Hows your Recoil Sensitivity?

[Topgumby]

Rich, I agree. 1911's are easy, but air-weight J frames can be brutal.

The same load that's a hoot to shoot in my 7-1/2" SAA Uberti gives me a migrane out of a 642.

Kind of makes me wonder how much range time the new micro 9mm pistols that are all the rage nowadays are going to get.

I could pull the trigger on a Hi Power all day, but a Nano, not so much.

 

[Uncle Brian]

I loved shooting the 1911 .45 and the recoil is definately not something to be scared of.
The FN FAL on semi doing rapid fire with its metal but plate needs to be held tight, then no issues until the bruise on the cheek the next day.
I learned to shoot pistol from a Police Officer too and I also remember I learned a lot of stuff from Col Jeff Cooper, not in person I'm afraid.
One of the thing i remember doing was dry firing to eliminate any flinch, my buddy would give me the weapon and i would not know if it was loaded until i squeezed the trigger, i jumped a few times felt silly but it helped.
I also remember being told to concentrate on the front sight and the art of the double tap, of course it's not much good for accuracy and x rings but when the watermellon hits the fan and you are at spitting distance from your enemy it's a good technique.
I never got tested for real [ thankfully ] but I did get the water scared out of me on those Practical Pistol courses when those bad guy targets leap out of nowhere. I knew they weren't real but it took soooooo long for the 1911 to come up to engage them, I was sure i was done for. Add in the recoil of the pistol, the noise, the smell and trying to change mags while sweating in the hot sun sure gets your attenion.

 

[Topgumby]

I recall being told to hold the pistol like it was a live bird...not so hard that you crush it, but firmly, so it doesn't get away. I've never forgotten that mental picture. Maybe I should get a pair of scrimshawed grip panels with Tweety on them for my Gold Cup.

I also am fond of the mental game of pretending that the trigger is connected to the front sight, and I am really using the trigger to move the front sight straight back through the rear sight notch, and I have to watch it carefully, even during recoil.

Can't be done, but it helps me tremendously with follow through.

 

[Uncle Brian]

When i used to hunt I got told to use all your senses and that if you keep your mouth open sometimes you can taste the air and the presence of game. It kind of works I guess it's really just being very tuned into your environment. When shooting the .45 in the target maze i found that using all the senses and forgetting about 'correct' technique resulted in more hits. Too much thinking is a bad thing some thinking is ok. I got to say there was an element of fear as well, fear of messing up, fear of missing, fear of failing in front of my fellow shooters and I guess fear of not being able to do it right and f*****g up should it happen for real.
I like the trigger sight idea I can actuallly see how it makes sense and as for the little bird very cool, I got told something about trigger control once by my Sgt. but this is a family show so we won't go into detail.

 

[nrv216]

I am not sensitive at all. I have shot .44mag revolvers all day and not realized I was doing damage until my wrist was sore the next day! Same for long guns I shoot 12ga slugs and my PTR-91 is a bruiser! I have shot some .300win mag too and I never seem to notice the recoil until the next day when my shoulder is bruised up

nrv216

 

[hig789]

. 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.

it doesn't matter how big you are, or how strong you are. You take the proper technique on a handgun and anyone can shoot almost anything.

 

[nrv216]

it doesn't matter how big you are, or how strong you are. You take the proper technique on a handgun and anyone can shoot almost anything.

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

nrv216

 

[jkingrph]

M-1 Garand is a pussycat. I have a couple of Win Mod 70 featherweights in 30-06. I got the first one in 1963. Dad and I went out to try it, picked up some 180 gr Rem ammo. It was a hot summer day, and all I was wearing was a t shirt. That hard rubber buttplate did a job on me. My shoulder was weeping a little blood when I finished, and stayed sore for a week. I promptly had a thick recoil pad installed, and did not remove any wood increasing the length of pull by about 1 1/2 inches. That tamed the beast. I could shoot it all day with no problem or discomfort after that.

I have two rifles in .375 H&H Mag. The first a Ruger #1 is not comfortable to shoot, especially off a bench. The other a CZ 550 Safari American , completely standard, is very mild, more mild than the 30-06. It's just the size and weight of the rifle as well as stock length.

More weight always helps, and in my experience a well fitting stock helps. One that is longer rather than short helps to control recoil . I shoot centerfire rifles fron .22 Hornet to the .458 Win mag,and tend to prefer the military calibers as the best balance of power, and recoil, my favorites being the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser and the 7x57 Mauser. For more power I like my 7.5 Swiss and the 30-06.

 

[bhorsoft]

My biggest rifles are a Moisin-Nagant at 7.62x54R and a 1903 Springfield at 30-06. No recoil issues there. I can shoot them all day. Shooting my 12ga coach guns (short barreled doubles) can leave a mark if I'm not using cowboy loads (or if I let both barrels go at once).

I'm a little more sensitive with hand guns. I don't have a problem with my 45s (both 45 Long Colt and 45 ACP), but a couple of my smaller calibers can hurt. Shooting a lot of .38+P out of my S&W 642 (J Frame) can be painful after a while as can prolonged shooting from my Sig Sauer P232 in.380.

 

[jlanger]

My Savage 99 .308 is a freakin mule, my gpa, and now my dad now have given up on trying to fire it. I have a BLR .308 that doesn't kick nearly as bad. I'm always amazed though, that when it comes time to shooting at deer I never even notice recoil, or the loudness of shooting.
BTW the Savage may well end up being traded for another BLR, most likely in .243 I gotta a couple of girls that might be needing a good huntin rifle in a few years...

 

[Uncle Brian]

I think weight and fit have a lot to do with how much recoil you feel, anything light weight in .308 is going to sting. Narrow butt plates or metal plates aren't all that nice but add a rubber one and suddenly the rifle becomes ok.
I was watching a video of marine snipers shooting their .50s and they didn't seem to be getting kicked around at all, didn't look like the felt recoil was and worse than a .308

 

[hig789]

I agree the weight and fit of the guy have a bearing on it but those marines you speak of shooting the 50 were trained in the proper technique of how to absorb the recoil the most effective way.

Like i said about my cousin has a S&W 500 with a 3" barrel. My brother who doesn't shoot pistols very much, and out weighs me by a good 50 lbs. shot one round with locked arms and the revolver nearly flew out of his hands. Were as I shot 3 round in rapid succession with the proper technique without missing a beat. So yes fit and weight play a big roll be IMO not as much as technique does.

 

[mayhem]

Recoil has only bothered me in two guns, a 12 ga Stoeger double-barreled coach gun, shot at range that only allowed slugs - brutal, and a Magnum Research Micro Desert Eagle .380 - the gun was small and heavy, and I had a hard time hanging on to the darn thing when it went off. (It was traded.)
Other than that, not bothered much with recoil. I prefer to shoot .45's, because of their 'push-back' instead of a sharp kick.

 

[jlanger]

I think weight and fit have a lot to do with how much recoil you feel, anything light weight in .308 is going to sting. Narrow butt plates or metal plates aren't all that nice but add a rubber one and suddenly the rifle becomes ok.
I was watching a video of marine snipers shooting their .50s and they didn't seem to be getting kicked around at all, didn't look like the felt recoil was and worse than a .308

You're right, though the BLR is noticably lighter, it's butt plate is cushioned, versus steel and quite a bit wider. I know my old 30/30 Savage 99 kicks like a son of a gun too, and that's just 30/30! Frankly the Browning is just a better gun as well, shoots better (for me anyway) and is just so much less complex.

 

[MrMurphy]

Have shot up to .416 Rigby and .50 BMG off the bench with no significant issues.

Stock design and buttplate material will help or hurt.

Lee-Enfields, Mausers and similar, no problem. The Mosin-Nagants, except the original 1891 (not the 91/30) kick like a mule, the stock is horribly designed and the metal buttplate does not help.

Most hunting rifles aren't bad. The Barrett 82A1 .50 BMG, aside from the fact I shot it in below freezing conditions, was quite tolerable, since it has a highly efficient brake, weighs 30lbs and it was on a bipod with me wearing winter clothing.

 

[Pkrankow]

Grandpa's 20 gauge shotgun kicks horrible. The stock is too short, even padded out, for a normal adult so your hands take the recoil and the butt is traveling fast when it slams into the shoulder.

Ouch.

I have not shot anything reasonably fitted that made me say otherwise. Granted after 200 rounds of 12 gauge through my Mossberg 500 on a long day of trap and skeet I am bruised, but numb. (Only did this once, expensive day)

On pistols the largest I have shot is .40 semi auto. The small frame on Mom's .38 special is dicey in my largish hands and I don't like feeding it that much ammo, but it shoots nice.

Phil

 

[bamafan64]

I have a Mossberg 835 3.5" magnum that kicks pretty good with #4 turkey loads. It's a tad less than pulling both triggers at the same time on a 12 gauge double barrel. It also kicks pretty good with slugs. A friend of mine had a New England Firearms single shot 3.5" magnum that weighed five pounds that recoiled brutally. He would hand it to people as a joke and I'm surprised no one wrapped it around his head afterwards. On handguns, I've shot .44 magnums with hot reloads that had a stout recoil as well. Snub nosed .357's and .44 magnums are also pretty rough.

 

[_JP_]

One time at a local shooting range a guy next to me was sighting in a rifle chambered for the .454 Casul round. He was sighting in at 50 yards for bear hunting in Alaska, figuring the in the brush he wouldn't see them farther away than that. Asked me to try a shot to check his sights. I squeezed off a round and got a heck of a punch in my boney shoulder from it. Shot placement was good though, so he encouraged me to empty out the remaining four rounds. By the time I did that my shoulder was sore.I can also get a sore shoulder if I shoot a lot of 3 1/2 inch goose or turkey loads out of my twelve gauge. Or a couple boxes of field loads when dove hunting.

 

[JaggerDragger]

I love to shoot guns, recoil is part of shooting guns, so I guess that it is not much of a problem.

 

[Deltaboy]

It depends on how soon you started. I started shooting at age 4 with a pellet gun and by 12 I was shooting 16 gauge, 30/30 and 357 mag.
I topped out at 454 Causal and 12 gauge single shot in 3 inch Mag. Rifle 30-06 to 7mm mag.

This is truly a YMMV deal.