Thread: RECOIL....your funny stories.

Over 30 years ago at an antique arms shoot i had a go with a 4 Bore flint lock after having watched several others it didn't seem so bad. We I had been giving the owner/maker a bit of stick about the standard of finish, so he loaded me a shot charge rather than ball. More weight, more surface area more recoil. Blew me backwards leaving my glasses behind.
My how they all laughed.

Way back when... Mate had a slug pistol which we bored enough out of the barrel to except a .22. So put a slug in the usual place a .22 end of barrel and fire it off.
Worked well for a while till I had another turn and not sure what happened but in think the shell casing came back and sliced my knuckle to the bone requiring stitches.
Never did that again.

bought my first 12g(era gameking SxS 0 from my brother .dad had always said If youre firing a SxS touch the back trigger 1st -if you aint holdin it into the shoulder and touch front .........suprise subloody prise.yup muggins did that double detonation knuckle on neck of stock gave one a bloody large very sore bruise on bridge of ones nose!
seen more than one go arse over elbow from leaning back to nearly 45'in fear when firing a 12g-lean into the bastard soon cures that.
actually when my marriage broke up i sold that gun for $10.00more than i paid for it!
a couple of years ago i was very fortunate to pick anotherup for $150.00-obviously well used but of sentimental value to me .stilluse it on clays or pigeons -its a ton of fun.
Ive had a few double dets with my sexy wee russian baikal O/U -loose grip but dont generally phase me that much.
Another tale from my TF army days -Firing the M16-cases eject 45' to rear -me cackhander recipe for disaster -
fied a fullauto burst whilst clad in bloodbucket/battlebowler-yup an ejected case lodged between the chinstrap and my jaw -fuck did it burn me -stillcarry that scar to this day .
however a very astute old maori sgt was watchingand sidled up -"wondered when that'd happen boy.ever used a shotgun,,ok lean into it like ya do a shotty "never ever had another problem.mates didnt think much of me though showering em with mts from the mighty SLR or the other ,so I was usually put on the end of the firing line -no bloody sense of humour those buggers.also once got burnt when a pile of mt.303 bren cases cascaded out from under the gun contacting bare inner elbows-OUCH.brutal way to remind one to keep one bloody mind on the job!!

Not a rifle, but a 94mm anti-tank rocket.

The first was on Salisbury Plain - massive blast and heavy push, plus a thick plume of white smoke. It left me reeling from the overpressure.

Fast forward a couple of years and I ran an anti-tank range in Canada shooting them at an old APC. I had to be positioned just to the firer’s right and got the whole experience again, but 20 times in one day. Finished the day feeling like I’d had the shit kicked out of me and coughing from the gagging (and carcinogenic) smoke. The manual says no more than 10 in 24 hrs and I can see why.

Happy days.

A lot of military stuff was impressive if not respected. Especially when you were training or refreshing troops on a system.
The Carl Gustov 84mm wasnt called the Charlie guts ache for nothing. Even tho it is supposed to be recoiless

Posting or supervising soldiers posting grenades was a long day. Always felt pretty ragged after that.

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Originally Posted by R93

A lot of military stuff was impressive if not respected. Especially when you were training or refreshing troops on a system.
The Carl Gustov 84mm wasnt called the Charlie guts ache for nothing. Even tho it is supposed to be recoiless

Posting or supervising soldiers posting grenades was a long day. Always felt pretty ragged after that.

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I was lucky enough to get to fire an 84mm HE round and a live claymore....to say they were loud is an understatement!!!
Posting grenades was a huge buzz...loved it

Originally Posted by wsm junkie

I was lucky enough to get to fire an 84mm HE round and a live claymore....to say they were loud is an understatement!!!
Posting grenades was a huge buzz...loved it

Yip, you’re not wrong there.

........ and TNT RDX fumes from grenades aren’t very friendly to the lungs, especially in confined spaces like Russian trench systems (in Canada, not Russia).

Originally Posted by Spitfire

........ and TNT RDX fumes from grenades aren’t very friendly to the lungs, especially in confined spaces like Russian trench systems (in Canada, not Russia).

We used a lot of different grenades over my career but mostly the Singaporean SFG75
We were just happy they went off to be fair.
For most live fire exercises we posted in realistic fighting pits but for training we used a small 18" deep hole, surrounded by 1 layer of sandbags at the top. Was always a laugh watching new guys try and scurry away from the hole, once grenade was posted.

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Mate loads a light load and a full load in his 577/450. At the club he would talk a guys female friend into shooting the rifle, he would load the light one and no harm done, then he would get the guy to shoot is and load the nose bleeder. All good fun!
My 500 BP Express is an impressed looking cartridge, but only a BP charge, Guys normally shoot that first, it’s a thump, but then they look at the 450/400 and say well this cannot be as bad as the other! They relax and the recoil from a full nitro load wakes them up!!

I would never try to fire the 416 prone. Always shot it standing/leaning-most were reduced loads too. First ever shot out of it was a 400 grainer-that was robust-wouldn't want to fire too many out of that just for shits and giggles.
Fired a 12g sxs Baikal when was only 12-13. First time with a shotty and it was max reloads. That kicked a bit.
Everything else I wouldn't ever say worried me enough to suggest I wouldn't do it again.
Easter bunny hunt down Alexandra with the last year I used the browning A5 before I moved. Used the Mossberg 500 for the spotlighting night stuff. No more than 250 rounds probably 1-1/4. The browning isn't the most recoil absorbing shotgun and it was a warm day so only one layer-maybe only a t shirt. The Mossberg is surprisingly soft-it has been ported and had a pistolgrip so probably why.
First time I recall getting a bruise from a shotgun and the right cheek was a little ginger but didn't stop me at all the next day-wasn't that bad.
Even some of the 303's that were meant to boot only did so because we were young and soft. Fired my league coach's 303 once. The fore-end was carved back that much it looked like an old English shotgun splinter job. Had some old tape wrapped around the barrel to hold it on, long barrel too. Thought it would kick like a mule, it didn't really, just had a lot of muzzle flip/rise, but not even bad enough to hurt the cheek.

Some awesome stories here ! Thanks

What do you mean “posting” in a fighting pit? Non-green-machine type here getting lost

Originally Posted by SiB

What do you mean “posting” in a fighting pit? Non-green-machine type here getting lost

Grenades are very rarely thrown like the movies. They're placed or posted (dropped with force)
Enemy that are suppressed effectively by small arms are taken out by some poor bastard that crawls up and drops some hell into their hiding spot. Once grenade has gone off they fill it with small arms fire and fight thru.

Thrown grenades in built up areas or close country have a habit of bouncing back.
All soldiers train by throwing grenades on purpose built ranges. Combat soldiers get realistic training after throwing their 2 a year to be current with regs.
Non combat soldiers never post grenades unless they're lucky enough to be attached to combat units and attend that particular training. When I was serving they cost about $600 per grenade.
I will never be a millionaire but I have seen and been responsible for millions of dollars going boom

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Yes, all sorts of fun in my time.

Spent a day blowing up trees with det cord in Belize. Used about 3000 metres of that then spent the rest of the day seeing how many full mags on auto from SA80s it took to drop trees from about two metres. Burned out about six barrels doing that. Another day I shot 4 boxes (3600) of 9mm from Browning pistols in an afternoon. Then there was a day of 800 81mm mortars, including an extended period at rate 6 (6 per minute) until barrel fires stopped play. Pretty good recoil from them. Finally, spent an afternoon in Kent shooting .338 LM sniper rifles out to 1200m. Big heavy things with moderators, so very little recoil. Glad I wasn’t paying for that lot.