Rifle that kicks like a mule....

[oldiegoldie]

I have a pre 64 model 70 in 300H&H. With no but pad, after 3 shots, I call out for "Mommy"

I borrowed a Model 70 in 300 H&H and shot it half a dozen times to make sure it was sighted in. The worst kickin I ever had. It was Super grade and I could have bought it for $800, but would have never shot it.

 

[model70hunter]

I see lots of Marlin 1895's listed. I loved mine, never noticed the recoil but I had several 300, 338 mags I shot at the time. I know my 300 mags Win and WBY recoil harder than the 338 or 340 ones. My pre 64 Win in 375 H H was OK.

I worked up some loads for a friends 458 win mag. I felt it like the 33, 275 mages was more of a hard push rather than the 300's quick recoil curve.

When the REM 416 came out I built one on a commercial mauser 375 action. I loaded some stout loads, other than the old curved metal butt plate on a Win 94 was the hardest kicking gun I'd ever shot. VIOLENT!

I've read and been told that the 378 WBY has the worst recoil of them all. So I was in Dallas for a meeting and slipped by an L
GS one evening. They had a 378 WBY Mag with the most beautiful stock. I had flown in and couldn't take it home, I did not have a close LGS at that time. It was on consignment and less than half of a regular 300 WBY. I wanted that thing. Conquer it and all the rest would feel like a 22 LR. Called a shop in KC but they did not want to mess with it.

I had a back up plan. If it would render me unconscious while shooting I was going to put a 400 H&H bbl on it.

 

[Stan O]

Hardest Kickers

416 Rigby in a double rifle. One you do not want to shoot from the bench. 1886 Winchester in 45.70 with a curved steel buttplate is another.

 

[windypoint]

.458 Win-Mag that I no longer own. Black and blue bruiser.

 

[GatorFarmer]

Do not try it at home, but once I discovered my .50 caliber inline was pretty much impossible to blow up, I worked up some loads to rattle my teeth. Things like 150 grains of powder, three .50 round balls and an extra helping of six .44 revolver balls. Out to about 50 feet that did impressive damage to a target.

 

[stu1ritter]

Pre-64 Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in 30-06. Period.

Stu

 

[Art Doc]

I confess to being recoil sensitive and that I do not enjoy getting kicked around. But I still own a couple of hard kicking rifles. Don't enjoy shooting them

Shoots a 500 grain bullet at 2,350 FPS.

Have not worked up the courage to fire a full power load in this. My friend who sold it to me swears it kickes harder than the 460 pictured above and he has fired both.

Even with reduced loads this thing kills me...

My 300 and 375 Magnums are stout but somewhat manageable. Not these.

 

[Cyrano]

Saxon Pig: There was a separate service load for the trapdoor carbine. I think it was around 50 grs of black powder and a filler, instead of 70 grs. It was used with the 405 gr bullet with a large, flat meplat. Military cartridges were headstamed 'R' or 'C' since they used the same bullet and couldn't be told apart. When they went to a 500 gr round nosed bullet for the rifle service load, they gave up the distinctive headstamps. 70 grs of black and a 405 gr bullet were breaking the carbine stocks at the wrist.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

3.5" 12 gauge Mossberg 836 with 2 1/8 oz. turkey loads. I don't notice it when shooting a turkey or a coyote but when I check patterns... Ouch. And then one time I accidentally double-charged my .54 caliber T/C Renegade muzzleloader - 220 grains of FFFG instead of 110 (which would already get your attention) under a 430 gr. Maxi bullet. Wow.

 

[Valmet]

.378 Weatherby Mag...no question. More felt recoil than a .460 thanks to the Ackley shoulder. I drag mine out of the safe a few times a year to clear my sinuses.

 

[amazingflapjack]

1895 cow boy 45-70 with +P+ 350 gr JHP-@about 2150 fps.

 

[Hamster65]

Here's a simple solution.

I bought one of these to use with my semi-auto shotgun, when I'm using 3" magnums because those things will beat the hell out of you. It works quite well with the Mosin too, and any other hard hitting rifle for that matter.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013R8J48/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687442&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001C5XOJQ&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0SQBQSFF1Y3VW610V5CR"]Amazon.com : Caldwell Mag Plus Recoil Shield : Hunting Recoil Pads : Sports & Outdoors@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414Bjo7lU6L.@@AMEPARAM@@414Bjo7lU6L[/ame]

 

[JohnRippert]

.30 cal is as big as I own and none of them feel too bad to me. That is likely because I use a PAST recoil pad when shooting. I have a CETME that originally had a brake on it and was easy to shoot. I bought a US made flash hider to replace the brake. Man, what a difference. That CETME kicks like a mule now.

 

[41 fan]

What Cyrano said. I had 2 number 3's in 45/70. Four hundred grain Speer .458 bullets loaded to close to 2000 fps. I don't know which end was worse to be on. Still have my number 3 in 30/40 Krag. Much more pleasant. Dean

 

[LimaCharlie]

I had a Ruger No. 1 in .458 Lott that was almost as bad as a 3 1/2" 12 gauge slug in my Benelli SuperNova Tactical Pump.

 

[JayFramer]

I love the moistan naggat rifles! Very good stopping power and range.

 

[jmace57]

First shot ever with a scoped rifle AND off a rest was a 70's era 700 BDL in 30.06 with what I swear was a gutta percha butt pad... not sure if it was better than nothing. I had bought it from my best friend who was shooting a .300 WM with a muzzle brake just next to me. Barest bit of wobble from the rest and bench plus the muzzle blast nearby had me focusing so hard on the target I forgot a good shoulder lock with the first shot.
With my buddy's help I dialed in the scope, firing twice between adjustments just to see if I could hit the same spot twice, moved the target down range, stuck a folded hand towel under my T-shirt and threw another dozen rounds before I realized my shoulder hurt like heck. I was having a good time, only 20 rounds total.
The next day it looked like I had slice of baseball right on the shoulder knob.

Same here - My grandfather passed away when I was 13 and he left me one of his deer rifles. It was a scoped, bolt-action 30-06. It had the barrel cut down, there was a lot of mesquite thickets where he hunted I guess. My Dad took me to the shooting range with it.

Here's the weird thing - I've never had this in any other rifle I've ever shot. When there was no cartridge in the chamber, it had this lovely, fairly long trigger pull. When it HAD one in the chamber, it became a hair trigger. I found that out the hard way, when I sat at the bench and before I got it snugged up to my shoulder, made the mistake of putting my finger in the trigger guard...BOOM...it was like a sledge hammer hit me (fortunately) in the shoulder. My Dad didn't believe me, until he shot it soo (the hair trigger). I hated that gun from then on. Ended up buying a different deer rifle.

 

[k22fan]

The worst kicking of the long guns that I've owned was a
French Berthier carbine while firing surplus 238 grain Hotchkiss machine gun cartridges. It weighed about as much as a kid's .22 and had a lot of drop in its stock which ended in a steel butt plate. The cartridges were a long range version of the old 1886 Lebel rimmed cartridge. It kicked worse than a large bore Weatherby Mark V.

 

[021]

Years ago I visited a friend in western NY. He had a Colt Sauer .375 H and H magnum and asked if I wanted to shoot it. Of course, my dumb A** said "sure"! It was a very light gun, no scope, and after I touched it off I got back up, called a real estate agent, and bought a house on the spot. That was in Stockbridge Georgia---if that gives you any indication how it kicked.......

 

[Doubless]

I am not particularly recoil sensitive, and I am thankful for that. Now, having said that, I have a full custom 35 Whelen with a skeletonized butt plate. Full tilt 250s from that rifle are somewhat unpleasant.

I like muzzleloaders as well, and have shot my own 600-grain conicals from a 6.2-lb. muzzy using 100 grain vol equiv. of Hodgdon T7. Brisk, to say the least!

And I don't particularly like my 300 RUM off the bench, either. It is braked, but I shoot it with the brake removed and the cover installed because I literally detest the cloud of dust it blows up with every shot when the brake is installed.

But the worst I have gotten hold of is an 18-1/2" 16-gauge 870 and slug loads. 25 of them off the bench and I was done.

 

[M1A]

I have gotten two Weatherby eyes from my 300 mag. Not lately, so lesson learned.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

.378 Weatherby Mag...no question. More felt recoil than a .460 thanks to the Ackley shoulder. I drag mine out of the safe a few times a year to clear my sinuses.

I always figured that .378 for a stomper. Never shot one but have shot a .30/.378; it had a good brake on it, and while the muzzle blast from that brake was pretty fierce, the recoil wasn't bad at all. Shot a .500 black powder express double rifle once or twice; not bad, just a big push though it had a lot of muzzle rise. A .375 H&H I found quite manageable, though I didn't shoot it from the bench. My .45-70 Marlin can be loaded to painful levels, but I don't. It eats 350 grain cast bullets over enough 5744 to get 'em going about 1600 fps and that's plenty good for my needs. Don't enjoy hard-kicking guns like I used to. Could be old age, could be I got smarter; just sayin, ...

 

[David LaPell]

Before I got hurt I used to be able to shoot about anything, now not so much. Because of the stimulator they put in my back they had to trim out a part of a vertebrae to make room and when I fire a bigger gun it tends to send a shock through where they implanted that, after a few shots from anything larger than a .308 and it's a wake up call like no other.
One of my favorite rifles I had that wasn't bad to shoot was a Mauser 98 custom I had in .338-06 Improved. That felt like a .30-06 with a 180 grain bullet. I think the only two guns i ever really owned that hurt was a T/C Renegade in .54. It didn't hurt on the shoulder, but on the cheek. After a few rounds and I had a triangular shaped bruise that was black and blue for a week. The other was a Mossberg bolt action 16 gauge, I had the barrel cut down to 20 inches to make it a wet weather deer gun. It was like shooting a howitzer, compared to my Ithaca Deerslayer it was nasty on both ends.
Now I have a couple of guns, my Ithaca isn't too bad but three or four rounds at a time will put me on the couch afterwards. I shot a pre-64 Model 70 Featherweight in .308 with mild handloads, from the bench five rounds were it. Another reason I went back to the .30-30, recoil isn't bad.
Still the worst thing I ever shot was never a rifle, but a Thompson Center Contender handgun in .35 Remington, that gun actually tore the Pachmayr grips with factory ammo.

 

[Jim NNN]

Mine is also the Marlin 1895 in .45/70.

I've slipped on ice and injured both of my shoulders, and I'm not going to reinjure them. Bought Black Hills cowboy ammo and a LimbSaver pad, but still haven't tried it yet. Hope these two changes will lower the recoil enough to make the rifle usable.

 

[cbore]

Worst kicker I have used

Old Remington 12 gauge 30" full 11-48 of my Father's
Marlin 444 magnum
A Remington pump in 270 (weird stock fit)

 

[wbraswell]

Well you can count me in with those who picked the Ruger #3 .45/70. It's 6 pounds, with a curved butt plate. It was the first rifle cartridge I reloaded for. In the old Speer manual, it had listings for using 2400 in the .45/70. I had already used 4198 in some mild loads and was pleased. That is when I learned the difference in slow burning powders and fast burning powders. Warning! 2400 is way too fast a powder to jack up a .45/70. You will know what "sharp" recoil is. I loaded up 20 with 350 gr. Sierras and a middle of the road dose of 2400. Yow! I shot a couple, it had no signs of high pressure and let my buddy shoot it. We were shooting in the sitting postition. I think I saw his butt scoot when he dropped the hammer on it. I pulled the bullets in the last 15 or so.
I'll give mention to cbore's post. I have shot an 1148 12ga. and I agree completely. I had a 20ga. 1148 that had an 18in barrel, and I swear it kicked just as hard.

 

[shocker]

3" 12 gauge slugs from a CZ612 shotgun. Calculates to 44 ft-lbs of recoil energy. My Sako in 300 Win mag is pleasant by comparison.

Hickok45 just posted a video featuring the Ruger 1 in 375 HH. Didn't look like it beat him up too bad, of course he's 6-8 and probably weighs 300 lbs.

Best way I've found to shoot heavy recoil when accuracy matters is from the classic sitting position using a loop sling. The blow gets pretty well spread among all the body parts that way. Sitting on a bench is the worst.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Only rifle that ever got my attention like that was a CZ-European .416 Rigby. But there are plenty of rifles I have not shot yet!!!!

 

[Jessie]

I have an old 742 in 30/06 that I don't like shooting any more. Autos are supposed to kick less but I have shot .300 mag bolts that kicked less. I bought it when I was 17. I think I'm going to sell it and get a .243. I thought about a 7-08 but the shells are twice as much.

I agree. I bought one for any friends who may fly in or just show up for deer season.
I put it on a lead sled to sight it in and it was like a bull in the starting gate. Maybe shooting freehand would help, but that gun does not like to be held down. NOT a bench gun for sure.
I thought being a semi auto would help...not!
I'm just glad that I didn't get it for me.

 

[Hamster65]

My vote goes to my 91/59 Nagant Carbine. When I fire it at the range, a fireball the size of a bowling ball erupts from the muzzle...children scream and women swoon....okay, not really...but the next guy over says..."***"? Two magazines of 7.62x54 and my shoulder has had enough....

The size of a bowling ball? Hmm...........
Here's an example of the average muzzle flash from a 91/30



Not really something you want to fire at night, if you want to be able to see afterwards.