Recoil Limit

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How many of you have found your recoil limit? IE the combo you can shoot but have no inclination to move higher.

Rifle - .404 Jeffery in 9.5 lb Custom (+ Scope & Mount).
Double - .400 Jeffery NE (400/450 NE 3") in a 10.25 lb Rifle.
Shotgun - 12 ga 3" in a 7.5 lb Pump.
SA Revolver - .475 Linebaugh in FA 83.
DA Revolver - .480 Ruger in Ruger Alaskan.

The funny thing is I hate some of the smaller high intensity cartridges. Especially if the gun is light per caliber.
 
Hard to say for a couple reasons:

#1- I'm not dead yet and I'm still in my prime.
#2- the lighter the gun the more you feel it so I wouldn't say I've reached my limit, more like I need a different gun for certain cartridges.

In my toklat a 360 grain HC @ 1400 fps is all that I care for in recoil but that same load from a 460 xvr is much more tame. There are 45-70 loads I won't shoot from the bench but am ok with standing. A 1 oz foster slug from a single shot has hard recoil but in a semi auto they're pleasant . a lot of it is perspective too, I've shot with people who feel like a 6" gp100 with 158 grain SWC @ 1300 fps is ruthless and that's my plinking load. Every time I get something more powerful my previous most powerful seems like less. I'll keep climbing the recoil recoil ladder but some guns are just unpleasant no matter what. I had a 40 caliber kahr that was just that way, unpleasant. Couldn't shoot it well, I would flinch and it's recoil impulse disagreed with me, then pick up a 44 magnum and be much more comfortable and shoot it way better even though the recoil was certainly more. Being a subjective thing , it seems different all the time for me. Some days I love it, other days a little recoil is enough.
 
I was lucky enough to shoot a 600 intro express when I was 13, I asked if I could shoot another. Them big boomers really can give a bad headache, then the next day your sore. Same year dad got 2 magnum research bfr shot one in both hands at a 4th of July shoot. They were 45-70 and 500 s&w both not loads.
8 ga sxs
 
I can tolerate a lot of recoil, and if I'm getting something in return don't mind. But many cartridges just recoil way out of proportion to their effectiveness. I don't really notice recoil until it gets above about 30 ft lbs, 300 WM range, but I can kill anything I'll hunt with guns in the 15-20 ft lb range. About where 308 or 30-06 fall.

I've had an opportunity to shoot 416 Rigby, 8mm Rem mag, and 375 H&H mag a few times. A 454 Casul out of a Ruger Redhawk is the hardest kicking revolver. They were tolerable, but not something I'd enjoy to shoot casually.

I bought one of the 1st Marlin 45-70's after they were reintroduced back in the 1970's. Those rifles had straight stocks, 22" barrels with half mag tubes and a hard curved buttplate. I bought it slightly used and was given a partial box of 500 gr handloads. I don't know what the specifics of that load was, but especially in that rifle wanted no more than the 1/2 dozen or so rounds I had. With normal factory loads it wasn't bad, about like a 30-06.

But that was 40 years ago. More recently I tried some 3 1/2" 12 ga turkey loads in a Remington 870 Supermag and I believe it was worse. I figured the recoil and IIRC it was in the 60-70 ft lb range. That exceeds 458 WM. If I needed to stop a charging elephant then I'd deal with the recoil. But I don't want a turkey bad enough to deal with that much.
 
Only limit with 3006 is 165-167 gn bullet. Any bigger just not what I would shoot unless it was game required and probably 2 shots the limit. At 165-167 it's no problem shooting 100+ at the range. Even then with a lighter synthetic stock it can get impactful.
 
jmr40 said:
I can tolerate a lot of recoil, and if I'm getting something in return don't mind. But many cartridges just recoil way out of proportion to their effectiveness. I don't really notice recoil until it gets above about 30 ft lbs, 300 WM range, but I can kill anything I'll hunt with guns in the 15-20 ft lb range. About where 308 or 30-06 fall.

I've had an opportunity to shoot 416 Rigby, 8mm Rem mag, and 375 H&H mag a few times. A 454 Casul out of a Ruger Redhawk is the hardest kicking revolver. They were tolerable, but not something I'd enjoy to shoot casually.

I bought one of the 1st Marlin 45-70's after they were reintroduced back in the 1970's. Those rifles had straight stocks, 22" barrels with half mag tubes and a hard curved buttplate. I bought it slightly used and was given a partial box of 500 gr handloads. I don't know what the specifics of that load was, but especially in that rifle wanted no more than the 1/2 dozen or so rounds I had. With normal factory loads it wasn't bad, about like a 30-06.

But that was 40 years ago. More recently I tried some 3 1/2" 12 ga turkey loads in a Remington 870 Supermag and I believe it was worse. I figured the recoil and IIRC it was in the 60-70 ft lb range. That exceeds 458 WM. If I needed to stop a charging elephant then I'd deal with the recoil. But I don't want a turkey bad enough to deal with that much.
Click to expand...

To me it's amazing how much softer the .480 Ruger feels than the .454 Casull. The Casull is just to much (for me) out of an Alaskan.

I don't really mind shooting my .404 Jeffery (from a standing rest) but I can't stand a .300 Weatherby in a 1.5 lb lighter rifle.
 
My limit is 9mm out of my DB9. 44 mag revolver, no problem. 50ae, no problem. 500 S&W with Buffalo bore 440gr loads, ehhhh. 9mm defense ammo out of a tiny 11oz pistol, that smarts!!!!
 
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If it's a few shots at the range to confirm a rifle is still sighted in, plus (typically) one shot on a game animal, it's an entirely different threshold for me vs 20 to 50 rounds practice at the range for me.

After experiencing a partially torn retina in Nov 2018 with complications that I'm still receiving monthly injections directly into my left eyeball, even though it wasn't directly caused by shooting, the highest calculated recoiling cartridge tolerated by me is less important than probable felt recoil and jarring effects to my body after throwing technology such as muzzle brakes and recoil damping pads to a specific rifle.
 
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I hate snappy, fast kicking light rifles in Hyper-Extra-Mag-Improved. The recoil profile is spiteful, if the stock doesn't fit properly they knock your cheekbones. And I do not need the speed and hullabaloo in the hunting I do.

Now, recoil limit...

My personal big bore is an 8.5lb .458 Lott, and I give myself an allowance of 6 rounds per session from the bench. More, and it starts hurting, which is a good way to develop a flinch.

I've shot .470, .500, .505, and they're all manageable in hunting scenario. No plinking, that's sure...
 
I haven't shot a .44 magnum with actual magnum loads for a while, and with the arthritis in my hands, I probably would regret it if I did. But in the past, it was about my limit in my Dan Wesson 44 6".
With rifles I've never fired anything with really bad recoil, so I don't know, but I had no problems with most of the .30 caliber loads shot from old 1892 type lever actions.
Shotguns? From the first time I shot a 12 gauge pump, to the last time, I hated it, but smaller ones are fine.
 
Obturation said:
I've shot with people who feel like a 6" gp100 with 158 grain SWC @ 1300 fps is ruthless and that's my plinking load.
Click to expand...

I find that the recoil from this type of load is less of a factor then the muzzle blast. IOW, I shoot this load better wearing both ear plugs AND muffs, than I do with just one or the other.

As for rifles, I'm not interested in big heavy-kicking cartridges. I don't hunt anything that needs them, and now as I enter my 7th decade I discover that the more comfortable loads are, well, more comfortable.

To answer the OPs question, .30-06 with factory rounds is about as much as I want. Less is better.
 
30-06 is where I stop for a rifle. I've not shot anything heavier, but never found a need to do so.

I don't like shotgun slugs out of a pump shotgun. I had a rifled slightly barrel, shot twice off a bench, and sold it.

45 colt teir 2 loads from a flat top blackhawk is where I stop. I have never had the opportunity to try a bisley and would like to sometime, but for now, that's where I stop.

I tried some light loaded wadcutters from a 38 LCR and after a cylinder full, reloaded and put it back in my pocket. Definitely for carry a lot, shoot a little.
 
I have yet to find my limit. 7.62x54r out of an M44 is stiff but fun, and I think more than a 1oz slug or 3" 00 buck out of a PGO shotgun may be overdoing it, but I haven't tried anything harsher yet.
The closest I've got is from my misspent youth, where I found that a mortar-style firework nailed to a 2x2 as a grip is a tad too much for me.
 
Recoil is at least 3 metrics: energy, power, and gun-to-body fit. I enjoy my 45 Colt Bisley with anti-armor Ruger-only loads; I do not like .40 S&W semi-autos. I also find my .375 H&H M70 a fun challenge.

IlikeSA said:
I don't like shotgun slugs out of a pump shotgun. I had a rifled slightly barrel, shot twice off a bench. . .
Click to expand...
As a target shooter who plays with a 375H&H on the bench, technique is critical; if you get it wrong at this recoil level the gun will give you a chiropractic adjustment.

Briefly, the butt goes out onto the meat of your shoulder, and you sit up. If you lay down too much, or butt in pocket, it'll ring your noggin'.

I know the butt on meat position is unusual, but Nathan Foster is right; heavy recoil needs butt on muscle, not collarbone.
 
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This is about my limit.

105MMHowitzer.gif
 
Hooda Thunkit said:
I find that the recoil from this type of load is less of a factor then the muzzle blast. IOW, I shoot this load better wearing both ear plugs AND muffs, than I do with just one or the other.

As for rifles, I'm not interested in big heavy-kicking cartridges. I don't hunt anything that needs them, and now as I enter my 7th decade I discover that the more comfortable loads are, well, more comfortable.

To answer the OPs question, .30-06 with factory rounds is about as much as I want. Less is better.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. Some shooters percieve muzzle blast as recoil, it's a mental thing and they may not recognize that it hasn't caused any physical pain, just shook them up and they're not sure why or haven't made the connection that it didn't actually hurt.
 
For whatever reason I tend to tolerate shotgun recoil better, I can shoot my heavy field loads 12g 1.25 oz at 1350 fps all day long. On paper its above 30 ft/lbs recoil energy. But I always struggle at the rifle range either on the bench or offhand with my 30-06 with about 1/3 less recoil, I tend to tire of it after about 15-20 rounds.

I've chalked it up to gun fit as my 870s and 1100s fit like a glove. Also the 1100s gas system dampens recoil like a champ!
 
This: Barrett M81A1. I shot 3 rounds from one of these. That was enough for the rest of my life, but it was a thrill.
 
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