Thread: RECOIL....your funny stories.

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).

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.

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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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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Been there... not long after getting my license I managed to save a few pennies for my 1st rifle. A t3 308 and a vx1. Upon collection a couple of forum members here and myself albeit alot younger, went out to a farm offal pit and thought we would take care of some of the resident rats. It was a blast and confidence was high, I then saw a rabbit running along a hill, I lay down on said hill and let one fly, by god did that vx1 come back quickly. I tried to act casual but the lump gave me away. That day also taught me about shooting technique and gravity!

Originally Posted by tetawa

If you want to "feel" a bit of recoil, try a net gun.

I recall @gundoc writing on another forum, saying that the recoil from those guns pushed the door gun guys into the side of their helo fuselages, leaving dents.

@Max Headroom there is also stories in the chopper boy's book(s) of them playing tricks on noobs wanting a job-usually on the piss too, and getting them to stand precariously on 44g drums when they fired one. Much hilarity and laughter when they would be blown back off the drums sometimes doing a somersault.

Originally Posted by Max Headroom

I recall @gundoc writing on another forum, saying that the recoil from those guns pushed the door gun guys into the side of their helo fuselages, leaving dents.

I have a pic somewhere of dint made not that long ago from a net gun. Definitely happened on almost all machines doing capture.


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