I have noticed that longer barrels, as well as adding weight, "feel" like less recoil for me. My two hardest kickers are both about 45 lbs by the chart. A 6lb10oz 9.3x62 (286@ 2400) and an 8lb 8oz .405 on a P14 (422@2060). I have 28" barrels on my 338 Jarret and my 8 mag, both are around 38lbs recoil, but they are WAY easier to shoot off the bench with sandbags than the thumpers
What is your recoil threshold poll?
- Thread starter Muddyboots
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
At my original height of 6'6" I was not exactly tiny and have never been overweight, so from my late teens through my sixties I never experienced any recoil that particularly bothered me. During my thirties I picked up two barely used Model 70 Winchesters, one in .257 Roberts and the other in .270 Winchester. On the local range (maximum of 300 yards) they were both capable of sub-minute of angle 5-shot groups but the .257 would regularly group a little tighter than the .270. I just assumed that it was the better of the two rifles. But this thread has me now thinking that the slight difference between the two could very well be the effect of recoil.
I've shot 3-1/2" 10 & 12 gauge shotguns, my .416 Remington Magnum and the lightweight Remington Model 600 in .350 Remington Magnum without ever breaking any blood vessels in my shoulder. But after several 5 shot groups with the .270 I'd invariably see some capillary hemorrhaging. I've not done the recoil calculation on any of those weapons & loads but suspect that the .350 Remington had the most recoil as it only weighed 2/3 of what the scoped .416 mag did. I know for a fact that the 18" barreled .350 had the most annoying muzzle blast!
But 8 years ago I blew out my right (shooting side) rotator cuff such that a normal (anatomically correct) total shoulder replacement wouldn't work. So I had to settle for a "reverse" total shoulder replacement (rTSA is the medical acronym.) With only the deltoid muscle holding the shoulder intact any attempt to raise the upper arm with a normal shoulder replacement would simply dislocate the joint. With the rTSA the ball of the joint is attached inboard to the scapula and the socket extends inward from the arm bone to meet up with the ball. That inboard point of rotation allows the deltoid muscle to hold the joint together when raising the arm. But at the time of my surgery that prosthesis had only recently been approved in this country so there wasn't any long term history to know just how durable it might prove to be and my surgeon advised me to not abuse it with very much recoil ... and I had a deer and pheasant hunt scheduled about two months post surgery! I figured my scoped Browning A-bolt had about 15 pounds of recoil with factory loads so I loaded some 160 gr Noslers at 2400 fps to reduce the recoil by about 25-30%. I chose that bullet because it had a heavier jacket than a lighter option and wouldn't expand as explosively, ruining a lot of meat. Worked out fine for 4 one-shot kills on the little Texas whitetails all at relatively close range (≤120 yards.) For the pheasants I used my 8+ pound Ruger Woodside sporting clays O/U with Briley sub-gauge tubes shooting 1 oz 20 gauge ammo.
On my followup appointment with my ortho surgeon she asked how the Texas hunt worked out and I told her that my days of competitive skeet and sporting clays competition looked to be
doomed, because my shoulder anatomy had changed so much that the mild recoil of my Ruger was enough to throw me off target on the 2nd shot (the only doubles I scored that year on pheasant were done by dismounting and remounting the gun between shots.) But darned if the doc didn't come up with a solution for me. She is a top notch knee & shoulder surgeon, sports medicine specialist and she & her husband are both shotgunners. So she knew of an outfit named EvoShield Pro that produces all manner of joint guards for athletes that are form fitted by the athlete from a gel pack that starts setting up when removed from its air-tight packaging. Takes about ten minutes to fully set so there is plenty of time to have it conformed to the joint it will be protecting. And they even made such a guard for shooters to reduce the effects of long gun recoil to the shoulder.
Unlike the shoulder pads mentioned earlier in this thread, instead of cushioning the recoil the hardened EvoShield guard spreads the recoil out over a larger part of one's anatomy. That, in my case, not only protects the shoulder prosthesis but it also serves to adapt my altered shoulder anatomy to my normal gun mount position. Ordered by shirt size, it comes with a lycra T-shirt that you order one size too small so it fits very snugly. The shirt has a sewn in pouch over the shooting shoulder that you slip the gel pack into immediately after removing it from its air-tight packaging. Then you spend ten minutes repeatedly mounting and dismounting your long gun, after which the gel pack exactly matches your body on the inbound side and your butt stock on the outer side. I used my lightweight Belgian Browning 20 gauge O/U because it's significantly lighter than the Ruger and I knew I could last through the ~100 mounts I would be performing in 10 minutes. If one were getting a Shooter's EvoShield strictly for bench rest shooting it would be a simpler process of simply setting up with the normal bench shooting gear and holding the stock in shooting position, snugly pulled into the shoulder, for ten minutes.
The Shooter's EvoShield is such a small part of their business that most of the institutional sports houses that carry EvoShield products aren't even aware of its existence. I finally found mine at the Cabela's store in Denver, bought it online and had them mail it to me. It retailed (7 years ago) for $59.99. Now I can once again quickly acquire the clay target or live bird for a second shot and more comfortably shoot my rifles.
I've shot 3-1/2" 10 & 12 gauge shotguns, my .416 Remington Magnum and the lightweight Remington Model 600 in .350 Remington Magnum without ever breaking any blood vessels in my shoulder. But after several 5 shot groups with the .270 I'd invariably see some capillary hemorrhaging. I've not done the recoil calculation on any of those weapons & loads but suspect that the .350 Remington had the most recoil as it only weighed 2/3 of what the scoped .416 mag did. I know for a fact that the 18" barreled .350 had the most annoying muzzle blast!
But 8 years ago I blew out my right (shooting side) rotator cuff such that a normal (anatomically correct) total shoulder replacement wouldn't work. So I had to settle for a "reverse" total shoulder replacement (rTSA is the medical acronym.) With only the deltoid muscle holding the shoulder intact any attempt to raise the upper arm with a normal shoulder replacement would simply dislocate the joint. With the rTSA the ball of the joint is attached inboard to the scapula and the socket extends inward from the arm bone to meet up with the ball. That inboard point of rotation allows the deltoid muscle to hold the joint together when raising the arm. But at the time of my surgery that prosthesis had only recently been approved in this country so there wasn't any long term history to know just how durable it might prove to be and my surgeon advised me to not abuse it with very much recoil ... and I had a deer and pheasant hunt scheduled about two months post surgery! I figured my scoped Browning A-bolt had about 15 pounds of recoil with factory loads so I loaded some 160 gr Noslers at 2400 fps to reduce the recoil by about 25-30%. I chose that bullet because it had a heavier jacket than a lighter option and wouldn't expand as explosively, ruining a lot of meat. Worked out fine for 4 one-shot kills on the little Texas whitetails all at relatively close range (≤120 yards.) For the pheasants I used my 8+ pound Ruger Woodside sporting clays O/U with Briley sub-gauge tubes shooting 1 oz 20 gauge ammo.
On my followup appointment with my ortho surgeon she asked how the Texas hunt worked out and I told her that my days of competitive skeet and sporting clays competition looked to be
doomed, because my shoulder anatomy had changed so much that the mild recoil of my Ruger was enough to throw me off target on the 2nd shot (the only doubles I scored that year on pheasant were done by dismounting and remounting the gun between shots.) But darned if the doc didn't come up with a solution for me. She is a top notch knee & shoulder surgeon, sports medicine specialist and she & her husband are both shotgunners. So she knew of an outfit named EvoShield Pro that produces all manner of joint guards for athletes that are form fitted by the athlete from a gel pack that starts setting up when removed from its air-tight packaging. Takes about ten minutes to fully set so there is plenty of time to have it conformed to the joint it will be protecting. And they even made such a guard for shooters to reduce the effects of long gun recoil to the shoulder.
Unlike the shoulder pads mentioned earlier in this thread, instead of cushioning the recoil the hardened EvoShield guard spreads the recoil out over a larger part of one's anatomy. That, in my case, not only protects the shoulder prosthesis but it also serves to adapt my altered shoulder anatomy to my normal gun mount position. Ordered by shirt size, it comes with a lycra T-shirt that you order one size too small so it fits very snugly. The shirt has a sewn in pouch over the shooting shoulder that you slip the gel pack into immediately after removing it from its air-tight packaging. Then you spend ten minutes repeatedly mounting and dismounting your long gun, after which the gel pack exactly matches your body on the inbound side and your butt stock on the outer side. I used my lightweight Belgian Browning 20 gauge O/U because it's significantly lighter than the Ruger and I knew I could last through the ~100 mounts I would be performing in 10 minutes. If one were getting a Shooter's EvoShield strictly for bench rest shooting it would be a simpler process of simply setting up with the normal bench shooting gear and holding the stock in shooting position, snugly pulled into the shoulder, for ten minutes.
The Shooter's EvoShield is such a small part of their business that most of the institutional sports houses that carry EvoShield products aren't even aware of its existence. I finally found mine at the Cabela's store in Denver, bought it online and had them mail it to me. It retailed (7 years ago) for $59.99. Now I can once again quickly acquire the clay target or live bird for a second shot and more comfortably shoot my rifles.
Well youngster, me being at 73
, I do still shoot my 870 slug gun off bench! But I am shooting some much lighter bullets out of 300WM!
memtb
Well-Known Member
Just don't disappoint the ladies! You don't shoot a CM, do ya?I've been disappointing people for years.
memtb
WYO300RUM
Well-Known Member
I can remember the 460 S&W Encore rifle barrel I had . It was 20 inch and it had a healthy kick to it. The Simms Limbsaver recoil pad helped. If I'd of hung on it I'd of threaded barrel and installed a muzzle brake. I had 3 rings on scope mount.
Last edited:
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
I can take recoil just fine, but I will say there's no need to make things harder than they have to be. I grew up on .30-30, 303 Brit, and .30-06.
The .30-30 was definitely more suitable for a scrawny 12 year old both in recoil and the size of rifle to handle.
No matter…I wasn't even a stupid teenager, I was a stupid pre-teenager and dad's old lever gun was weak and lame
(I adore that rifle now) - I was over the moon when a friend lent me his .30-06 when I was 13 or 14 and did shoot it well enough to take my first deer with it at about 250 yards. But I will say, I probably spent a year or three unlearning the flinch that that rifle taught me - I was a late to hit my growth spurt as a teenager, being 13-14 and rail thin the 30-06 with 180s was a tad much…I convinced myself I liked it 
I have a load worked up for my old family savage 99 243 with 75 grain Barnes x bullets. That'll be what my kids get to learn centerfire hunting rifles on should they wish to hunt when they older
The .30-30 was definitely more suitable for a scrawny 12 year old both in recoil and the size of rifle to handle.
No matter…I wasn't even a stupid teenager, I was a stupid pre-teenager and dad's old lever gun was weak and lame
(I adore that rifle now) - I was over the moon when a friend lent me his .30-06 when I was 13 or 14 and did shoot it well enough to take my first deer with it at about 250 yards. But I will say, I probably spent a year or three unlearning the flinch that that rifle taught me - I was a late to hit my growth spurt as a teenager, being 13-14 and rail thin the 30-06 with 180s was a tad much…I convinced myself I liked it I have a load worked up for my old family savage 99 243 with 75 grain Barnes x bullets. That'll be what my kids get to learn centerfire hunting rifles on should they wish to hunt when they older
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
Also matters if the person is afraid of the recoil to begin with. And if they're awkward handling it.
When I was in college I took some friends of mine out shooting one day…
One of them was my age, female, 5 foot 1 and small framed…she started small but kept wanting to shoot a bigger gun haha, and totally owned the recoil of my .300 win mag for multiple shots (actually hit what she was aiming at too for bonus points) - wasn't nervous about it, and you could visibly see it push her around pretty good but she just kinda rolled with it naturally, didnt fight it.
Another one of my friends was a year younger and the total opposite end of the spectrum. Male, and an honest 6 foot 6 giraffe of a man - he had never shot a gun bigger than a .22lr in his life and was just "naturally awkward" if that makes sense…like he was much much bigger than me, and stronger by a landslide for just raw power, but pretty much every guy in the men's dorm could prevail against him in the frequent and ridiculous impromptu wrestling matches that happened - he was all limbs and just plainly didn't know how to handle himself …
Anyway, poor guy got a black eye from my .270…
When I was in college I took some friends of mine out shooting one day…
One of them was my age, female, 5 foot 1 and small framed…she started small but kept wanting to shoot a bigger gun haha, and totally owned the recoil of my .300 win mag for multiple shots (actually hit what she was aiming at too for bonus points) - wasn't nervous about it, and you could visibly see it push her around pretty good but she just kinda rolled with it naturally, didnt fight it.
Another one of my friends was a year younger and the total opposite end of the spectrum. Male, and an honest 6 foot 6 giraffe of a man - he had never shot a gun bigger than a .22lr in his life and was just "naturally awkward" if that makes sense…like he was much much bigger than me, and stronger by a landslide for just raw power, but pretty much every guy in the men's dorm could prevail against him in the frequent and ridiculous impromptu wrestling matches that happened - he was all limbs and just plainly didn't know how to handle himself …
Anyway, poor guy got a black eye from my .270…
Must have used 1/4" 20tpi grade 8 bolts to keepem from shearing
WYO300RUM
Well-Known Member
Birddog,
My Rem. Versa Max with 3.5 in. Goose loads #2, BB, BBB and T shot doesnt bother me at all . Maybe if a pump or other it might. It's sucks your rotor cuff tear is in you shooting shoulder. Mine is in left side thank God. Had since 2005. Finally got left knee replaced 37 days ago. Maybe next Feb. I'll get shoulder repaired. My whole left side is trashed.
My Rem. Versa Max with 3.5 in. Goose loads #2, BB, BBB and T shot doesnt bother me at all . Maybe if a pump or other it might. It's sucks your rotor cuff tear is in you shooting shoulder. Mine is in left side thank God. Had since 2005. Finally got left knee replaced 37 days ago. Maybe next Feb. I'll get shoulder repaired. My whole left side is trashed.
That auto action has more recoil reduction than the best break made.
memtb
Well-Known Member
WYO300RUM
Well-Known Member
I had one in 460 S&W. I know what you mean
WYO300RUM
Well-Known Member
4 years football. 15 years motocross. Accidents, wrecks, etc. Always left side. Got left elbow repaired. Next will be hip !You must sidehill to the left….thst side appears to be the most used/abused!memtb
Kick Killer leather slip-on Recoil Pads are an easy way help a kid get thru that learning curve. Saves em from bad first lesson, especially if that 270 Win has a checkered steel butt plate. They're thick AKTON,only like $49 bucks.
