your shirt up.

12 gauge with 2 3/4" slugs. The day i bought my Rem. 870 i shot 60 rnds. thru it...the next day i was back n blue!! The only thing that recoiled more was my buddys 12 gauge w/ 3" slugs.

12ga H&R with a hard plastic buttplate shooting 3" 00 Buck.

416 Wby.
With the KDF brake it was almost tolerable (15 rds/ session). I removed the brake to see if point of impact changed. On the second shot the bolt handle bruised the outside of my hand. The brake went back on and stayed on until I sold the rifle.

Yep! That was a very nice trip! the only thing better would have been getting my permits a tad earlier so I could have taken my 450 NE.. But it would have been lost along with my baggage so maybe it's better that it didn't go?

Why is it that a couple hundred fps more goes from Ok recoil to ouch? My 500 Jeffery shooting 570g TSX's at 2300 fps is fun to shoot offhand at least for the first 10 shots. Shooting the same bullet at 2400 fps is less fun and at 2500 fps it's no fun at all! Recoil at 2300 fps is 83.62 ft/lbs with recoil velocity at 21.88. At 2500 fps recoil is 102.22 ft/lbs with recoil velocity of 24.19. Maybe I've just reached my tolerance (or I'm just a wuss)?

I know it's not in the same class as a 500, but a 18" 45-75 P+ 300gr rung my bell unexpectedly.

Yikes!!

Yes Yikes! No desire to shoot that big boy

500 A Square
500 Weatherby
470 Capstick
They all hurt me when I shoot them

Ok, let's see best scope cut or shoulder bruise lol ...

I had a 20" 458lott in a Kevlar stock that was around the 7lb range. The 500grainers would shake the snot out of you. It was dropped more than once by folks who werent quite ready, of course i always told them the truth on the recoil :)never wanted to scope it.

458 Lott. Then there was the 12 ga with a metal base plate but the 338 from the prone position rattled my cage. The snot shaker par exellance was the 460 Wby.

I now have reason to believe the most dangerous place on one of those cannot clearly be defined as the muzzle.

"Most felt recoil" does not necessarily mean biggest cartridge. Some stock deigns are rude and exagerate recoil sensations unreasonably.

Along with stock design and weight of rifle, I'd have to say that weight or rather lack of it, really is the reason for painful kicks. I'v owned and shot a bunch of big bore double rifles and bolt actions and since the heavy ones created less felt recoil, I found them OK to shoot. I have a 10# 338 that I really like to shoot....but since I'm not able to do much anymore, it's going up for sale.

A guy I know had a #1 customized to a 416 Rigby and I vowed that never again would I shoot it. Light weight rifles are for light weight ammo.....and just the reverse is true IMO.

My 500 Jeffery weighs 11.25 lbs without scope (12 lbs with). It has two 12 oz mercury recoil reducers installed and the balance is perfect for me. If it was a pound and a half lighter it would be zero fun to shoot, for me at least.

I own a CZ .458 Lott and it is a pussy cat compared to my light Model 700 in .338 RUM. I touched of about 7 rounds of the bench in that biyatch and I was speaking in tongues for about 3 days afterward!!! Too much for me! I sold it and use my .338-06 for 98% of my 338 needs.

My 500 Jeffery was 9 lbs without scope, not quite 10 lbs with scope. I do not own that rifle anymore...

My 505 Gibbs weighs 10 lbs even, I dont run a scope on it, the 600 gr Woodleighs at 2450 fps really boot, I have backed this round of reloads back down to a more civil 2250 fps.

Gunner

The difference between the recoil of a 458 Win Mag and a 500 Jeffery or even more so a 505 Gibbs of roughly the same weight and stock design really has to be experienced. I'm not a big guy, 5'9" 185 lbs, but I can shoot boxes of ammo through a 9 lb 458 Win Mag. One box (20 rounds) offhand through my 500 Jeffery and I'm still smiling but I'm done for the day.

Yessir, I've still been grinning after being hit by a freight train or two as well.

Gunner

I've shot several different big-bore calibers (.40 and above) and none were too painful because they were in guns designed to make the recoil manageable (or at least not too painful). The only ones I have fired and refuse to again are the .375RUM and .378 Weatherby in sporter weight rifles- they just flat out hurt. It's not necessarily how many foot pounds are delivered - it's how their recieved...

I absolutely agree, back in the mid 90's my 378 WBY developed a slight bulge at 12 o'clock between the top two cuts of the magna-port, I believe magna-port used to make the cuts a bit larger but stopped on the smaller contour WBY barrels.

Anyway, I had the Smith cut the barrel to 24" and recrown, already had the rifle steel bedded in a Pacific Research syn stock [IIRC they were later Rimrock stocks], without the magna-port and in that syn stock that 378 WBY was the rudest and loudest weapon I have ever touched off to date.

The 300 gr Partitions and a very large charge of IMR-4350 plain sucked from the bench.

Gunner

I have 9 378 Weatherby rifles of various vintages including a 20" carbine and will shoot any and all of them any time compared to those darn 12 ga pump shotguns using 3-1/2" loads. Way too light with crappy stocks. The only guns that have ever hurt me from a 577 Nitro down has been those evil pump guns.

You're an animal! When I first fired my .500 A-Sq with 600 grains at 2450 I thought the rifle had hurt me. It just was all over me. My right arm was numb for 30 minutes aftwerwards, and I was really fretting that I might not get the feeling back until it started tingling again. I wrote the editor of Rifle magazine to ask him about big loads since I'd seen some articles in the rag and thought he might know. He did; told me to pack the case with H-4831 and I'd be good. This was back in 1996. My rifle was 11.25 pounds. The memory still makes me dizzy.
I started loading shells with H-1000 and H-870 then began to bring the velocity back up with IMR-7828 and RL-22 in stages. It took me a year before I could pull the laynard at full velocity again. Yeesh.

Dang Wbypoor, ya need a few more 378's LOL, mine so described wasnt the hardest kicking rifle, it was just a rude nasty ill-mannered bucking sombish, that syn stock may have made it close to a pound lighter, not to mention losing a bit over 2"s of barrel length.

TKK, I ran those 600 gr Woodleighs to max velocity to settle in the stock bedding with the cross-bolts, just wanted to make sure all would hold together well, it does , the 600 gr PP soft points at 2250 fps will perform better at the lower speed, makes a much nicer rifle to fire as well.

Gunner

i'm a lightweight compared to some of you guys but i have a win 94 timber carbine in 450 marlin that is obnoxious off the bench. it weighs 6 lbs and has a ported 18" barrel. not so bad in the woods but off the bench it is obnoxious.

I'm in total agreement with you brother. #10 is in the works and I've got one eye looking for #11...a Jap with exceptional wood. I'd like #12 to be a Mark V born in 1960, same as me. Then I'll be done. Maybe.

I hit the dirt in '63, may have to look around and find a really nice LazerMark or ClassicMark II in 378 WBY again.

Gunner

Good luck with your hunt, those two critters are mighty shy.

10-4 Thanks.

Gunner

Most recoil I remember was 3 rounds of 500 Jeffery when I was about 15 years old. Man did my brain get rattled.

The .458 Lott kicked my butt in four rounds, and put a hairline split in my brand new Ruger RSM's stock tang while it was at it. My threshold might be .375 H&H for accurate, somewhat relaxed shooting.

Perhaps Ruger will fix or replace the stock and I'll give it another go.

My 500 Jeffrey shooting 600 gr bullets. I still haven't worked up to a max load as the 2200 fps starting loads got my attention and then some off the bench.

I'd say once you get to pushing a 500gr or heavier bullet 2200 fps or faster, you're in a different ballpark of recoil compared to lesser rounds. Even though you can concentrate and not flinch, and with proper technique they won't hurt you, but it takes a tremendous amount of concentration to squeeze off each shot because the gun is going to come back hard.

I loaded 350's @ 2400 fps out of my 458 lott and it was downright reasonable, once I even fired off 2 boxes of ammo during a lunchtime range session. But the 500 gr loads, 10 shots in a session was often too much.

How would shooting your very heavy aluminum ramrod out of your TC encore with 150grs of pellets compare with a some of these monsters yall are shooting?

I have been considering doing a big bore but may not after reading some of these posts

I might sound like a Polyanna, but a plain old Remington Model 700 BDL in .338 Win Mag was the worst for me. Much worse than any of the .375's I've owned and also much worse than my Model 700 Classic in .416 Rem Mag. I guess it just didn't fit me well or something.

Over the years I've had several 375s, several 416s, a 10lb 6 oz 450/400 and a 10lb 13oz 470.
But I found my limit with a 450 Ackley (essentially a Lott) that belonged to a PH in Zim. It was about 9-9.5 lbs and truly memorable.


Pete

Boat paddle stock Ruger .338. The first one hurt so much I had to try it again. This is a two shot rifle but so far has only needed one. An amazing amount of pain, and I routinely shoot a .375 H&H and .416 Taylor, both under 9 pounds, taught me to ABSOLUTELY put the first round where no second round will be required.

I actually, finally, bought a new stock and that made it a four round rifle.

Terry

The best way to put any objectionable medium bore in perspective is to shoot a few rounds through it, then shoot 3 rounds through a 458 lott or larger, and then shoot your medium bore again.

I gurantee your medium bore will no longer feel objectionable. I also highly recomend a past mag shoulder pad for benchwork, though a lott or larger will still knock you around.

i had a Ruger tang safety .338 that i hated. sold it after just a few rounds.

i just bought one of those boat paddle .338s. so far so good, but all i've shot in it is 225 gr. bullets.

wanna sell your boat paddle stock?

I once owned two MK V 300 Weatherby's. One a Euromark with beautiful wood, and one an Accumark. I shot the Accumark prone with factory Nosler 180's. Did I mention I used to be a scope crawler?

I've had rifles up to the 458 Lott but the thing that put my keester in a puddle of water was a lowly 31/2",12 ga. H&R single shot shot gun I bought for a cheap turkey gun for my son-in-law. I don't know what these long tent pegs weigh but it isn't enough.

I had some Win 31/2 inchers and rather than shoot offhand, I squatted--didn't sit because a recent rain had made the place a swamp. I wanted to pattern a few of these loads to see what the ugly thing would do--touched one off whilest sitting on my hocks and promptly dunked my a_ _in the drink. It was memorable. Gave it to my son-in-law with a warning.

No one has mentioned the .340 Weatherby, so I will. I had one in the stainless sythetic Mark V action with no brake - one range session was enough and someone else now owns it. Interestingly enough, I don't have any trouble with any of my three .375 H&H's or either of my .458 win mag. Perhaps it was gun fit, but I hated that .340 Weatherby rifle.

Agree! My 500 Jeffery makes our 416s and 375s seem like pussycats

A .340 Weatherby demonstrates one of the very best platforms to prove the effectivness of Magnaporting. Once done, I'd prefer a .340 over most medium bores for the up front thump and the long range trajectory which is up there with the 7mm Rem.

I like it.

John

Getting back to heavy loads, my heaviest exercise was working up loads for my .460 with 550gn Woodleigh Weldcores and some 600gn Barnes Originals I had on hand.

The 600 grainer's topped out with 116gn IMR 4350 at 2460fps and 8064 FPE. Ultimately I settled on the Woodleigh bullet at the same velocity, because of availability and construction, which was superior being a bonded bullet, compared to the "tube" cup and core Barnes product. I recovered one weighing 458 grains which is quite good weight retention from a lead core bullet.

John

I own and have had the chance to shoot some big rifles. The worst recoil I've ever experienced was my T/C Encore with the 20" turkey barrel and heavy 3" mag turkey loads.
The gun only weighs 6 pounds.

This was my experience on AR as well. They run the site like a club promoting certain ideas, products (and big ego's).

Anyone who crosses a line, critical of certain product or idea, is hounded and provoked in a tag team manner. Name calling and disrespect all part of the act.

My crime, I was critical of the 600ok. Never the users, just the design parameters. Man, did I ever hit a nerve. I got dumped on big time. I fought back with criticism of muzzle brakes, 2 shot magazines and rebated rims. Pointed out a few 1000's reduction in bore diameter and all issues resolved. I was banned.

I noticed a couple other of the more informed members disappear as well. Never saw anyone banned for bad manners or personal insults. As far as I could guess, it was for opinions contrary to certain moderator or member views.

Website based forums are not a democracy. The owner & moderators can do what they like. I joined several hobby forums and this one caught me by surprise. Live and learn. Fortunately, there is a world of good people and forums to join.

As to most recoil, my 6 lb H&R 12ga with 3 inch magnums is pretty rough.

For me it's my ten pound 600NE single shot! 900 grains spinning out at 2150 will get your attention.

i have no real interest in touching off a 600NE but that is one seriously cool looking single shot....

No kidding Rattler, that thing is sweet, is it an old Greener or Farquharson?

Gunner

Looks like a Farq

I'll bet 900 grains at 2150 will knock the Farq out of a man.

Gunner