Felt recoil from a shooting rest - question

Just want to get some thoughts on the following:
I fired my .30-06 from my shooting rest last weekend, and it kicked like a mule. It's a "Shooters Ridge Steady Point Rifle Shooting Rest." (May want to look it up so you know what it looks like.) I even wore a Past recoil pad on my shoulder.
My question is: Am I amplifying the felt recoil by putting it into the shooting rest, because now the entire rest -- not just the gun -- is recoiling into my shoulder. So would I actually get less felt recoil by simply putting the front of the gun on a rest, but letting the buttstock rest directly into my shoulder (still with the Past recoil pad.) I do have a Pachmayr recoil pad installed on the stock.
I'm not a big guy, and I know the .30-06 is a stout round, but if I can lower the felt recoil a bit, it would be great.
Yes, I know that when I go hunting or whatever, I won't even think about it. But I need to get it set up first, and don't want to ruin my shoulder doing so.
And yes, I know they make "Managed Recoil" ammo in this caliber. Not interested, due to the price.
Thanks

 

If there's a gap between the stock and your shoulder, that's going to magnify felt recoil. That could be the case with the rest. The additional weight of the rest would do nothing other than dampen recoil.

Regardless, a bolt-action 30.06 is no joke. You might look into getting a compressible butt-pad for the rifle if it doesn't already come with one (which may or may not require cutting down the stock depending on your trigger reach now). But even that won't help much if you're not keeping the stock tight to your shoulder.

 

got sandbags?

How much weight are you putting on the sled? This picture at Midway is showing what appear to be 2 bags of lead shot. 50 lb!
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/826745/shooters-ridge-steady-point-rifle-shooting-rest

 

Get a plastic, zippered bank bag. Make a sandbag. Interpose it between the rifle's buttpad and your shoulder. Adds some weight; spreads the area of recoil's impact.

 

Most people at the bench have the rest too low. Because the rest is low, they are bent over leaning into the gun. If you raise the rest, so that you are sitting erect (vertical backbone), the recoil is reduced greatly.

 

^^^ True post, but here is why. If you are leaning into the rifle your upper body is rigid. If you're sitting straight up and relax your upper body will move back with recoil. Much more comfortable.

 

All good points, thanks. I have no extra weight on the rest. That thing was bouncing every time I fired. The point about my posture is a good one.
Quite honestly, I don't need a .30-06. I bought it on a whim as a "do all" rifle, but I use my .30-30 for hunting locally, and don't currently have any plans to do any long-range hunting. But the darn thing is a tackdriver, I have to say.

 

What grain bullet are you using. Smaller grain equals less recoil.

 

150 grain factory loads

 

Try some factory low recoil ammo. http://www.midwayusa.com/low-recoil/br?cid=22221

 

As I said in my original post, not going the Low Recoil route. Way too expensive. Plus if you look at the ballistics on these LR rounds, once they leave the gun, it's really no more potent than a .243. Which happens to be the caliber I am considering in place of this gun.

 

Shooters Ridge Steady Point Rifle Shooting Rest is what I am seeing. I guess I don't understand how you are getting the rifle in your shoulder with the pictured rest? The Shooters Ridge rest I am seeing fully support the rifle, what am I missing?

One of my 30-06 rifles is a 03A3 and when shooting it the 30-06 recoil is stout and it is not much fun shooting 30-06 in a T-Shirt. As mentioned, you want the rifle firmly in your shoulder but I still don't get the "rest" thing.

Ron

 

Sorry if I was not clear. Basically I come up to the rest so it is against my shoulder. So there is no gap between the rest and my shoulder. Is that not the way to use these?

 

If you are using the rest I linked to then you should not be placing the rear of the rest in your shoulder. I use a Caldwell Lead Sled Plus Recoil Reducing Shooting Rest which is similar. What you have is a 3 point self supporting rifle rest. The rest supports the forearm and buttstock of the rifle. You should be weighing down the rest using either bags or sand, bags of leadshot or just plain steel weights. Typically 50 pounds of weight is used for a caliber like the 30-06. The rear of the rest does not seat in your shoulder.

How much weight are you using?

The following are for a similar Lead Sled but you should have a similar setup. My guess is 50 pounds of weight should considerably reduce recoil. Again. the rest rear is not placed firmly in your shoulder as if shooting just off bags.

Ron

 

Man that all sound so complicated. True, but convoluted.

I think that you should just shoot like you would for hunting, off a simple rest for the front of the gun, like a rail/tire or possibly a sand bag, etc form a normal seated position.

Honestly, 30-06 should not be that bad. I always just sit normally as in hunting, and rest the barrel or hand guard/forearm/fore grip on a tire or rail and shoot. Recoil is a non-issue w/o any special pads or sand bags.

30-06 is a superb hunting round FAR superior to 30-30.

 

In my opinion instead of you "coming up to the stock" you need to be pulling the stock into "the pocket" of your shoulder

 

Thanks all. Here's a video from Caldwell on how to use the Lead Sled. You will see a picture of the guy with the back of the Sled pulled into his shoulder pocket. That is the same position I use with my Steady Rest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEnY8OFM9Uc
So I think my positioning and use of the Steady Rest are correct. However, a good point that has been made, and that I overlooked, is the recommendation to place some weight on my Steady Rest. I'm going to add some weight via either a bag of shot or a dumbbell (I think I can find a large enough one that will straddle my rest). I think that will help a lot, and I never really thought about it, because up to now, the calibers I have been shooting have been fairly tame.
Thanks again to all of you for your good input.

 

Quite true.

Also very true.

In the distant past, I thought the recoil of a 308 Winchester was pretty impressive. With practice, that has become pretty tame so you can become more recoil tolerant. If your 30/06 is too much for you in a standing position, i.e., not off the bench, and if you're not interested in learning to tolerate the recoil, you probably should divest yourself of the 30/06 and get the 243 Winchester you're considering.

A 460 Weatherby Magnum off the Bench

 

How is the felt recoil when you shoot it off hand, standing up?

 

I haven't shot it offhand. I was sighting in so only shot off the bench. Honestly it wasn't the best day all-round. Not only did my shoulder get beat up a bit (which I think we now have resolved via the comments above), but I stupidly put some cheap rings on the gun. They didn't last long, let's leave it at that.
So I will be starting over with some better rings, weight on the gun rest, etc. Hopefully my next range session will be better.

 

How tall are you? If the LOP (length of pull) is too long there's less meat in your shoulder pocket, and it may be hard to keep the rifle in your pocket. I had a Ruger m77 in 7mm rem mag and it had about a 15"+ LOP, whereas I prefer a 12 3/4" LOP. It pained me to shoot that rifle, even though 7mm rem mag never bothered me before.

Stock design also matters. I love the Weatherby style stock because all that drop at the butt puts the pad right in my pocket. Some modern stocks (e.g. x-bolt) put the butt pad right on my collar bone, which is OK for 223 but not for 300 magnums. Try a few stock types to see what fits your body.

 

There ya go.
I've been shooting a 30-06 for decades, as did my father before me. Between bench shooting and field shooting you will see 2 different animals. Guess which likes to bite?

 

Yup, either:
Shoot it free hand or seated of a simple rest/rail for the fore end
(unless u r planning to shoot this beyond 300 yards for deer there is NO reason to shoot from a complicated bench which is probably producing, and DEFINITELY INCREASING the recoil problem, plus causing you to carry around and waste time w/ stuff you don't need)

OR

Switch to 243, another GREAT deer round with ZERO recoil, my 10 yr. old 85 lb. daughter got a big doe last year and it dropped in its tracks.

 

Shoot more upright with a gun that fits you.
If it hasn't got a decent recoil pad, have one installed.
That kind of rig, off a bench..........should be comfy.

I fired a couple of boxes from my 760 (no pad)..........150gr factory.
Was no big deal.

Cuz had same rifle (same vintage too) and said it beat him up.
We're both 5' 10" and about 175#.

Back before I got old and wimpy, 40 rounds from my .300 winmag was no big deal. On the shoulder anyway. Blast did jack with my sinuses a bit.

7 mag way more comfy (160's max'd out).

But...........Remington factory dim stocks fit me very well.

I always stack up my bags, or use bipod front w bag at rear.........off the bench.

And magnums in the old days had decent pads.

That red pad Ruger put on the old M77 was a joke. Those guns always hit me harder.



Bench shooting is worthwhile. It offers support and lets one see how repeatable the gun is (and how repeatable they are).

If one sucks at shooting from the bench, they aint gonna become a sharpshooter by taking a knee, flopping on the belly or using a sapling for a rest.

 

Thought I would close out this post, since a lot of you were very helpful.
I ended up remounting the scope with some USA-made Weaver rings. I also bought a torque wrench and tightened the screws to the specs that Weaver provided.
Then I happened to remember that I have a small collection of dumbbells in my basement.
So I took two 10s and an 8-pounder, went back to the range, and just placed them on the center rail of the rest.
It worked fine. Yeah, I had to put them back on the rest after every shot, but I was able to get the gun zeroed, and my shoulder survived. I also took some shots offhand, and recoil was not actually that bad with a Past shoulder pad.
If I planned to shoot a lot of large caliber guns, I'd invest in a bag of shot. But at around $38 for a bag of 25 pounds, I went with the dumbbells for one-time use, and they did the trick.
Thanks again.