What's the best way to describe recoil?

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I have yet to shoot a 44 mag yet, but for the others I'll try to help...

9mm - Small snap
.357sig - 9mm snap except multiplied
.40S&W - In between the 9mm and .45, some snap and some push
.45ACP - Firm push

That's how I think of them...

-Ryan
 
9mm -- mild snap
.357 -- sharp shove
.40S&W -- nasty slappy snap
.44 Mag --
.45ACP -- firm shove

pax
 
Felt recoil is extremely subjective with any cartridge out of any handgun. The firearm's weight, its grips, barrel length and the load will change the felt recoil. A hot load out of a light weight revolver with wooden grips will have more felt recoil than the same revolver with rubber grips. A target load out of the light wooden gripped revolver won't be harsh either. Plus the muzzle blast makes a difference too. So this comparison is moot.
 
9mm = Yawn... "Wake me up when the movie starts."
.357 mag = "All right!!! Now that's what I'm talking about!"
.40S&W = "Over so soon?"
.44 Mag = "YEA HA!!! That's gonna leave a bruise!"
.45ACP = "Sir! Yes Sir!"

Note that if you're shooting the .357mag in a scandium snubby, there are no words to describe it. It's sorta like slamming your hand in a car door over and over again.

:)
 
9MM A gentle bang, not much torque on the hands/wrists

40cal A moderate bang, slightly more torque on the wrists/hands. The first time I ever fired a 40 cal was a compact glock. I was expecting a big boom, and a lot of recoil, but it really felt more like a 9mm to me.

.45 A moderate bang, more of a shove back on the wrists/hands.

.38 special A quiet bang, almost no torque on wrists/hands. I have never shot +p loads, but the 5 diffrent brands of 38spc I have shot had less recoil then my 9mm handgun.

.357 magnum A loud bang, and a decent ammount of torque on the hands/wrists. I always expected the .357 to be much more jumpy.

.44 mag A real loud bang, and lots of torque to the hands/wrists. The 44mag is what I thought the .357mag was going to be like.

As far as recoil goes, my favorite would be .45acp, partially due to the fact that my .45 is a big gun and fits my hands well. Next favorite would be .357 magnum, which I do enjoy. Then 9mm. I don't shoot the other calibers often, so they don't make it on my list. I will tell you tha tI wouldn't want to shoot .44mag all day.
 
9mm - a quick snapped kick, fairly light in a full-frame gun, sharper in a light gun
.357 (asuming sig, as its what I've shot) - a sharper snap than 9mm
.40S&W - a moderate snap, a little push. right between .45acp and 9mm, but a bit closer to 9mm in terms of feel.
.44 Mag - like an explosion in your hand. kick, snap/bite, and a fair amount of push
.45ACP - more push than bite, slower than the others. like a gust of praire wind - feels like the gun is moving upwards on its own volition moreso than it feels like an explosion (granted I'm referring solely to what a 1911 feels like, not a micro .45)
 
Note that if you're shooting the .357mag in a scandium snubby, there are no words to describe it.
Click to expand...

I would describe it as "excruciating".

miko
 
Well... Depending on who you're describing to.

A 9mm pocket pistol and a Browning auto loader going to be much different.

Same with any of the .40's

Compare a .357mag through an SP101 snubbie and my Dan Wesson with 8" barrel. One is a snap of the wrist, and the other is, Hey, do that again.

Or a Taurus 4" Raging Bull in 44mag vs a 8" .500 SW.

.22= door ding
9mm, .38spl, .40sw in various gun sizes= fender bender
.357mag, 44spl, .45acp= car wreck at the intersection
.44mag, 45LC= Interstate accident
.460sw, 500sw, 445sm, 454C,= Train wreck, airline crash

What's that rule? Newton's third law states that every action has an equal but opposite reaction.

The heavier or the faster the bullet is moving out the barrel, the lighter the firearm, more felt recoil there will be with the shot.

Reduce velocity, reduce the weight of projectile, or add weight to the firearm, will reduce felt recoil.

Some autoloaders will feel like there's more recoil than if the same shot is from a single shot or revolver because of the reward motion of the slide.

-Steve

PAX, You've got it all wrong... It's SLAP and Backhand. Not snap and shove. ;)
 
When I was young I thought getting pounded by recoil was a macho rite of shooting. Like a fool, I'd shoot my .30-06 for sighting-in and load preference and by the end it felt like my shoulder was going to separate.
Now I know better. Ergonomic grips, muzzlebrakes, compensators, and recoil reducing stocks are a good thing.

Oh, my 10mm 1911 cannot be fired accurately one handed. I tried and just sprayed rounds. It's a firm push. The lighter loads worsen the recoil; generally adding more "snap" to the push.
 
Kinda hard to compare recoil with so many different gun configurations (weight, grip, barrel length...)

The easiest is distinguishing between 9mm and 45. As other have said, the 9mm is more of a quick snap and 45 is a heavy, slow push. I personnally never warmed up to the 40 because it felt like the 9 mm and 45 combined (snap of the 9 and push of the 45).
 
I'll take a different path.

The 9mm/ 38 special will definitely move the sights on standard sized gun no matter how strong you think you are.

However you can fire the second shot with a 9mm perceptably faster than with a .45ACP in a standard sized gun.

The .40 vs. 9mm thing seems like it's shades of the same color. Personally I don't find the .40 all that heavy in terms of recoil. Certainly not enough to really notice my second shot getting slower.

The .45ACP will take concentration to maintain follow up shots. It's still quick but definitely slower to recover than the 9mm. The .45ACP will quickly show how significant form is to accurate shooting.

The .357 Mag has one of the fastest recoil impulses I've ever felt. Again it's a caliber requiring good form to utilize it's potential. Although most folks don't shoot it much any more the warmer .44 special rounds are pretty comprable.

The .44 Mag is where rapid fire is considerably slower than anything I've mentioned thus far. The sights are moving in an arc roughly 14" or so. The grip profile can make a difference here but it's best not to fight the tendency for the muzzle to climb so much as to "ride it out". The .44 mag can be harder to shoot with rubber grips because the skin gets abraded pretty quick. Personally I find the Houge finger grooves to be abusive on my .44 Mag.

For me and a lot of folks the .44 Magnum represents the "envelope of fun". It's still fun to shoot 100 rounds at a session, mostly because it's accurate and hits very hard. Moving up to the "biguns" is where things get outright painfull. I fired 2 shots out of a 500 S&W and frankly didn't feel well afterwards. In general I felt concussed, my shoulder blades moved towards one another under recoil (not comfy), and my ears popped afterwards despite doubled ear protection.

A few folks mentioned subjectivity in recoil, referencing scandium frames and what not. After shooting a scandium J frame in .357 mag all I can say is that it's just plain stupidly painfull in recoil. In steel frames of standard size everything up to and including the .44 magnum is shootable for even small folks provided they use good form.
 
I shoot a 500 S&W alot and it is definately not for rapid fire. While I can certainly handle the recoil of full house loads, it takes awhile to recover from each shot and it is nearly impossible not to flinch once you send a few down range.

Even with my light Trail Boss target loads this thing is just too massive and heavy to shoot fast. Also in double action the trigger is so heavy as to be useless except at point blank range.

The recoil with a heavy load is different than with other handguns. The muzzle break provides enormous downward force on the end of the barrel limiting barrel rise to about probably around 30 degrees. The recoil has to go somewhere though and that somewhere is straight back into the palm of your hand. Its sort of like hitting your hand with a rubber mallet. The sorthobane grips help alot but after about 15 rounds I usually have a sore bruise in the palm of my hand between the thumb and forefinger. And anyone unfortunate enough to be on either side of you at the range is going to get their bell rung by the concussion!!
 
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