Thread: .303 rifle recoil, sore shoulder

Any advice on how to mitigate recoil? Dont want to sound like a wimp here, but I have a wickedly bruised shoulder after putting about 3 or 4 rounds through it over the weekend. I had to stop.
I dont know if I was holding the rifle wrong, but its not like I haven't fired one of these before, but it was some years ago when I last used one and at the time I didnt think the recoil was anything significant, but I had been using his rifle while in the standing position.

We were just shooting regular soft point hunting rounds through his gun, but ive been putting through my rifle the greek surplus HXP rounds.
Perhaps these have a higher charge in them? IDK, but I was shooting this sitting on a chair and resting the rifle on a table with a sack of grain to support the rifle on.

I have been diagnosed with bursitis on my shoulder, and im also wondering if the use of my 12 gauge has been partly to blame, but i had been doing alot of heavy work over the last few months when it first gave my symptoms which is what I put it down to, but I dont want to make things worse.
Any suggestions?

Check headspace, or get a Smith to do it. Out of headspace will contribute significantly to felt recoil.

Brass, steel or alloy butt plates can be a bit thumpy if you don't pull them tight into the shoulder, a short stocked gun kicks a full size shooter more than a correct fit does, 303s came in short std and long stock options fitting a slip on recoil pad may be the answer .
It's most likely work related, I've had a rotator cuff strain caused that way and after a few weeks of light duties went back to full activity including clay target shooting 700 rounds over a weekend and not a worry mind you the gun fits me perfectly and has a limbsaver recoil pad.
Follow any practical doctors advice and get on with it. Life without shooting doesn't bear thinking about.

Brass butplate, ww2 ergonomics and a decent size cartridge.


There is a few options you can do.
Lighter loads
Slip on rubber but plate
Shoulder pad.

With enfields, it's worse when you are prone because you get a small corner of the butt digging into your shoulder.

Personally, I use a shoulder pad from paast. Or if you are going to have a dedicated shooting shirt, you can sew in a small pad in the shoulder. Pad from a shot gun jacket for clay shooting is ideal

the tighter in you hold it,the less momentum it has to boot. firm=good and slip on recoil pad is good. give barrel really good clean out too incase its been nickled up at some point and is tighter than should be..not all that common anymore

Id like to add that the Greek surplus ammo has 174gn projectiles, you will likely find 150gn projectiles a fair bit easier on the shoulder.

Shooting from a sitting position can knock the shoulder around a bit, I find it helps to have the rifle higher rather than lower so the shoulder doesn’t have to hunch, I think a straight shoulder gives more surface area to spread out the kick.
Hold the fore stock firmly too. If it’s on a sack consider whether the top of the sack provides a ‘raceway’ on which the fore stock can slide back freely. You can also rest the rear stock on a separate sand bag, provided it isn’t a smooth channel, it will also help absorb some of the felt recoil.

I am guessing you were using the hug yourself method with front rest ??? no hand firmly gripping the forestock.if so it would make it worse.

Originally Posted by Old_School

Any advice on how to mitigate recoil? Dont want to sound like a wimp here, but I have a wickedly bruised shoulder after putting about 3 or 4 rounds through it over the weekend. I had to stop.
I dont know if I was holding the rifle wrong, but its not like I haven't fired one of these before, but it was some years ago when I last used one and at the time I didnt think the recoil was anything significant, but I had been using his rifle while in the standing position.

We were just shooting regular soft point hunting rounds through his gun, but ive been putting through my rifle the greek surplus HXP rounds.
Perhaps these have a higher charge in them? IDK, but I was shooting this sitting on a chair and resting the rifle on a table with a sack of grain to support the rifle on.

I have been diagnosed with bursitis on my shoulder, and im also wondering if the use of my 12 gauge has been partly to blame, but i had been doing alot of heavy work over the last few months when it first gave my symptoms which is what I put it down to, but I dont want to make things worse.
Any suggestions?

as a young fella I shot full bore with the old Gisborne rifle club -great days - as a new member I used one of their old SMLE target rifles with a brass but plate - 10 rounds and my shoulder was copping it -so I got a piece of neoprene used for wet suits and sowed that inside the army jacket I used to shoot with and was a lot happier with the felt recoil - those old 303 with steel or brass butt plates can boot

Probably pay to give yourself a bit of a break for a while, next time get it in really tight on bone wide on shoulder so no movement and recoil absorbs through whole body instead of punching you in the shoulder.

The Greek is hot. I hammered myself around getting back into the old Milsurps as well untill got technique sorted It.

I can pump 50-60 303 down-range in Tee shirt no problem now, great fun!

First shot ever with a centrefire, Lee enfield prone with brass butt plate, bloody thing almost broke my skinny little teenagers collar bone. "Memorable" didn't put me off all together, but still don't like shooting prone.

If it is sporterised and not in original you could put a decent suppressor on it, something like a sonic or stealth with built in break

Not quite 4 shots but the 8x57 czech mauser sporter i have was just starting to just show me who was boss after maybe 15 shots. 185grs at supposed packet velocity of 2500ish fps.
Nothing too bad but much more and I would have known it
A slip on recoil pad and a cheek riser to get my eye in line with scope and it's a pussycat.
Like night and day

I find both my 303's with original butt plates ok to shoot. The rifle that kicked my butt; or should I say my shoulder... was a Midland 308 with a rubber recoil pad. Holy shite, that kicked like a stag! Whereas my Ruger 77 .270 was a pussy compared to the Midland! It must have been a stock design issue because I've shot other 308's with no drama.

Originally Posted by Gun nut

Check headspace, or get a Smith to do it. Out of headspace will contribute significantly to felt recoil.

OK, I had just had this checked by a gunsmith while it was in for some other work recently, im pretty sure all thats OK.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Brass, steel or alloy butt plates can be a bit thumpy if you don't pull them tight into the shoulder, a short stocked gun kicks a full size shooter more than a correct fit does, 303s came in short std and long stock options fitting a slip on recoil pad may be the answer .
It's most likely work related, I've had a rotator cuff strain caused that way and after a few weeks of light duties went back to full activity including clay target shooting 700 rounds over a weekend and not a worry mind you the gun fits me perfectly and has a limbsaver recoil pad.
Follow any practical doctors advice and get on with it. Life without shooting doesn't bear thinking about.

Yeah, I feel the heavy brass butt plate is not helping things. Ive got a limbsaver on my 12 gauge and it helps, but it extends the length of pull a bit and I learned that the factory stocks that had the recoil pads were cut shorter to make up for the extra thickness.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

the tighter in you hold it,the less momentum it has to boot. firm=good and slip on recoil pad is good. give barrel really good clean out too incase its been nickled up at some point and is tighter than should be..not all that common anymore

Well I thought I was holding it tight, but wondering if its me just automatically relaxing without realising as i had the rifle supported on the table, im sure I tried holding it tighter on the last shot.
This rifle does have a very tight bore when it we measured it, this may not help things. Ive given it a bit of a clean and the cleaning patch was coming out quite grey, but the bore appears clean when looking down.

Originally Posted by Danger Mouse

Brass butplate, ww2 ergonomics and a decent size cartridge.


There is a few options you can do.
Lighter loads
Slip on rubber but plate
Shoulder pad.

With enfields, it's worse when you are prone because you get a small corner of the butt digging into your shoulder.

Personally, I use a shoulder pad from paast. Or if you are going to have a dedicated shooting shirt, you can sew in a small pad in the shoulder. Pad from a shot gun jacket for clay shooting is ideal

I might have to look at experimenting with different loads, I dont think I need much padding, just something to cover the heavy buttplate, as there is not much muscle protecting my collarbone or shoulder.

Originally Posted by longshot

Shooting from a sitting position can knock the shoulder around a bit, I find it helps to have the rifle higher rather than lower so the shoulder doesn’t have to hunch, I think a straight shoulder gives more surface area to spread out the kick.
Hold the fore stock firmly too. If it’s on a sack consider whether the top of the sack provides a ‘raceway’ on which the fore stock can slide back freely. You can also rest the rear stock on a separate sand bag, provided it isn’t a smooth channel, it will also help absorb some of the felt recoil.

Yes, Im thinking this is part of the problem. First thing im going to try is shooting while standing to see how that compares.
I think I might need to sit lower to keep my back straighter.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

I am guessing you were using the hug yourself method with front rest ??? no hand firmly gripping the forestock.if so it would make it worse.

Thats what I was trying to do, but having the rifle resting on a sack perhaps didnt lend well to me holding the rifle in the most ideal position.

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

as a young fella I shot full bore with the old Gisborne rifle club -great days - as a new member I used one of their old SMLE target rifles with a brass but plate - 10 rounds and my shoulder was copping it -so I got a piece of neoprene used for wet suits and sowed that inside the army jacket I used to shoot with and was a lot happier with the felt recoil - those old 303 with steel or brass butt plates can boot

Neoprene sounds like a good idea, would be super easy to make a lightweight slip on pad too.

Originally Posted by jackson21

Probably pay to give yourself a bit of a break for a while, next time get it in really tight on bone wide on shoulder so no movement and recoil absorbs through whole body instead of punching you in the shoulder.

The Greek is hot. I hammered myself around getting back into the old Milsurps as well untill got technique sorted It.

I can pump 50-60 303 down-range in Tee shirt no problem now, great fun!

Im feeling OK now so probably will be fine for me to play around next weekend.

It appears this greek stuff has a heavier projectile, so is probably the reason I have found this has more recoil than I was expecting.