Thread: .303 rifle recoil, sore shoulder

Any advice on how to mitigate recoil? Dont want to sound like a wimp here, but I have a wickedly bruised shoulder after putting about 3 or 4 rounds through it over the weekend. I had to stop.
I dont know if I was holding the rifle wrong, but its not like I haven't fired one of these before, but it was some years ago when I last used one and at the time I didnt think the recoil was anything significant, but I had been using his rifle while in the standing position.

We were just shooting regular soft point hunting rounds through his gun, but ive been putting through my rifle the greek surplus HXP rounds.
Perhaps these have a higher charge in them? IDK, but I was shooting this sitting on a chair and resting the rifle on a table with a sack of grain to support the rifle on.

I have been diagnosed with bursitis on my shoulder, and im also wondering if the use of my 12 gauge has been partly to blame, but i had been doing alot of heavy work over the last few months when it first gave my symptoms which is what I put it down to, but I dont want to make things worse.
Any suggestions?