Thread: RECOIL....your funny stories.

12 years old. At a mates place shooting a 22. Both of us weren't to bad, shooting match heads at about 20m. His old man comes over (his nick name was/is Turkey), has a look and says you boys are doing alright there, have a go with this at that tree over there.

So I go, good as.

To his credit, he did say stand up and take the shot.

So I line up this 4in tree at 30m, and pull the trigger.
Hit the tree, but end up going backwards to sit on my arse. Turkey Catches the rifle as I'm going backwards.
My shoulder down to right nipple and right elbow, turned every color of the rainbow.
It hurt.

And to this day, 30 years later (and its only been about 10 shots), everytime I get forced into shooting a 30/06, I filnch, sweat, shake and generally shit myself.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Then there was a day of 800 81mm mortars, including an extended period at rate 6 (6 per minute) until barrel fires stopped play.

FAAA I was impressed to see about 40 fired in one day. I was told they were about $1,500 each at the time.

I seem to remember M79 40mm grenade launcher having a bit of recoil. The Carl Gustaf 84mm gave you recoil from all sides for sure.

By far the worst recoiling gun I have fired was a very very short single barrel shotgun with no rubber but-pad. It was so light and firing game loads it was horrible.

Surely Turkey wouldn't do that to ya.

Originally Posted by R93

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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Hey @R93

My Grandad was ext WW1 vet. Fought in Yepres and Passchendaele (3rd battle of Yepres).

When WW2 came along he was now living in NZ tried to re-enlist. But they decided to have him train the troops going out. He did this for around three years I think.

With four years of WW1 under his belt he had more than a little experience. He said that grenades killed more throwers in WW1 than thrown at. He used to train the guys in how to correctly throw the 11 second Mills grenade. There was quite the art to doing this so that the enemy solider could not throw it back at you. (There is that scene in Saving Private Ryan where they are attacking the machine gun nest where you see this happening)

Anyway one day along comes some top brass who where there to see how the new batch of troops where coming along. They walked up to the tench where he was going through the live fire exercise.

He pulls the pin and droops the grenade on the ground. Well the Brass of course just run for cover. Grandad very calmly bens down picks up the grenade and throws it out of the training tench into the blast crater. The Brass are all like are you bloody mad???

He then explains why he trains them to do it this way.

Most panic when they pull the pin as they lose count and then throw it in the wrong direction, our it bounces off something. This way by dropping it on the ground in a controlled way you have time to retrieve it and get it to where it needs to be with out it coming back.

Officers are not amused.

Anyway I wont bother you with his unarmed combat drills......but they did save this falla from more than one kicking.

Originally Posted by Sideshow

Hey @R93

My Grandad was ext WW1 vet. Fought in Yepres and Passchendaele (3rd battle of Yepres).

When WW2 came along he was now living in NZ tried to re-enlist. But they decided to have him train the troops going out. He did this for around three years I think.

With four years of WW1 under his belt he had more than a little experience. He said that grenades killed more throwers in WW1 than thrown at. He used to train the guys in how to correctly throw the 11 second Mills grenade. There was quite the art to doing this so that the enemy solider could not throw it back at you. (There is that scene in Saving Private Ryan where they are attacking the machine gun nest where you see this happening)

Anyway one day along comes some top brass who where there to see how the new batch of troops where coming along. They walked up to the tench where he was going through the live fire exercise.

He pulls the pin and droops the grenade on the ground. Well the Brass of course just run for cover. Grandad very calmly bens down picks up the grenade and throws it out of the training tench into the blast crater. The Brass are all like are you bloody mad???

He then explains why he trains them to do it this way.

Most panic when they pull the pin as they lose count and then throw it in the wrong direction, our it bounces off something. This way by dropping it on the ground in a controlled way you have time to retrieve it and get it to where it needs to be with out it coming back.

Officers are not amused.

Anyway I wont bother you with his unarmed combat drills......but they did save this falla from more than one kicking.

I know it was practiced before my time. But we never or would be allowed to do it.
Most modern grenades have a 4 sec fuse and I have seen some go off quicker and some take longer. That's why when posting they're chucked in hard. Bounce around a bit and hope no one catches it


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Originally Posted by csmiffy

Surely Turkey wouldn't do that to ya.

That was 29-30 years ago, and he was a hard good cunt. Still shovelling at that point. Made r93 look tall.

Out hunting with an old journey man. My hand load 308 rounds weren’t chambering properly, luckily I got one in and smacked over a nice stag early in the trip. The next day I decided to leave it behind and the old boy to shoot the next ( if the opportunity arose ) we stumbled onto a mob of pigs 300m away. With his eye site he wasn’t keen to have a crack. He hands his 338 over to me and I think ahhh you have 250 grainers in this!. So naturally, having never shot the rifle, or at a pig 300m away, I flinched like a little bitch in anticipation as I was expecting this brute to kick like a mule. Naturally I missed but then after realising it hardly kicked any more than my 308 I backed the shot up and watched the pig roll on down the hill.

Firing an AK47 for the first time, feel lucky to still have my toes.

Firing an SRS in .338, amazing skull rattle.

Originally Posted by Beaker

12 years old. At a mates place shooting a 22. Both of us weren't to bad, shooting match heads at about 20m. His old man comes over (his nick name was/is Turkey), has a look and says you boys are doing alright there, have a go with this at that tree over there.

So I go, good as.

To his credit, he did say stand up and take the shot.

So I line up this 4in tree at 30m, and pull the trigger.
Hit the tree, but end up going backwards to sit on my arse. Turkey Catches the rifle as I'm going backwards.
My shoulder down to right nipple and right elbow, turned every color of the rainbow.
It hurt.

And to this day, 30 years later (and its only been about 10 shots), everytime I get forced into shooting a 30/06, I filnch, sweat, shake and generally shit myself.

A friend of mine used to ask me to sight in and group his pre-64 action model 70 Winchester 30-06. He insisted that I shot it better than him but I am 99% that he got flinch after firing more than 3 rounds.

Oh I forgot the old Mosin–Nagant carbine, I don't know if it was the worst recoiling rifle but the ergonomics are so bad that you feel every ft/lb of it.

Originally Posted by csmiffy

@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...

The dirtier trick was to get them on a roof " to simulate shooting out of a machine". There was mention of a broken arm when they fell off the roof with the recoil.

My dad joined the South African Police at 16, when he was a bantamweight, to be generous. Shooting practice with LE 303s, lying prone at the top of a slight embankment... He relates how he had to crawl back to the top after each magazine, because the recoil knocked him backwards to the point that he lost sight of the target!

I'll also attest to big game rifles fired lying prone (a sort of initiation for nugget nature conservators in South Africa back in the day...) some things are best done lying down, others standing up... If you have time to lie down prone and aim, you probably don't need to be shooting a 458.

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

FAAA I was impressed to see about 40 fired in one day. I was told they were about $1,500 each at the time.

I seem to remember M79 40mm grenade launcher having a bit of recoil. The Carl Gustaf 84mm gave you recoil from all sides for sure.

By far the worst recoiling gun I have fired was a very very short single barrel shotgun with no rubber but-pad. It was so light and firing game loads it was horrible.

It was very unusual and was just before a deployment to Macedonia to support UN observers over the border in Kosovo. I think we had 200 rounds for the year for the platoon in normal circumstances, but 800 turned up and we fired them at Warcop Ranges in Cumbria from a single section of 3 mortars in one day.

The end of firing augmentation charge burning at the end of the day could probably be seen from space!

To link to this thread, the recoil from mortars pushes the base plates into the ground. When they get so deep it’s dangerous to drop rounds down the tube, at which point they have to be dug out. We did quite a bit of digging that day.

The TSSA held there big bore shoot last year. I cant member the form members names but shot one guys 458win mag. Wasnt as bad as i thought.
Then at the end of the day the owner of the 505 gibs was letting people have a go. Why not. I was concentrating so hard on not flinching and expecting vertical recoil that i relaxed my grip around the pistol grip. Jumped straight out of my hand and pushed my shoulder back a good foot with the bolt just toughing my face.
with a 650gr projectile at 1950fps and no muzzle break, no muzzle rise, the recoil energy is all linear straight backwards haha.


But i didnt drop it. So thats nice i guess.

Could somebody please post this video:

Shooting gun test 577 tyrannosaur t rex gun.

(Shooters being flung about by a bastard cannon of a rifle)

Originally Posted by R93

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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When I went thru OCS I think the grenades were $1500.

FMJ was 23c per round. I know I personally fired 5000 rounds in a day once. C9

Got to pull the go switch on a 105mm Howitzer. That was a memory. Kaimanawa horses running for cover