Hows your Recoil Sensitivity?

[Gunney]

This is one of those topics that has no clear parameters, and is always a topic that comes up regarding guns. For some recoil is no bother, whereas for others anything more than a BB gun is torturous... So what's your tolerance? Are you Brave enough to run a box through a Mauser or does the thought of the M1 Carbine invoke a need to pop Xanax?

I personally draw the line at Mauser... metal butt plate plus 8mm ammo equals pain! Even an M1 Garand is tolerable, granted the metal butt plate still isn't enjoyable...

 

[Uncle Brian]

Interesting subject and one that has keep many a hunter/soldier awake by the fire side.
I think there is a difference between the felt recoil in bolt and semi automatic weapons with the latters recoil being much milder.
Also the way the weapon fits you has a big impact as you mentioned a steel but plate does add a little ouch to the equation.
To shoot accurately you need to be free of the dreaded flinch that involuntary action that comes with every shot for the sensitive types.
I have not shot a lot of different weapins but I'll give you an idea of how I feel

Semi auto shotgun 12g: mild and fun could shoot it all day
O/U shotgun 12g: some recoil but not unpleasant, the heavier the gun the better I like it.
M16 semi/full auto 5.56mm I love this weapon it's accurate light and just plain fun to shoot
FN FAL semi auto 7.62mm Accurate and hard hitting but will bruise the cheek after a few hundred rounds
Lee Enfield bolt action .303 Nice round but stock is to short for me and it kicks the hell out of me, nasty butplate too.
Sako blot action .243mm comfortable accurate with enough power to get the job done.
Bolt action .375 H&H magnum hold on tight and lean into the shot and it's not so bad.
Some black powder rifles that I can't remember the calibre of, nice to hold and shoot not much recoil but lots of smoke and smiles.
Assorted .22 fun easy to use with no real recoil.

 

[huntingdan]

Recoil doesn't really matter to me much, pretty high tolerance to a lot of things in general. There is a difference to me though as far as hunting vs. range shooting. Pretty much given, but a lot don't know the difference. To get back on topic though, I will say finding my choke for duck season on my 12g Browning BPS with the 3.5 steel shells will wear me out and bruise up just nice sometimes.

 

[Topgumby]

The gentle, loving push of a Garand against the shoulder is just God's way of saying "mind your sight picture"

 

[hig789]

I have a benelli super black eagle and it has a recoils reduced in it it it still doesn't take the 3.5" turkey loads very well but it is easily tolerable. Now my brother has a mossberg 835 and that SOB is like being hit by a truck. Never shot anything bigger than a .308 but it is pretty tolerable. Pistols I have shot my rounds through a 500 S&W with a 3" barrel and it was not bad at all after knowing what to expect.

 

[Gunney]

I have not fired any shotguns, but I've heard they can kick like a bionic mule.. lol

AR-15(semi-auto M16.. Uncle Sam says full-auto is bad..) is fun, not much kick, yet a satisfying thud.. I really gotta get a relative of mine to take me black powder shooting some time, I hear it kicks, but instead of being an 'ouch' is more of a shove.... .22's boarder boring...

As far as pistols, for me its the design of the gun as opposed to the round. Glocks drive my hands nuts (.40SW) yet I have fired Colt .45s and as well as a .44 Magnum with no issues (granted the later did flip up pretty good on me.. but didn't hurt...)

 

[cb91710]

Haven't fired anything in the .30 class since I was a kid, but I used to love my friend's dad's old bolt action 30-06 (assuming it was a 1906).
12ga doesn't bother me until the next day.

 

[DaveL]

I'm a lot more sensitive to recoil now then when I was younger. Thank God for wuss pads, they make my 8mm Mausers shootable.

 

[auk1124]

For some reason rifles don't bother me nearly as much as pistols. I can tolerate a box of 7.62x54r through a Mosin Nagant with less flinching than I do with a mag or two of 9mm through an auto.

Which makes no sense, as the Mosin kicks like a bull elephant with a porcupine up its butt. To control my pistol flinch I need to practice a lot.

 

[Uncle Brian]

I find with hand guns the recoil isn't too bad even the 1911 .45 was ok to shoot, didn't like revolvers as they rotate in my hand. Never fired anything bigger than the 1911 and don't want to.
One of my old work mates a .50 BMG made by Barrett ... too much for me to consider I'll stick to my little mouse round 5.56mm.
If Uncle Sam says the AR-15 is ok then it must be so ... but I'd check that with a Marine or other mature adult first.
Would love to fire one of these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7J2rbUFyJ8

 

[Gunney]

AUK: If I may, that could be on account that you could be incorrectly holding the pistol. 'Push and Pull' is the best way to not have it hurt... otherwise it can cause such a flinch... Just my 2c... However I will say that phrase about the porcupine is a keeper..!

How was the .50? Did it hurt or just give a really bad shove?

 

[Uncle Brian]

The .50 grabs you by the ears and swings you into every hard object on the range then jumps up and down on your sorry arse until you bleed.
I never fired it but watching Dan do his thing was like watching a train wreck, he says its no big deal because of the gas recoil system but I don't know about that.

 

[auk1124]

AUK: If I may, that could be on account that you could be incorrectly holding the pistol. 'Push and Pull' is the best way to not have it hurt... otherwise it can cause such a flinch...

That may very well be. My pistol shooting bible, which I unfortunately can't find on my bookshelf right now, advocated the two handed stance, thumbs parallel, pistol snugged firmly into the web of my shooting hand, and advocated picturing in your mind's eye the target as a box that you were shooting into. The author of my book escapes me.

I'm not familiar with the concept of "push and pull", if you could explain it in a nutshell I'd appreciate it.

 

[tinashubby]

12 Gauge gives a sore shoulder the next day, but I don't flinch when firing.
Handguns sometime bother me a lot, I just take a breath and kind of settle my mind down that it is only recoil, and nothing that is painful or dangerous.
I believe the "push and pull" is the technique that you push the gun away from your body with your rearward hand that is firing the gun, and you pull the gun in tight with your opposite supporting hand. You wind up with the gun being locked in position between the push hand and the pull hand, if that makes any sense.

 

[noelekal]

I'm not terribly recoil sensitive, especially with rifles. I've spent many years behind an M1 in high-power rifle competition. I can, and have shot most everything up to and including the .458 Winchester Magnum and the .378 Weatherby Magnum rifle. I'm ok with all the U.S. military .30-06 rifles and their steel butt plates or similar foreign arms. I don't profess to like it much when caliber goes much over .30 when coupled with copious case capacity.

There are a few hard-kickers lurking about here. A couple of 5-round groups fired off the bench rest at 100 yards in shirt sleeves with a Winchester Model 70 Super Express .375 H&H Magnum and I'm ready to go do something else for a while. A 1904 vintage Winchester Model 1895 .405 in particular provides for a really dismal recoil experience from off the bench rest. If a rifle can be designed to accentuate recoil then this is it. Take a relatively lightweight rifle (8 1/2 lbs.) and fit it with a short butt stock design from out of the 19th century that requires a big ol' boy to crawl it, provide far too much drop in that stock so as to enhance muzzle rise, cap that stock with a thin steel, unnaturally curved butt plate, and then chamber it for a cartridge that flings the same 300 grain weight bullet as the .375 H&H Magnum and to within 200 fps of that cartridge and one has a recipe for rattling the fillings out of his teeth. Sighting in the .405 Winchester '95 from off the bench rest leaves one feeling like he's been in a bad auto accident. It's more tolerable off-hand, especially in the woods in winter while wearing a coat.

I've duck hunted all my life using heavy 2 3/4-inch 12 gauge loads. Also participated in skeet leagues though I'm mediocre at shotgun games. Shotguns are manageable unless they have poor dimensions and light weight.

The heaviest handgun kept around here is a Smith & Wesson Model 29 with 8 3/8-inch barrel. Years ago this revolver was taken to hunter pistol silhouette matches and gave a fairly good account of itself with heavy handloads. I'd shoot matches and practice at the club range regularly. Don't know that I'd want to repeat that volume of full-power .44 Magnum shooting at 55 years old. I wouldn't be interested in owning a handgun any more powerful than .44 Magnum though it'd be fun to try out any of the .460 or .500 tribe.

"The gentle, loving push of a Garand against the shoulder is just God's way of saying "mind your sight picture."

My brother-in-law sneaked a snippet of video of me shooting the prone rapid-fire stage at a match a couple years back. I've long since gotten beyond the ability to enthusiastically dive for the mat.

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i263/bryanmcgilvray/Album III/?action=view&current=DSCF2262.mp4

 

[packersfan117]

With long arms, I can hang with some pretty heft guns. I shoot a model 91/30 Mosin Nagant which shoots 7.62x54R Russian milsurp, so it's got a wicked shoulder punch. It's been awhile since I've shot a handgun (8 years, sadly), but I was comfortable with .45 ACP. That's about as high as I want to go though, it's not really necessary to own a handgun bigger than .45 ACP. My buddy Freddy, a weight lifter, shot the Desert Eagle in .50 and swore he'd never do it again. If a guy with forearms the size of water mains swears "never again," my normal-sized self will take a hint.

 

[Topgumby]

Noelekal, that's great stuff. Love the video.

A Garand really is a pussycat, more of a shove than a kick.

My biggest "recoil" problem comes from the pistol range...not that any of the pistols or revolvers I shoot are notoriously hard kickers, but I invariably get put next to the guy with a custom 2" ported Model 29, and he has absolutely no sense of rhythm whatsoever.

Also, I think the recoil of the .45 ACP is blown all out of proportion. In full size, or even Commander sized 1911 they are pleasant to shoot.

 

[Gunney]

Aye AUK, Ill try my best to explain it to you:
Stand Feet spread, slightly favouring your 'good hand' side (from here on out the 'right' side, since I am myself right handed..) You don't want to be sideways, yet you don't want to be standing straight on. You then hold the pistol in your right hand and hold it as far out from your body as possible. Lock the elbow. Now take your left hand and 'grab on' to your right hand, slightly wrapping around the bottom of the hand. You want to try and pull that hand towards your body. It is important that your right hand be trying to push away, whilst your left is trying to pull towards you. The left elbow should NOT be locked. Its difficult to picture, however try it as your reading this (you don't have to have the gun in your hand! Just make a fish with your right hand..) I generally will put my thumbs parallel, but I will also let my right thumb sort of ride the slide. Be careful of slide bite.

That was the technique taught to me by a police officer.

The biggest thing with the Garand, is ensuring that you hold it tight... if not it hurts like a bugger!

.45APC is blown out of porportion... The gun is substantially heavier to compensate...

 

[cb91710]

My biggest "recoil" problem comes from the pistol range...not that any of the pistols or revolvers I shoot are notoriously hard kickers, but I invariably get put next to the guy with a custom 2" ported Model 29, and he has absolutely no sense of rhythm whatsoever.

I always get stuck next to the guy with the S&W 500

Also, I think the recoil of the .45 ACP is blown all out of proportion. In full size, or even Commander sized 1911 they are pleasant to shoot.

Ditto.

70 rounds through my wife's LCR in .38spl and I didn't want to shoot it again. Gun is just too light.
I put it down and then put 200 rounds through my 1911.

But 100rds through my SP101 in .357mag is not a problem.

 

[Gunney]

I always get stuck next to the guy who can't keep his brass in his lane... or out of my shirt for that matter...