Thread: Managing recoil for a rookie shooter

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.