Everyones idea of recoil is different.

For some even light loads are troublesome. And I understand those that have trouble with their hands,wrists ect.

Just curious how the rest of you feel about certain calibers and much you enjoy shooting them....

The politically incorrect statement on the back of my shirt has has been removed for the purpose of this being a family type forum....

.500 S&W recoil with 500gr Hornday XTP not a sissy load in anyones book.

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Take your time..quickly.

Not sure what you are asking.
The technique for exceptionally high recoil handguns generally is the opposite of shooting moderate loads rapidly, where the object is to get the recoil to come as straight back as possible. The high recoil grip is lower on the butt, and the idea is to allow the gun to arc upward and back, rather than straight back.

If you're asking do I shoot guns like your .500 magnum just for the joy of experiencing recoil, the answer is no. Neither do I care for the "handrifles" which are almost as heavy and awkward as a light rifle, but are missing the buttstock.

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Science plus Art

I got my 1st 44 magnum in the 80's and shot everything through it with the excitement of a kid full of P&V. I had a 300gr load I worked up that would just about make you numb in 6 shots. I soon learned that for every day fun, my 1000fps load was much nicer to shoot and relegated the hot stuff to on occasion status. About the same time I acquired my 1st Freedom Arms 83 in 454 as I had a bear hunt trip planned for Alaska...never happened. I found the Bisley frame of the 454 was much better for handling recoil and never worried about loading it down much. I also had the chance to experiment with one of Linbaugh's original 500's and still found the single action more pleasant. I guess it's the way it rolls in your hand, and once you get used to that idea it aint a big deal.
I own another FA 83 now with 45acp, 45 Colt, and 454 cylinders. The 454 gets loaded as intended, the 45 Colt at about 1100fps, and the 45acp at warm target velocities.
Now long gun wise, when I was shooting Int'l Skeet I used the hottest load I could legally use with no ill effects out of my Browning skeet gun. I was also rather fond of the H&H family of magnum rifle calibers especially the 375. All that changed in 1999 when I got run over by a pick-up on my motorcycle...the shoulder just dont handle it like it used to.

I think recoil is more about the gun, the frame, than about the caliber or the person shooting. E.g., shooting a 357 in a 6" N frame vs a lightweight J frame.

How I handle recoil. As I get older, if it hurts, I don't shoot it. At one time (in my young and foolish days) I hunted deer with a 300 WinMag in a light weight rifle. Now I use a vintage Mdl 99 Savage in 250 Savage. Guess what, the deer are just as dead, and don't run far after being hit. It isn't how big the bullet, it's where you place it.

Age is the determining factor I agree.

When it hurts you..thats bad. It takes much longer to recover now than 30 years ago.

Once in a great while, I still enjoy touching off a large caliber handgun and hitting my target. That being said, I get most of my enjoyment out of being able to shoot .38 spl's the entire day and not need physical therapy afterwards.

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Take your time..quickly.

Can't handle it well, therefore use standard pressure .38sp on all my j & k frame revolvers whether they are rated for +p or not. Got rid of my only 357 and continue to grow my .22lr collection and it just might take more than one shot to take down that zombie but I'll take my chances.

This is my main criterion, too. Also, I once passed on a Mountain Gun because I felt that recovery was too slow. That wouldn't necessarily be disqualifying in every case, but it was in this one.

I don't want for one second sound like I am down playing the thump you get from many a fire arm. But for me the ability to handle recoil is 100% between my ears, and behind my eyes. I know shooting a 300 Wby or 454 Casull (insert your Thumper of choice here) is going to hurt, but I also know if I hold either of them correctly they cannot injure me (I can tell you what I did wrong for every scope cut I have suffered). What did it for me was the mantra "by the time I feel it, the bullet is gone".

I remind myself that there is a reason to shoot this beast (i.e. big elk 300+ yds out, African game, etc.) the reward will equal the pain and "by the time I feel it, the bullet is gone"... That said there are guns I shoot better with light loads (but I continue to work at it), and for anything smaller then black bear I stick to my 25-06, or smaller. I neither stupid nor a glutton for punishment.

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always trust your cape...

What with being abuse tolerant and recoil insensitive...I jest take it.

Kind like the ol tale about the white hunter shootin the elephant with a heavy rifle.

The elephant goes down from the shot. The hunter goes down from the recoil.
The first one to get up wins!


Su Amigo,
Dave

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

With handguns, comfortable grips are a must! S&W grips do not fit my hands, so all my S&Ws have either Pachmayrs or Herrett's. At 200+ more or less muscular pounds rifles are not as much of a problem, a slip on recoil pad usually does the job.

Recoil is rear mindset for me. I'm only interested in hitting what I aim at. I concentrate on the total package, grip, stance, aim point and trigger release. Never the recoil. I have found in combat and hunting I never remember recoil. I'm expecting the same if I ever have to shoot for self defence. Bench rest is different for me, I feel it then.

Another old fart here with hand and wrist issues. I know my limitations in a handgun and in my case it's 357 Magnums in my 38 ounce 620. I'm perfectly happy to leave the heavier calibers to those who are still young and foolish.

When the power to weight ratio of the loads becomes painful, I no longer shoot that load. At my age, I have shot more than my share of heavy loads, and don't have any need for Grisly Killers in IL.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Find recoil very odd, have had rheumatoid arthritis since age 7. Started with 9mm for semi-auto and my wrists don't have a problem with that. Tried .40 S&W, and my wrists did not care for the snap of that caliber, however, I find .45ACP very manageable. For revolvers I have only shot magnums: 357 and 44. I can shoot both but find my wrists become fatigued from the recoil of the 44 sooner. Would not even attempt a .500, as a man has to know his limitations.

Guess i'm in that "young and dumb" crowd. I don't have a problem with recoil. As Rimfired said it, when shooting at game, the recoil and even the report of the shot don't even register in my brain. I'm just concentrating on that shot. I thoroughly enjoy shooting full house mags out of my 629 Cl and 686. Recently had the opportunity to fire a S@W500 for the first time. It was the 4" version, compensated. It was alot of fun and I actually found the recoil to be less violent than I expected. Granted it WAS compensated....When someday I find myself physically unable to safely and or relatively painlessly fire the mags I'll give it up... Till then, fire away!

Grips and grip angle have everything to do with how a heavy caliber handgun reacts.

One of the most comfortable 44 mags I ever shot was a Ruger SuperBlackhawk with a 6 inch barrel.

Sweet and easy with 240 gr factory loads.

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Take your time..quickly.

I enjoy shooting loads with a bit of recoil sparingly. I find that, in spite of my best efforts, the more thumpers I shoot, the worse my aim gets.

I've shot stainless steal 357 j frames quite a bit. I can't imagine what a scandium frame 357 shoots like. I don't want to know.

At 64 I still enjoy shooting my pre 29's. First 5 rounds or so smart but after that I don't seem to feel the recoil. When I was younger I used a 29 for everything from tin cans to paper to IHMSA. I think recoil is felt differently for each of us but for myself I think it is more in my head than in my hand. I do think a 44 in N frame is more comfortable to shoot than my 4" 19.

Ted

even the lowly .22 lr.

Learning how a given gun recoils and how to respond to it is the key.

The first time I shot a .44 magnum my hand hurt - the Pachmyr grips dug into my hand. I was trying to prevent the gun from recoiling. After my neighbor (his gun, a Super Blackhawk) stopped laughing he told me the best advice I've ever been given about recoil: hold onto the gun so it doesn't go in an unsafe direction and go with the recoil...ever since then I don't have any recoil issues.

Someone was shooting a .454 Casull at the range one day - asked him how it felt...he said it hurt. When I asked him why he shot it, he repeated: "It hurts." Some are sicker then others!

a lot of truth in what cwo4 said.I handle recoil depending on the firearm.9mm I can sort of hold back into place.
My .40 seems to have a short hard muzzle flip with recoil,I limit it a little and try to transfer more to my elbows.
.45 acp seems to have a long smooth recoil,but if you "let it go" it seems to fall back online pretty naturally.
.357 highway troll with seems to be more like the .45 but a lot harder(with full loads)
.44 mag( I dont have one but a friend of mine does)for some stupid reason I shoot .44 more accurately than .357,go figure.Long hard recoil and I have to let it go and control it(no hit the gourd causem headache) and let it fall back into place.

May not make much sense,kind of hard to explain.Different firearms frames angles,and calibers have different personalities.The harder the recoil the less you can fight it.Controlling it,guiding it,sort of like riding a bull,its gonna do what its gonna do you have to ride it or itll ride you.

Now that big'un you have may teach me I'm mistaken,but I'm allways willing to learn something

pachmayr presentation grips tame the recoil from my S&W revolvers ( "J" & "K" frame) and fit my hands quite well.

In my youth I was your basic "magnum-happy fool" and the harder it kicked the better I liked it. I learned how to handle the recoil fairly well, and I comfortably shoot .44 mags if the gun is wearing Goodyears of some sort. Mostly nowadays I like the .40 Hipower (very soft recoiling gun for me) my .45 Sig, and .38 specials. I don't shoot the magnums all that much. As far as rifles go, I do have a guide gun with some .500 grain tyrannosaur bullets but mostly I shoot standard pressure .405's in that one.

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Even older, even crankier....

To each his own, I guess, but I have never understood big calibers in handguns. Seems like overkill to me or someone to lazy to carry the right size rifle to do the job. Even in my youth, I drew the line at .357 Magnum, and only shoot .38 Special in them now. Never cared for the .45 either. (Ophs, boy I'm really out of step with the times, now.)

The .44 mag is as large as I subject myself to in a handgun...it really isn't that big a recoiler though.

Rifles..it's more a state of mind and proper training of how to become 'one with the gun'....your body is the recoil system with a big rifle..same as a handgun...

I just trained my kids to take it to your shoulder snug(so it don't pound you)..brace your lower body so the recoil doesn't knock you off balance...and let your upper body roll with the gun. Don't fear the gun..just hang onto it

Even my little girls could take the recoil from Jungle carbines, M44, Steyr M95, M1 rifle, 12ga shotguns, etc with a modest amount of training.

As far as rifles go..it seems to me grown men, combat trained with AR rifles/carbines get the worst of a heavier kicking rifle! They don't seem to try recoil with the gun...my son in law get's a beating with the big rifles...

I'm pushing 50 and never really had any issues with recoil until my son and I finally put some rounds through my .50AE Automag V. It's ported, which helps with muzzle flip, but the recoil is brutal, straight back into the web of your hand. No fun, may as well just whack it with a lead pipe.

My boy is young and rugged, one of the USAF's finest, but he didn't enjoy shooting that beast any more than I did.

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

For my 44 magnum. I shoot light specials in that size gun it gives me more controll and less recoil than a 357 magnum with wadcutters.....
A man has to know his limitations.

Allow me to put in my opinion on this.

Recoil is a perceived force. Many things will have an effect on what a person perceives to be recoil. With handgun shooting, the length of the gun barrel will have the largest effect other than caliber and load size.

Ask anyone that has had to fire a gun in a moment of stress and they will not remember the recoil, noise or such because their mind was on something else.

Many people start thinking about recoil long before they ever fire the gun. The more they think about the recoil before shooting, the worse they think the recoil was after the shooting.

If one can concentrate on other things while shooting, they will not pay attention to recoil.

AND many people bring recoil on themselves by wanting small guns with lots of power. A model 36 snubbie will have more recoil than a model 66 with a 4 inch barrel shooting the same type round. A 3.5 inch 1911 will be worse than a 5 inch 1911.
We went through this will my 30 yr old daughter. She found she can shoot a .357 better than a .40 S&W, .45acp or 9mm. She has a perception that the .357 has less recoil.

Long guns: Well you get what you bought. I have a bad right shoulder. It often gets knocked out of place but at my age I am not going through the surgery or the cost ($68,000) to repair it. My shooting long guns has been diminished to .22LR, 20 ga shotguns and .270 rifles. The pressure from my 7mm mag going off pushes my shoulder out of place. Nothing I have tried helped in the least. A trauma Dr is locating me a special shooting vest that he feels may allow me to shoot a heavier caliber rifle. It is not the perception I have about recoil but the actual backward pressure exerted against my right shoulder.

The point is to hit your target. Keep your elbows locked, lean forward slightly and squeeze the trigger so steadily that you have no idea when the round will go off. If this sounds like the same advice you'd get for all handgun shooting, it is.

I have several larger caliber handguns and rifles, but anymore I don't really have any use for a handgun with more power than a good 357 load or a rifle more powerful than a .270. These work for me.

I agree that most recoil issues are between the shooters ears more than anything. With the exception of super light guns in big boomer chamberings...they kick no matter what.

I've fired hundreds of rds of full power .375 H&H, .300 win Mag, and .338 Lapua off of my bench, out of standard rifles. You use a scope that allows good eye relief, set up the rest and bags properly then watch what your doing. As previously mentioned...the gun ISN'T going to injure you...grin and take it.

But have to say that once you get into the .40 calibers in rifles they start getting your attention no matter what. Once worked up loads for a .416 Rigby with 400 gr slugs. Each additional 50-100 fps was another level of abuse.

FN in MT

I close my eyes and flinch

If I got to think about it-I ain't a gonna shoot it. Getting old does that to ya.

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Forum consigliere

I have a friend that has a Ruger single shot in .416 Rigby and I shot it once standing and once from the bench and I would let a bear eat me before I will pull the trigger on that thing again. I am now old and I have found the best way to handle recoil is stay away from it. A .357 and 30-06 is my limit. Larry

I shoot for fun and make love for fun---neither sport involves pain.
I just plain will not shoot a gun which is not fun---therefore, I don't own one. .41 mag is a big as it goes for me---along this same line of reasoning. The BG is just going to have to put up being shot a number of times by my fun to shoot guns.
Works for me--hope it don't make him too angry.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD