Big Bore Revolver Recoil Management Techniques

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stanley_white

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I enjoy watching people shoot big bore revolvers on YouTube.

Some people seem to manage recoil better than others.

Can you provide YouTube examples of good recoil management and bad recoil management or discuss your personal experiences / techniques for recoil management?

Thank you.

-Stan
 
Technique number 1 -- load down. Load the .44 Mag to .44 Special levels, load the .45 Colt to around 1,000 fps of less.
Technique number 2 -- with single actions, let the gun roll in your hand.
Technique number 3 -- use properly-designed after market stocks or a Tyler T-grip.

Roger.

Thank you.

-Stan
 
if you are looking for accuracy as well from the big boomers, try anything from jerry miculek. "how to shoot a revolver" is the best youtube video, imo.

my advise is a very firm grip all the way through the shot and recoil. don't fight the recoil as you will lose every time. keep the firearm pointed at the target and let the recoil pull the gun up and off the target. for heavy kicking handguns, the recoil will bring the gun up and over your head if you keep a firm grip and will put the front sight into your forehead if you don't keep that firm grip.

luck,

murf
 
I don't have big hands and I'm not too excessively bulky (230#), but I seem to shoot heavy hitters okay.

Not sure how instructive this is but here's my foray with a .500S&W. Rented it and shot a box of Hornady factory hunting ammo.



I've also shot T/C's in 45-70 (sorry no pictures) and here's my 10" shooting top end 357Max loads.



Only advice is hold it firm enough to control it, but expect to give some with the elbow, shoulders and body. Sort of let each joint and part of your body take up some of the recoil. No one part, especially the hands, is going to hold it all.
 
I'll add some context...

With a semi-automatic pistol I shoot isosceles with my arms locked.

My firing hand is firm but not overly tight and my support hand is in death grip mode.

This enables me to "drive the gun" and manage recoil for extremely fast follow up shots.

I doubt I will ever own a big bore revolver, but I am always interested in techniques and their transferability between platforms.

-Stan
 
I enjoy watching people shoot big bore revolvers on YouTube.

Some people seem to manage recoil better than others.

Can you provide YouTube examples of good recoil management and bad recoil management or discuss your personal experiences / techniques for recoil management?

Thank you.

-Stan

I recently did an article for Gun Digest about this. Might be online by now. I also did a video for Gun Digest about technique when heavy recoil is in the offering that I believe is on their YouTube channel. Hope it helps.

I think this is the video:

https://gundigest.com/gun-videos/gundigest-tv/video-getting-a-grip-on-big-bore-revolvers
 
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I grip the big guns plenty firm. I have hunted with the 500 and 460 plenty, as well as the 44 and 10mm. Ive even taken a few whitetail with a 329pd which is the only gun i will say can be pretty dang harsh.. They all recoil back and up some but I keep them pretty flat. I dont let them move like some say they prefer. I also don't lock out everything like I do with a semi-auto shooting steel either. Watch the videos where some A-hole hands a small female or kid a 500 or 460 and they flip up plenty. Sometimes completely out of their hands. In my opinion if the gun is going completely vertical or even farther then its probably just too way much for the shooter regardless of who you are or of they admit it. I cringe when I see these guys shoot a 500 and the barrel comes back to point at their head........ but everyone shoots different i guess.

I actually don't like single actions as good as double because I don't like letting them roll up. The grips just don't feel right to me. I hunt with them some, love the look, and shoot them fine, but I greatly prefer the double action grip even though I rarely take a shot DA while hunting. I do practice that way though. Even in no recoil situations. Ill take my k-22 or 617 over the single six any day. Just a preference.

I recently did an article for Gun Digest about this.

I have seen one of your videos on modern shooter on big bores. I am one of those you mention who doesn't care for the Ruger Bisley grip. Lol
 
What works for me is to not have the elbows locked, and as Alfsauve said let all the joints and muscles play a part in "soaking up" the recoil. With practice you can control the recoil so that the gun will recoil off to the side of your head, instead of directly into your face, which allows a more relaxed, but still firm grip.
 
I tamed my Ruger .44 Mag with a set of Pachmyar Presentation grips. Heaviest loads are now easy to handle. I seem to shoot it more now too. hdbiker
 
The pistol needs to fit your hand.

I can shoot both of my S&W .41's with factory grips... well enough but not great. I can shoot both of my S&W .41's with Pachmayr Grippers... very well, all day long. Same same with my Dan Wesson .41, which is a pistol that not only fits my hand very well, but can (for some unknown reason) handle recoil very well.
 
True. Big rubber grips do not work for me, factory grips do, one has to try both. I just replaced the big old hunking target grips on my Highway Patrolman with some regular "panel" grips, and just fell in love with it again. Yes the .357 is not a hard kicker, but for me, it handles and shoots 100% better. But I'm sure others would throw the panel grips away and put the big old hunking grips back on, and be more happy. I tried different grips on my Super Duper Blackhawk for years before finding that the skinny little factory grips shot best for me. I have another SBH with the smaller, regular Blackhawk grips/grip frame on it, and I have no problem with those either, even with stout 300 grain bullet loads. So yeah, the big old rubber-baby-bumper grips may or may not tame recoil for you.
 
Just because it's funny. Surprised this hasn't been posted yet. Clear signs of how NOT to shoot a big bore revolver.



Seriously though I'm a HUGE fan of wood grips on my revolvers. That is until I shot some high grain rounds out of my 500 S&W. Near broke the webbing between my thumb and index finger. Moved back to the rubber grips and the gun is much more manageable. Who'd have thunk it that rubber reduces recoil...... :D
 
Would that be funny if it was you, your spouse, or your daughter? I see too many (8 letter word begins with A and ends with S) do that to unsuspecting folks like that and then they wonder why that person doesn't want to go shooting again.
 
My last superbike "getoff" saw some damage to right hand. Besides certain free weight stuff,bought a new one of those spring type grip excersizer. These have adj vs non on the springing tension.

Use it religiously.... and then use it some more. Really helps gripping a handgun(and M/C grips,don't tell the wife). The other thing is splitting wood. Heckuva cardio but intensifies your mental/eyesight/coordination "being" beyond anything I've ever tried. Shooting "fingers" on trad bows is also a good road to take,looking at strengthening trigger finger to brain connection and control.

Good luck with your project.
 
Would that be funny if it was you, your spouse, or your daughter? I see too many (8 letter word begins with A and ends with S) do that to unsuspecting folks like that and then they wonder why that person doesn't want to go shooting again.

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It's just a YouTube blooper. Yes, it is funny. Wouldn't teach someone to shoot like that as it is in bad form and you want to be safe.
 
Im 5'10" and 170. Large palms and average fingers. My shooting hold is both hands with bent elbows about 4" lower than my wrist. Grip is moderate, not tight. Shooting factory 500SW loads, my elbows soak up much of the recoil. The moderate grip allows the butt of the revolver to rotate down slightly. I shoot it SA so that only benefits working the hammer.
 
I hate to think of the damage I would have done to my elbows, had I locked them while shooting all of those big bore Magnums, in the Eighties. In actual practice, my arms tremble if my elbows are straight. I have to shoot with slightly flexed elbows, simply in order to steady the weapon. (And, if forced, my elbows will actually hyper-extend, as some of my police academy firearms instructors discovered, when they tried to “straighten” my elbows.)

The main thing I want to convey: Be sure to shoot powerful handguns, so that the barrel is in line with the forearm bones, if firing one-handed, or with a Weaver-type hold. (An isosceles hold, of course, means that the wrists are slightly bent, but the symmetry of the forearm bones results in good support for all of the joints.) Sadly, I fired N-Frames, with K-/L-/GP100-sized hands and fingers, using an imperfect grip, which got “enough” index finger on the N-Frame trigger, in DA mode. This meant that the base joint of my right thumb was more in line with the force of recoil, which was then transmitted in a way that badly torqued my right wrist. Today, 3+ decades later, if I shoot something as “mild” as a 9mm Glock G19, my right thumb and wrist will swell, and hurt, for more than a week, even though I have not fired a .41 Mag since about 1990, or a .44 Mag since 1985. (I can, in moderation, still shoot full-length-grip pistols, such as a G17, and a full-sized, all-steel 1911, and a revolver with a square-butt grip that reaches all the way to the “heel bone” of my hand.)

Yes, I was the police rookie that thought I had to prove myself, by toting “the (then) most-powerful handgun in the world,” as a duty revolver, and I believed in training with ammo loaded to the same power as my duty ammo. Fortunately, I “down-sized” to .41 Mag, after about a year, but it was still a weapon too big for me to hold properly, while shooting DA. Relief came after five years, when I switched to a Colt Commander duty pistol, which fit my hand. When I did switch back to revolvers, for the duty rig, 1993-1997, I understood proper revolver fit, and understood that .357 Mag was ample for human adversaries. (I made the final switch to duty autos in May 1997.)

One interesting thing, that saved my “dominant” hand, is that I write lefty, and do many other detail-oriented tasks lefty, but throw right-handed, so am right-armed. I started my LE career drawing L-Frame revolvers, from the then-mandated low-slung duty rig, which was not unlike an underhanded throw, so the draw felt natural when done right-handed. Plus, I knew I would mostly be patrolling alone, which meant the right hip would be more-accessible, while seated in the patrol car. So, it made sense to mostly shoot my primary handguns right-handed, and my “back-up” .38 snub-gun lefty, so, my left hand was experiencing .38 recoil, from a gun I could hold in a properly-centered grip. The big-bore Mags, fired with an ergonomically-incorrect grip, happened mostly with my right hand.

I am not trying to type so much that I make this discussion “about me.” I just want to present a complete picture of what can happen, with powerful handguns, held improperly.
 
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I pulled a not funny to me not so much for her prank. My wifes cousin wanted to shoot my 357 mag with 38s. So I load loaded 5 38s and 1 357. First three bang, bang, bang, boom. And she dropped it. Luckily it was a Rossi and not a dan & wesson.
 
I don’t let it ride. Since I hunt with my revolvers, being able to shoot quick follow-up shots means you need to control the recoil. But this doesn’t work for everyone.
 
Max,,,,I shoot a Taurus Raging Bull in .454 that has a ported barrel.

I can shoot this gun one handed with no problem. The recoil is very mild.......

What's your opinion on "Ported barrels"?
 
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