How much more rifle has to do with recoil than calibre

[rummer]

People always ask about recoil and pretty much just mention calibre.

I shoot a .308 Scout pretty often (a mates) and the recoil doesn't bother me at all. It's a pretty heavy rifle I guess, and has a thick recoil pad.

I had the chance this morning to shoot a .308 Hawkeye which I thought would be the same. Was just having a go for the sake of it.

With the lighter rifle and recoil pad that's only 1/4 the thickness, the felt recoil was heaps more I reckon. Not to sound soft but I even got a bruise on the shoulder which I never had before.

Just surprised at how much more the rifle had to do with the recoil than the calibre between the two.

[Guliver]

Quote: Newton's third law--every action has equal reaction in the opposite direction.

A combination of projectile weight and charge.

[Chronos]

Quote: Newton's third law--every action has equal reaction in the opposite direction.

A combination of projectile weight and charge.

Yep exactly. If the recoil energy of a round is the same then the difference in felt recoil is equal to the difference in rifle weight (stock design also plays a part in what you feel)

Chronos

[Rakk]

Yep, felt recoil is everything.

What number some recoil calculator spits out doesn't mean much. Anything really...

Even with the same weight rifles, just a better recoil bad makes a huge difference.

[1290]

the free recoil is proportional to:
-Rifle mass
-Projectile mass
-Projectile velocity
-Propellant charge

so a lighter rifle of 'lesser' chambering can generate similar recoil to a bigger hitter with a heavier stock and overall mass.

Felt recoil determined by the above in addition to stock design, recoil pad, technique.....

[WWCowboy]

My mate had a CZ wooden stock in 30.06 and it was a pig to shoot, bad recoil leaves bruises and does not play well with others. He traded it in for a Tikka T3 in the same calibre with a composite stock and it was way better off the bench.Recoil pads were about the same size, its just that the polymer stock did not have the mass for the energy transfer than the solid stiff wood did. The Glock principle..

[Joom]

You want felt recoil?

Fire an old 30-06 with a metal butt plate.

Then you'll feel it

[Deco]

Gotta say the factory recoil pads on the Ruger Hawkeyes are pretty terrible IMO.

Way too thin. Way too hard.

[Guliver]

Recoil pads etc. will change how the recoil is felt, you can't change the physics.

[horter]

Gotta say the factory recoil pads on the Ruger Hawkeyes are pretty terrible IMO.

Way too thin. Way too hard.

Yep, they did it right with the Scout. Shorter stock, thicker pad and adjustable plates to slide in/out to get your length of pull right.

With how thin the factory Ruger pads are, once you add a 1" thick Kick-Eez or Pachmayr length of pull can be too long for some.

For the Hawkeyes, they need to shorten the butt plate and thicken the factory pad too I reckon.

The thicker pads like on Tikka and Remington are much better IMO.

[BBJ]

It's funny to see guys shooting 300WM bench rifles with breaks go to lightweight 300WM sports without

[1290]

Recoil pads are over-rated...

Once you have shot a few MRC comps you will be one-with-the-steel-butt-plate.

To learn to shoot the rifle you will... padawan.

[ebr love]

Put one up to your broken collar bone and say that

[Fujix]

What's the light rifle saying?

A pleasure to carry, a pain to shoot

[1290]

Put one up to your broken collar bone and say that

Ambidexterity is a gift!

Use the other shoulder....

[Kipper]

A pleasure to carry, a pain to shoot

Yeah, I wouldn't be expecting a Tikka Lite in .460 Wby Mag to be coming out any time soon

[rummer]

Ambidexterity is a gift!

It's a gift I don't possess