Thread: How to manage recoil?

Originally Posted by nowool

problem is that a muzzle break is going to make the noise louder and that adds to the perceived recoil. I would fit a suppressor and go with a light bullet and try that out. also, no offence, but did you go from .22lr to .308? I'm over 60 years old, and have arthritis ,and i regularly shoot a 14'' barrel .308. its not that i'm tough; its because over the years i learned to shoulder the gun properly and not think about the recoil but the trigger and sights.

Yes, go from rimfire to 308 recently. My only experience with centrefire was during younger days in the military. Don't remember the recoil was that much but I think you are right, the focus was different then. The advise in this forum is great. What I need is more practice. If that did not help, will probably get a low calibre rifle.

you DONT NEED lesser recoiling rifle...ditch the brake,get a suppressor.....and use milder loads.......JOB DONE...... the .308 is a great cartridge...YOU CAN HANDLE this easily.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

you DONT NEED lesser recoiling rifle...ditch the brake,get a suppressor.....and use milder loads.......JOB DONE...... the .308 is a great cartridge...YOU CAN HANDLE this easily.

Yes he does or else it will perpetuate his problem. Look at the post by Keneff.

Originally Posted by TeRei

Yes he does or else it will perpetuate his problem. Look at the post by Keneff.

might I politely suggest you do the same......
I KNOW about flinching.....once upon a time I had a shocking flinch....it took work to rid myself of it and I still dont like shooting paper,other than sighting in,I really dont like unsuppressed rifles anymore,although I have a couple...I make damn sure to wear good ear pro when using them.....
going back to .22lr helps.....then MILD recoiling rifle...supressed 223 is awesome...and subsonic loads are simply fantastic as you useing your same rifle except suddenly it goes POP instead of BOOOOOM and there is zero recoil....plink away to hearts content and get used to it again...then "suck it up buttercup" and let off a supersonic load or two......now that wasnt so bad was it????
go home and smile....do that a few times and you have RETRAINED yourself..... you now KNOW rifle isnt going to hurt you so no need to tense up,close eyes ,jerk trigger.

While doing research on reloading, chanced upon a YouTube video that use a Tikka T3x lite and a AR10 to test the same 308/165g reload ammo. You can see the significant recoil on Tikka T3x lite compared to AR10. Mine is a Tikka T3x Superlite, so the recoil should be higher than the lite. Since it is a hunting rifle, will keep the weight down and manage the recoil.

Pretty long video. If you keen to watch, go straight to 22:30 for Tikka T3x lite recoil, and 29:00 for AR10 recoil.

https://youtu.be/3UnmfK_w9yI

Well, after reading this entire thread a couple of times and picking the bones out of it, I thought, "avoiding it ain't doing any good", so I pulled the .270wsm out of the safe. As many here can tell you, none of the wsm rounds are quiet as a mouse. They make a pretty loud bang. So used plugs and muffs, settled in and went through the setting up processes outlined above; took the first shot (at paper) and surprise! it didn't hurt a bit. Fired some more, and found I don't have the flinch any more. I'm not sure how I'll go with my brother's big banger, but I have a feeling I'll be okay. So thanks, fellas, for all the good advice in this thread. Maybe it should become a "sticky" but anyway it's great to have it here. I know it helped me a lot. Again, many thanks.
Cheers
Ken

good on you......acknowledging you have an issue to begin with is HUGE part of beating it....goes for most things in life. the dreaded "starts with F and rhymes with grinch" is one is really does.

awesome to hear it...now enjoy it.

Greetings All,
The evolution of my Remington 700 ADL has been a saga of managing recoil as I age. Purchased new when I was in my 20's it had a hard plastic but plate (I refuse to call it a pad). I used it a lot on the range for our NZDA club shoots and never noticed the recoil much. I have always been a big chap so this may have helped. After a decade or so I started to get recoil headaches so started loading reduced loads for the range. These were only reduced by a couple of grains which gave me a 100 metre zero with them with a 200 metre zero for the full power hunting loads. Much better. This went on for a few years until other rifles had taken over such hunting as I was doing and the loads were reduced further, settling on 38 grains of AR2206H behind the 150 grain projectile for about 2,300 fps. One day, after my son had visited, a Hogue stock appeared in my cupboard. This had a nice cushy recoil pad and after a scratch around for some bottom metal it was installed. What a difference. A DPT suppressor followed. A couple of .223 rifles have taken over the minimal target shooting I now do and the .308 has been relegated to load testing duty. Just recently while doing an inventory of loads on hand and found I had a significant quantity of full power hunting loads, most with my favourite 150 grain Norma projectile. As my old shoulder thumper has been transformed into a pussy cat perhaps it needs to go walkies in the bush again. On my list of goal trips is one in spring to Macintosh Hut and one in Autumn to Kiwi Saddle Hut in Autumn. By the latter I will be close to 73 and the rifle 45. I have carried the rifle to both of these huts a number of times in the past so one more trip can't hurt. Seems like a plan to me.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
The evolution of my Remington 700 ADL has been a saga of managing recoil as I age. Purchased new when I was in my 20's it had a hard plastic but plate (I refuse to call it a pad). I used it a lot on the range for our NZDA club shoots and never noticed the recoil much. I have always been a big chap so this may have helped. After a decade or so I started to get recoil headaches so started loading reduced loads for the range. These were only reduced by a couple of grains which gave me a 100 metre zero with them with a 200 metre zero for the full power hunting loads. Much better. This went on for a few years until other rifles had taken over such hunting as I was doing and the loads were reduced further, settling on 38 grains of AR2206H behind the 150 grain projectile for about 2,300 fps. One day, after my son had visited, a Hogue stock appeared in my cupboard. This had a nice cushy recoil pad and after a scratch around for some bottom metal it was installed. What a difference. A DPT suppressor followed. A couple of .223 rifles have taken over the minimal target shooting I now do and the .308 has been relegated to load testing duty. Just recently while doing an inventory of loads on hand and found I had a significant quantity of full power hunting loads, most with my favourite 150 grain Norma projectile. As my old shoulder thumper has been transformed into a pussy cat perhaps it needs to go walkies in the bush again. On my list of goal trips is one in spring to Macintosh Hut and one in Autumn to Kiwi Saddle Hut in Autumn. By the latter I will be close to 73 and the rifle 45. I have carried the rifle to both of these huts a number of times in the past so one more trip can't hurt. Seems like a plan to me.
Regards Grandpamac.

You sir @grandpamac are an inspiration . I can only hope I am capable of doing what you do at that age .
Lord knows I struggle enough at 50 ... and on my return home from the hills usually feel closer to 90 ...

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
The evolution of my Remington 700 ADL has been a saga of managing recoil as I age. Purchased new when I was in my 20's it had a hard plastic but plate (I refuse to call it a pad). I used it a lot on the range for our NZDA club shoots and never noticed the recoil much. I have always been a big chap so this may have helped. After a decade or so I started to get recoil headaches so started loading reduced loads for the range. These were only reduced by a couple of grains which gave me a 100 metre zero with them with a 200 metre zero for the full power hunting loads. Much better. This went on for a few years until other rifles had taken over such hunting as I was doing and the loads were reduced further, settling on 38 grains of AR2206H behind the 150 grain projectile for about 2,300 fps. One day, after my son had visited, a Hogue stock appeared in my cupboard. This had a nice cushy recoil pad and after a scratch around for some bottom metal it was installed. What a difference. A DPT suppressor followed. A couple of .223 rifles have taken over the minimal target shooting I now do and the .308 has been relegated to load testing duty. Just recently while doing an inventory of loads on hand and found I had a significant quantity of full power hunting loads, most with my favourite 150 grain Norma projectile. As my old shoulder thumper has been transformed into a pussy cat perhaps it needs to go walkies in the bush again. On my list of goal trips is one in spring to Macintosh Hut and one in Autumn to Kiwi Saddle Hut in Autumn. By the latter I will be close to 73 and the rifle 45. I have carried the rifle to both of these huts a number of times in the past so one more trip can't hurt. Seems like a plan to me.
Regards Grandpamac.

Inspirational, thanks for sharing.

I recently threw a limbsaver on my 7mm RM. what a difference it made, There isn't a lot of me, so the rifle used to let me know when I had pulled the trigger. Not now. Highly recommend them.

ok enough years have past,its time to share this tale...
as a teen I shot many animals with brothers open sighted 30/30.....I got very good with it... then pighunting mate wanted to swap it for his winchester model 70 push fed 270...I asked brother and got the nod...
my first couple of shots with new rifle went into target then they walked 2 feet away...10 shots later and many adjustments had me back where started and beginnings of major flinch were creeping in...you see ammunition was 150 grn Norma..arguably one of the hottest factory loadings of the time,a lightweight rifle,a hard red rubber but plate and a trigger of about 15lb...I shit you not....I had to locate animal,dif post hole,ram home the post,wire rifle firmy to post ,then go get D7 and hook on winch rope to trigger,when dozed was at full rev winch was activated and trigger would budge enough to fire rifle!!!!!
well Ok that might be SLIGHT eggzaguration...but not by much
so rifle went away to someone who know how and trigger brought down to 3lb
PMC ammunition was purchased,and winchester silvertips both in 130grn
and I never looked back. later I fitted a bisley shotgun recoil pad,deliberately left over size..still didnt like shooting paper and when I started reloading,I kept loads
down in low power levels...many year later I fitted suppressor and loads crept back up in power levels.
still not overly happy shooting lots of loads at paper but fine to check zero when needed.
3 of us were shooting 270s on range and mates new ruger had terrible trigger...like mine was,maybe 15lb...I got flinch so bad I could not physically fire that rifle with round in chamber...trigger would drop on empty chamber but I literally could not make myself pull trigger on loaded round...that MADE ME aware how bad the flinch had got me...i knew it would boot ,I knew it would be loud....
suppressors have been game changer....the 243 was often the cartridge of choice for new ,slightly built or young shooters because of low recoil..... now,pretty much any cartridge can be tamed down to that level or lower.