Thread: Managing recoil for a rookie shooter

If you worry about the "thump" of recoil as you are squeezing the trigger it's going to affect how well you shoot. You will end up losing focus or shifting your vision off target at the last second causing a shot to go astray slightly, or a lot. It's a subconscious thing as your your mind makes your body shrink away from the perceived horror of physical hurt. A little willpower is necessary to overcome this. To do so, when looking down the scope get the crosshair firmly centered on target and concentrate firmly on holding the crosshair there as you gently squeeze the trigger. Focus on nothing else but keeping the crosshair on target. When the shot goes off you might find you have barely felt any recoil. Try it and see for yourself.
A lot of good advice has been given by other posters above. The .243 is not a big hitter so adjusting to that level of recoil should not be difficult. What you will also find is when you get to mostly shooting at game recoil becomes very much a secondary sensation as everything else in the act of hunting is so much more prominent that you actually forget to even think about recoil.

Originally Posted by 30.06king

If you worry about the "thump" of recoil as you are squeezing the trigger it's going to affect how well you shoot. You will end up losing focus or shifting your vision off target at the last second causing a shot to go astray slightly, or a lot. It's a subconscious thing as your your mind makes your body shrink away from the perceived horror of physical hurt. A little willpower is necessary to overcome this. To do so, when looking down the scope get the crosshair firmly centered on target and concentrate firmly on holding the crosshair there as you gently squeeze the trigger. Focus on nothing else but keeping the crosshair on target. When the shot goes off you might find you have barely felt any recoil. Try it and see for yourself.
A lot of good advice has been given by other posters above. The .243 is not a big hitter so adjusting to that level of recoil should not be difficult. What you will also find is when you get to mostly shooting at game recoil becomes very much a secondary sensation as everything else in the act of hunting is so much more prominent that you actually forget to even think about recoil.

My question wasn't so much around the backwards thump of the rifle into my shoulder. The part is fine and I can manage that. My question was more around how to handle the front end jumping up - if that makes sense.

Thanks for the advice, definitely need to work on my breathing technique.

Originally Posted by Tall kiwi

My question wasn't so much around the backwards thump of the rifle into my shoulder. The part is fine and I can manage that. My question was more around how to handle the front end jumping up - if that makes sense.

Thanks for the advice, definitely need to work on my breathing technique.

hang on to it..... LOL
you will do just fine...looking forward to photo of you with a goat sometime very soon.

Originally Posted by Tall kiwi

My question wasn't so much around the backwards thump of the rifle into my shoulder. The part is fine and I can manage that. My question was more around how to handle the front end jumping up - if that makes sense.

Thanks for the advice, definitely need to work on my breathing technique.

Stock shape and body position have a lot to do with that one. What you're talking about is muzzle rise, and I'm going out on a limb and maybe thinking you want to control that a bit better so you can get back on target sooner for a follow up shot?

Search out Mark and Sam after work (4AW) on youtube, and also Phillip Velayo (Modern day Sniper.) They explain things really well as far as technique and shooting position in various videos.

Given time and plenty of ammo, paying a little attention to how the scope lifts with the shot can tell you a bit about your technique was for that shot. If you're nice and comfortable, have a stock shape that isn't too rubbish and you're playing around with some mild magnification ranges (12x or less) you'll know a good shot when you make it. The scope lifts nice and vertical just a little and settles back very close to where you were looking, or even better the rifle pushes straight back into your shoulder and you're straight back on target (VERY good trigger control, rifle and body positioning working together). Conversely, you'll know when you pulled a shot as well, the scope won't lift cleanly. Milder recoiling calibres, creedmoor, .243, etc and smaller are great for getting a feel for this pretty easily, and anything that thumps a bit harder the thump in the shoulder is a bit more of a distraction from the way the shot feels until you learn to ignore it.

Works great with a .22 and long range plinking as well. You know in the second or more it takes for the bullet to hit the plate whether it actually will or not based on how it all felt the moment the trigger broke.