I guess I'm the voice of dissension . I've always thought the Mak's to be sharper than 9x19's I've shot, but nowhere near the recoil of alot of .40 S&W's or .45 ACP's. I've always thought they felt like fairly soft shooters to me (at least in comparison to the larger calibers). I guess I'm one of those folks that just aren't that recoil sensitive or something? I dunno. I just never got much "kick" out of a Makarov, and they always seemed easy to control to me.I personally tend to find direct blow backs in .380 or 9x18 Mak to be more problematic with recoil than heavier caliber pistols using some variant of the Browning action (or the Beretta 92's Walther P38 derived system, etc.). I'm not sure if "stronger" recoil is the right way to put it, but snappier and more of a handful to control than they'd appear to be simply looking at the relative bullet weights and foot-pounds of energy the different rounds are pushing.
Jason