Recoil...how do you handle it?

cwo4uscgret said:
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!
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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:D
 
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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.
 
My hardest recoiling pistol is the Detonics Pocket 9; aluminum grips don't help this 3" barreled pocket pistol; who'd think a 9mm would be that hard.

pocket9_commander.jpg


here it is sitting on top of my Colt Combat Commander .45 to show size. It has more recoil the the Combat Commander!​
 
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.

SDC11625.JPG
 
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
 
Frank237 said:
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
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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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