Thread: How to manage recoil?

I recently threw a limbsaver on my 7mm RM. what a difference it made, There isn't a lot of me, so the rifle used to let me know when I had pulled the trigger. Not now. Highly recommend them.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
The evolution of my Remington 700 ADL has been a saga of managing recoil as I age. Purchased new when I was in my 20's it had a hard plastic but plate (I refuse to call it a pad). I used it a lot on the range for our NZDA club shoots and never noticed the recoil much. I have always been a big chap so this may have helped. After a decade or so I started to get recoil headaches so started loading reduced loads for the range. These were only reduced by a couple of grains which gave me a 100 metre zero with them with a 200 metre zero for the full power hunting loads. Much better. This went on for a few years until other rifles had taken over such hunting as I was doing and the loads were reduced further, settling on 38 grains of AR2206H behind the 150 grain projectile for about 2,300 fps. One day, after my son had visited, a Hogue stock appeared in my cupboard. This had a nice cushy recoil pad and after a scratch around for some bottom metal it was installed. What a difference. A DPT suppressor followed. A couple of .223 rifles have taken over the minimal target shooting I now do and the .308 has been relegated to load testing duty. Just recently while doing an inventory of loads on hand and found I had a significant quantity of full power hunting loads, most with my favourite 150 grain Norma projectile. As my old shoulder thumper has been transformed into a pussy cat perhaps it needs to go walkies in the bush again. On my list of goal trips is one in spring to Macintosh Hut and one in Autumn to Kiwi Saddle Hut in Autumn. By the latter I will be close to 73 and the rifle 45. I have carried the rifle to both of these huts a number of times in the past so one more trip can't hurt. Seems like a plan to me.
Regards Grandpamac.

You sir @grandpamac are an inspiration . I can only hope I am capable of doing what you do at that age .
Lord knows I struggle enough at 50 ... and on my return home from the hills usually feel closer to 90 ...

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
The evolution of my Remington 700 ADL has been a saga of managing recoil as I age. Purchased new when I was in my 20's it had a hard plastic but plate (I refuse to call it a pad). I used it a lot on the range for our NZDA club shoots and never noticed the recoil much. I have always been a big chap so this may have helped. After a decade or so I started to get recoil headaches so started loading reduced loads for the range. These were only reduced by a couple of grains which gave me a 100 metre zero with them with a 200 metre zero for the full power hunting loads. Much better. This went on for a few years until other rifles had taken over such hunting as I was doing and the loads were reduced further, settling on 38 grains of AR2206H behind the 150 grain projectile for about 2,300 fps. One day, after my son had visited, a Hogue stock appeared in my cupboard. This had a nice cushy recoil pad and after a scratch around for some bottom metal it was installed. What a difference. A DPT suppressor followed. A couple of .223 rifles have taken over the minimal target shooting I now do and the .308 has been relegated to load testing duty. Just recently while doing an inventory of loads on hand and found I had a significant quantity of full power hunting loads, most with my favourite 150 grain Norma projectile. As my old shoulder thumper has been transformed into a pussy cat perhaps it needs to go walkies in the bush again. On my list of goal trips is one in spring to Macintosh Hut and one in Autumn to Kiwi Saddle Hut in Autumn. By the latter I will be close to 73 and the rifle 45. I have carried the rifle to both of these huts a number of times in the past so one more trip can't hurt. Seems like a plan to me.
Regards Grandpamac.

Inspirational, thanks for sharing.

ok enough years have past,its time to share this tale...
as a teen I shot many animals with brothers open sighted 30/30.....I got very good with it... then pighunting mate wanted to swap it for his winchester model 70 push fed 270...I asked brother and got the nod...
my first couple of shots with new rifle went into target then they walked 2 feet away...10 shots later and many adjustments had me back where started and beginnings of major flinch were creeping in...you see ammunition was 150 grn Norma..arguably one of the hottest factory loadings of the time,a lightweight rifle,a hard red rubber but plate and a trigger of about 15lb...I shit you not....I had to locate animal,dif post hole,ram home the post,wire rifle firmy to post ,then go get D7 and hook on winch rope to trigger,when dozed was at full rev winch was activated and trigger would budge enough to fire rifle!!!!!
well Ok that might be SLIGHT eggzaguration...but not by much
so rifle went away to someone who know how and trigger brought down to 3lb
PMC ammunition was purchased,and winchester silvertips both in 130grn
and I never looked back. later I fitted a bisley shotgun recoil pad,deliberately left over size..still didnt like shooting paper and when I started reloading,I kept loads
down in low power levels...many year later I fitted suppressor and loads crept back up in power levels.
still not overly happy shooting lots of loads at paper but fine to check zero when needed.
3 of us were shooting 270s on range and mates new ruger had terrible trigger...like mine was,maybe 15lb...I got flinch so bad I could not physically fire that rifle with round in chamber...trigger would drop on empty chamber but I literally could not make myself pull trigger on loaded round...that MADE ME aware how bad the flinch had got me...i knew it would boot ,I knew it would be loud....
suppressors have been game changer....the 243 was often the cartridge of choice for new ,slightly built or young shooters because of low recoil..... now,pretty much any cartridge can be tamed down to that level or lower.