Thread: How to manage recoil?

Originally Posted by Ultimitsu

3. length of the barrel. Recoil push does not happen until bullet leaves muzzle. Recoil is the backward push by the escaping gas, therefore the more that the gas expands inside the barrel the less the sudden push when it gets out, and the less recoil.

While much of this is accurate I'm not sure about point 3. Longer barrelled rifles experience less recoil simply because they are heavier. Recoil is Newton's Third Law of Motion - the 'action' of both the bullet and weight of the gases and unburnt powder moving forwards causes an equal and opposite 'reaction' moving backwards.

Although the sound quality is crap there's an interesting comparison between a suppressor and a T2 muzzle brake here. Conclusion: the muzzle brake on test makes a substantial difference to measured recoil whereas the suppressor makes very little difference. The recoil perceived with the suppressor may be less because of the reduced noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6ivKUyTiM

Many decades ago as a schoolboy I used to shoot 3, 6 and 900 yards at Tai Tapu with a brass butt plated .303 service rifle. Being all of an eight stone string bean my shoulder definitely felt it but thankfully I never developed a flinch. Good training or good luck, I don't know?