caluculators are fun but they're no replacement for range time. Do your calculators take into account stock shape and fit, the overall balance of the rifle, How bout powder burnrate and chamber pressure
I'm flabbergasted that someone is who hasn't shot the firearm in question actually arguing about recoil with someone who has. I would have liked to see you touch one off from the bench with my scoped and polymer stocked 500 handi. I would have laughed at you in spite of the blood.
Krochus, I wouldn't do so much assuming about what others know about recoil when you have no idea yourself as to what they have shot. You did say that the 500SW recoil would be "in between 375 H&H and 458 win mag", and it was posted that your info was incorrect and recoil is actually a bit less. Also, never was I "arguing" with anyone in this thread who has shot the 500SW. I just said that recoil would be a piece of cake, which I feel it should be. I don't think we should scare people away by saying it's going to rip their arm off, as that just leads to low confidence and then they don't want to attempt to learn the right way.
Now, however, you can easily compare different caliber's recoil without regard to stock design, by assuming the
same values for everything else besides the load. If I have a load that produces a recoil of 60ft-lbs and a load that does 20ft-lbs, the heavier load is
always going to kick with 3 times the energy in the same given gun.
Changing other variables such as different pads etc between guns is not really possible to then equate a felt difference of. Then you are also talking about perceived recoil and not just plain old recoil energy. I talk about recoil energy because that is a universal expression we can all work off of and makes more sense. We can add our own element of imagination to picture the feel of the stock we will use. If you have a thin pad with sharp edges, it's going to pinch more. But the total energy it pushes on your shoulder with is still the same.
The largest driving factors in a recoil equation are projectile velocity, projectile and powder weight, and firearm weight. Chamber pressure isn't as big of a factor because X amount of impulse is still required to move X weight bullet to whatever speed, and it produces a similar reaction energy fed back into the rifle. Pressure pulse and bullet flight down the barrel lasts only a couple milliseconds. So the way I imagine it, a human being able to distinguish the difference in recoil due to different pressures moving the same projectile at the same velocity would be fairly hard to do.
And yes there are 7lb 375s. There are also 9lb 600 Overkills.
I own a 7lb bolt gun that will do 63ft-lb recoil energy, with a thin factory recoil pad. If you hold the gun right, it is not a problem at all from a bench. You want to keep a good posture. I also have an 1895 45-70 that will do similar numbers in recoil at full loads as the 500SW will, potentially a little more with 500gr bullets. It has a hard plastic thin but pad which is no problem to shoot.
Sometimes people may hold heavier recoiling firearms incorrectly when they fire, in their armpit, and they are a little uneasy about shooting them ever again after the experience. I have seen it happen a lot; you don't hold big boomers and 270s the same way.
Some people have different tolerance levels of course. However my feelings are that the average person should have no problem at all with 40ft-lbs recoil, with an average butt pad, if they practice even a small amount with the gun and use proper eye clearance.
