worst recoiling rifle

[Gtscotty]

Well, the Lahti was an experience, but it didn't result in any broken bones... Since there is at least one experience posted here that ends in broken bones, I think that any that do not are automatically disqualified from the top spot.

Here's a few pics anyway:

The first one is an artsy photo with the 20x138mm next to some of the other cartridges being fired that day.


The second is yours truly getting ready for the shot.

 

[FiveStrings]

Worst rifle recoil for me was a friend's Mannlicher-Schoenauer in .458 Win Mag. He even gave me a recoil pad harness to wear and 2 rounds was all my neck and jaw could take. That rifle was just too small for that kind of cartridge.

Worst recoil I ever saw from any gun was on TV when R Lee Ermey fired a S&W 500 Magnum and the hammer bit him in the forehead - that was brutal to watch. The slo-mo video showed the shock wave rippling through his entire arm.

 

[Cee Zee]

The worst I've ever experienced was an 18" single-shot 12 gauge, steel buttplate, with Brenneke Black Magic 3" slugs. 600gr slug moving out of the barrel at around 1500fps, out of a 5lb gun... That hurt.

I did exactly the same thing - only I did it 3 times in a row. Wow! "That" hurt. Someone said I couldn't do it and that's one of those things that make my eyes roll back in my head and shut down my brain for about 5 minutes. I had told my friend about shooting 3 rounds of 3" magnums with turkey loads. He knew about my stash of Black Magic slugs so he said, "I bet you can't shoot those that many times." The rest is misery.

 

[Bobson]

I enjoy shooting, not hospital visits. I used to think it was common sense that kept people from shooting the collar-bone-breaking, shoulder-dislocating load/rifle combos.

 

[Onmilo]

Weatherby Mark V in .378 Weatherby!
Hands down and remains to this day the most unpleasant rifle I have ever fired and I did so standing and off of the bench.
I have had the good fortune to fire several long guns chambered in .50 BMG including the Barrett M82 and NONE of those guns has been as uncomfortable and unpleasant as that Weatherby!

 

[Pete D.]

marvelous

This was/is a really wonderful thread....anecdotes galore about people and firearms and....to a degree...learning your limits.
My own most unpleasant moments pale in comparison to some of the remarkable incidents recorded here thus far.
There are two....one with a rifle and subsonic ammo. The rifle is a T/C Encore with a 20" SSK barrel chambered for the venerable .50 Gov't. The twist is that the rifling has been stepped up so that it will stabilize longer bullets than the standard. The design load is called the 50-70-750. One loads BMG bullets into the 50-70 case over a moderate load of H322 or RL7. The bullets exit at about 900 fps. Great fun to shoot......the problem for me was that the recoil pulse was so fast that I could not keep the scope out of my eye, try as I might. Shooting glasses saved me, though the lenses got knocked out. I tried it a few times - figuring that there had to be a way to hold it, after all, I have a .416 Rigby that I can shoot without getting hurt. Nope. Had to go to a Scout mount.
The other gun is a pistol, also a T/C Encore. I was interested in the 500 S&W and had acquired some of Rick Gibson's "Tyrannosaur Thumper" bullets. 700 grain WFNGC monsters...beautiful bullets actually. They were loaded over a charge of Li'l Gun. There was no drama.....they just hurt to shoot. No foreplay, right from shot one. Ouch. Ported barrel made no difference.
Doesn't compare with a broken collar bone but was enough for me.
Pete

PS - Doubtless many of you have seen this giddy video of Art Alphin's 577 T-Rex being used at a range in the Middle East:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EVqT3XEzss

 

[Crashbox]

Well, I have but a single rifle in my possession that is a mere cap gun in comparison to the others mentioned here-

My Dad bought my Mom- for a first anniversary present, no less- a Model 1895 Winchester chambered in .405 WCF. According to Mom, she shot it once and it placed her in a horizontal position in very short order. My brother said he shot it ONCE and he is downright afraid to shoot it again! I have not yet fired it...

(My plan is to cast some of the Lyman 412263 288-grain projectiles and load some 748 behind them to warm the old rifle up... hasn't been shot in probably at least 40 years.)

 

[huntershooter]

Can't top (or equal) most of the above...
Mine is a converted mod. 71 Winchester in .450 Alaskan.
"Load development" from the bench was tedious with 405 grn. Barnes @ 2500 fps.
I'll pass on the Lahti's and 4 bores.

 

[tark]

Thanks for the kind words H&HHunter. Ray Meyer was a remarkable man, and I could have gone on for page after page telling stories about him. But that isn't the subject of the thread, so I tried to be brief.

The video of that T-REX monster being fired reminded me a lot of that four bore. I think it is, like the four bore, not a gun you can fire from the bench, although several guys did! It looked like it could be controlled best be taking a step backward after firing, just like the four bore.

My vote still goes to the Lahti 20mm. I broke my collarbone because I didn't listen to Ray and position the gun properly to my shoulder. At least I didn't drop it. Ray told me that the number of four bore single barrel cartridge rifles in the world can be counted on the fingers of one hand, with possibly another four or five yet undiscovered. His Purdey four bore double was one of only three they ever built.

I have read the only large, strong men were chosen to pull the trigger on the Lahti and they received extensive training on the proper way to keep their bones intact. The thought of firing that monster from the prone position gives me the cold sweats.

 

[H&Hhunter]

PS - Doubtless many of you have seen this giddy video of Art Alphin's 577 T-Rex being used at a range in the Middle East:

The guy who owns that rifle is a joker named Saeed. he loves to get folks who don't know the first thing about heavy rifles to shoot that monster as a practical joke. So there is video after video of newbie shooters getting clobbered by the T-Rex. However a guy who knows how to handle recoil has none of the issues highlighted in Saeed's gag reels.

Slide forward to 3:06 on the video below and watch an African PH shoot the Rex. Quite a different outcome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ged4lz_Fw2Y

 

[tark]

That's the video I was referring to!!!

 

[tark]

Anybody know the ballistics of that T-REX? I really never did ask Ray what the velocity on that 2000 gr bullet from the 4 bore. I would suspect is was low, probably around 1200 or 1300 FPS, but wow, did it have some stopping power!!!

 

[H&Hhunter]

tark,

"The 577 T-Rex contains a .585-inch diameter 750-grain Monolithic Solid Projectile which when fired moves at 2,460 ft/s producing 10,180 foot-pounds force of muzzle energy. The production model from A-square is based on their Hannibal rifle platform. This cartridge has the distinction of possessing the heaviest free recoil of all commercially available, shoulder-fired weapons, at 220 lbs. "

Loosely translated, it's one seriously bad mambo jambo!

Here are reliable ballistics for the 4 bore form an active 4 bore user named Cal Pappas. He regularly hunts Africa with one of his original double rifles in 4 Bore. He has one of his for sale at the moment if you have a spare $100K or so lying around it could be yours...

http://calpappas.blogspot.com/2009/10/4-bore-ballistics-from-robert-hughes.html

 

[tark]

Thanks for the Info H&H! 1750 grains is the weight of a 4 bore round ball, about four ounces. Ray was shooting a conical bullet weighing 2000 grains so the velocity was a bit lower no doubt but still impressive, close to 8000 foot pounds of muzzle energy. Wow. No wonder the damn thing broke my collarbone. That was the only broken bone I have ever sustained, and I am 65 years old now.

I will do my best never to break another. Let the youngsters shoot cannons, I'll be happy with my 22 Hornet.

 

[RClem]

Over my years of shooting I have had many opportunities to shoot some of the worst recoiling rifle known, at least that is what the owners bragged. I grew up with .348 Winchester in a model 71 that had the narrowest but plate I have ever seen on any rifle, it hurt to shoot even when you had game in the sights, but it did manage to make me less recoil sensitive than many people I have known. About 15 years ago I shot the worst recoiling rifle of my life, 3 shots at a steel plate 1" thick, 500 yards right through, every shot was a killer on both ends. It was a .50 BMG on a custom action, 20 inch heavy barrel (not heavy enough) that weigh in just over 10 pounds.
The gunsmith that built this thing ran it over a chronograph set 50 feet away and got something like 2700fps with a 750 or so grain bronze slug. The recoil was so sharp, it would strip the head cans off your head and make your neck ache, I am sure if you didn't hold it in tight and on the shoulder it would have broken or dislocated something.
I see many other heavy recoilers listed in here that are/were probably much worse than this little .50 BMG, and I can sympathize with those who thought they should try to show how macho they were.
I just have to ask: DID YOU ENJOY OR BENEFIT FROM THE PAIN YOU RECEIVED FROM PULLING THAT TRIGGER? I can honestly say I did not, other than I hit the plate all 3 shots.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I know that the title of this thread is "Worst recoiling rifle" BUT.....The most physically painful shooting experience I've ever experienced is with a handgun. A good friend of mine is a heavy caliber revolver freak. He has a collection of STUPID powerful revolvers. I have shot two cylinders through his custom 4" Ruger Redhawk built by Hamilton Bowen chambered in .500 Linebaugh. The day I shot his we were using his bear defense loads which were a 440 Gr Hard cast bullets @ 1300 FPS.

I shot the first cylinder of 5 rounds in the morning and then decided to man up later in the afternoon and shot another cylinder through it. I had a goose egg in the frog of my hand the next day that was black, blue and painful. I also noticed that I had strange marks on my hand that we later figured out were hammer spur marks. The gun had rotated and slammed back hard enough that the hammer spur was contacting the top of my strong side "shooting" hand in recoil.

Later another one of our crowd decided that he simply had to have a .500 Linebaugh as well. So he had one built on the same platform. Sometime during the first shooting session the hammer spur sliced open the top of his hand requiring a number of stitches to close it. I've shoot the .500 S&W in the short version with the break installed and without. That X frame with it's increased size and weight, is way more controllable than the Redhawk with a huge magnum .500 coming out the nose.

My buddy has now moved on to bigger and better things with a .500 Wyoming Express. He claims that they are bit "hostile" to shoot.

 

[George44]

The worst I ever fired was a savage 99 Featherweight, in .358 Winchester, with a steel Buttplate. The recoil surprised me,I did'nt think it would be that bad.Was shooting 200 grain bullets.

 

[WaywardSon]

Another vote for the Marlin 1895 in 45/70...I don't know if it is the weight of the gun...stock design or what, but full power loads under a 405 gr. bullet are not exactly pleasant.

 

[BudgetBucks1]

As the heavy gunner for my squad in the Army I was tasked to operate the M-60 in .308(7.62x51NATO). Now .308 doesn't kick bad except on full auto. I am 5'6 and was 135 lbs and could never seem to tame that thing. In my experience it moved a heck of alot more in person than it looked like it did on tv. It reminded me of the time when I was a kid and I tried to ride a friend's horse and ended up tossed in a weed thicket with the breath knocked out of me. We switched to the 5.56 SAW and that was a much better shooting firearm. I could almost draw pictures with it. When I first bought my Savage 30.06 I was shooting hot loads and cracked the glass in a Simmons Whitetail scope. I went to shooting normal 150 grain loads and put a limbsaver on it and now it is quite pleasant to shoot. I absolutely despise a hard kicking gun.

 

[Dr T]

While I have no personal experience with it, the Guide Gun with heavy loads is on my list of things to avoid. I have a friend that got a detached retina from one. He can no longer shoot.

 

[back40]

tark, if you find a way to post those pics of mr meyer's guns, i encourage you to. i, and i'm sure plenty of others would love to see them. thanks for this thread, it's been great fun to read!

 

[tark]

Ill keep learning. The pics I have are 3by five snapshots from an old thirty five MM Nikon so I'm not sure how good the quality would be. I also have a letter from Ray to me thanking me for designing a 4 bore logo for him. I treasure it, along of my memories of my time with Ray.

 

[481]

Worst for me is a 7.25 pound Winchester Model 70 stainless classic in .375 H&H- from the bench, that is, while sighting the irons. Doing that, it leaves marks that take two weeks to go away. About 56 pounds of free-recoil energy with a recoil velocity of 22.36 fps (15.25 mph).

In the field after dangerous game, however, I don't feel it and it leaves no marks. Here's hoping that I never have to sight it in again.

 

[musicman10_1]

This gun starts to lose its appeal after about 3 shots.

T/C with .45-70 Gov barrel in carbine configuration (barrel is a little over 16"). It is so light that the recoil is wicked. It is not pleasant to shoot in a handgun configuration but it is less painful that way than it is when configured as a rifle.

 

[texgunner]

A Mosin-Nagant M44 and a Marlin 1895 in 45-70 are are the two worst recoiling rifles I've shot. The 1895 was an older model with a piece of black plastic on the butt stock, no recoil pad.