A longer barrel is going to generate more actual recoil but usually less felt recoil. With a cartridge such as the 500 S&W there is enough powder to get extra velocity from a longer barrel, unlike cartridges like the 45ACP which don't perk up much when fired from a carbine/rifle. Although the gun is heavier and longer, it is going to get a lot of recoil due to the higher velocity of the round. If you accelerate a bullet to higher speed then the gun is going to accelerate proportionately more in the opposite direction.
I am confused here. In a handgun, a longer barrel does give you more velocity, but usually, less felt recoil. Ex. a 2" 357 mag has a lot more recoil than a 4", which has more than a 6", etc with the same load.
Part of this may be due to the increased weight of the gun. If it is the extra weight, then maybe I see your point. PTK said that his Handi Rifle weighs less than 6 pounds. That is less than the 8 3/8" Model 500, and does not have the factory porting.
If the extra weight is not the contributing factor, then I think that the longer barrel of the rifle should dampen the recoil better than a handgun.
kingjoey,
A good demo would be to allow shooters to fire a Handi with your brake first and then shoot one without. You'd only be out $400 or so plus the cost of threading the barrel.
David
Krochus:
From someone whose ACTUALLY fired both there is absolutely NO comparison between the recoil for a 12 topper and a 500mag handi. For christs sake you're lighting off over 40grs of H110 at 300wm pressure levels. This makes any 12 ga shell feel like 22 hornet by comparison.
From someone whose ACTUALLY fired both there is absolutely NO comparison between the recoil for a 12 topper and a 500mag handi. For christs sake you're lighting off over 40grs of H110 at 300wm pressure levels. This makes any 12 ga shell feel like 22 hornet by comparison. It's blatantly unsafe to even attempt to fire a 500 handi with a traditional rifle scope on it I had to fab up a scout scope mount.
By the time you get the thing set up to be even remotely accurate, and tolerable to shoot, you will be into it for nearly (or more than!) the price of a .308 bolt gun. I rather doubt the .500 S&W will do anything that a .308 can't do - except maybe detach your retina if you let it catch you wrong.
If it is the extra weight, then maybe I see your point. PTK said that his Handi Rifle weighs less than 6 pounds. That is less than the 8 3/8" Model 500, and does not have the factory porting.
If the extra weight is not the contributing factor, then I think that the longer barrel of the rifle should dampen the recoil better than a handgun.
I don't have to shoot one to know what the recoil will be like. Simple math is all you need: mass x velocity. Recoil is a function of the ejected material (bullet and powder) and that is it. The energy of the bullet has nothing to do with recoil.
And NASA was really certain that a chunk of foam couldn't breach the space shuttle's carbon carbon leading edges. After all the computer models said it was impossible./QUOTE]
This is an energy equation, not momentum (as used to calculate recoil). Anything moving fast enough can harm an object.
A Beechcraft 1900 and a top fuel dragster both go 300mph but which one do you think pulls more g's in acceleration.
Irrelevant. I wasn't talking about projectile acceleration, only final velocity.
Now, if the .500 NEF and the 12ga NEF both have the same length barrels and both get their payloads up to the same velocity in that same distance, the acceleration was identical, so the impulse of force was the same, too. So, same (or similar, accounting for variables) recoil.
If the .500 NEF's barrel is shorter and they achieve identical velocity, then I will concede the .500's recoil will be sharper than the shotguns due to the higher impulse of force, but the total recoiling energy is still identical between the two. It just took one longer to get to it.
And I already stated that felt recoil is a shooter-relative argument. And I also said they would have the same recoil, not the same felt recoil. The energy calculation does not care what the impulse was, it is dealing in end-values, not acceleration equations.
And sometimes my keyboard kicks pretty good, too...
-Jason
If the .500 NEF's barrel is shorter and they achieve identical velocity, then I will concede the .500's recoil will be sharper than the shotguns due to the higher impulse of force, but the total recoiling energy is still identical between the two. It just took one longer to get to it.
Irrelevant. I wasn't talking about projectile acceleration, only final velocity.
I think that if you went out and fired guns that recoiled more than a 375HH, you would not place that Handi-rifle as high as you do on the recoil list.
Now you must wonder, if both calibers are reaching the same rifle recoil speed, will the higher pressure cartridge which reaches that speed faster be able to be felt?
As you allude to the recoil on a 500 isn't like the rolling push of a shotgun.
FWIW, I'm thinking that due to higher pressure, kingjoey's break could be more effective on a .500 S&W than a .50 Beowulf. I could be completely wrong, though.