300 win mag: options for reducing recoil

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Tarvis

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My 700P kicks like an angry mule, so I've finally taken it to a gunsmith that does excellent work. I asked him about a muzzle brake and he said he hates them, mostly due to the intense increase in muzzle blast and gave me a few other options. The rifle must also be re-crowned as it has a ding that pushes into the rifling. Here's where it stands:

Recrown: $45
Muzzle brake + recrown and a bushing/thread protector: $175
Pachymar pad fitted to the stock: $65
Mechanical recoil device: $100

What I'm curious about is your experiences with a hard hitting cartridge and what you did to tame her down. I haven't heard/read anything on the mechanical recoil reducer, which he said is a 750 grain piston with springs on either side that is placed in the buttstock. Also, I have no experience with highly effective recoil pads and how much they reduce energy. As I said, the rifle must be recrowned, which makes me want to lean towards a brake but I don't want to get the hell kicked out of me when I'm hunting either.

Any thoughts/experiences would be much appreciated.
 
I strongly dislike muzzle brakes as well, due to the increased noise and blast. If someone shows up with one at the range and sits near me, I'll move. But they are effective, and IMO probably the best option for a rifle you're going to pack around in the woods. Just make sure nobody is standing to the side of you when you touch that thing off, or they're likely to be kicking you instead of the rifle.
 
* Add mass
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It's a 700P so it's already heavy

* One of the "good" brakes
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He designed the brake himself and said it has been copied so I get the feeling the ones he makes are really good.

But they are effective, and IMO probably the best option for a rifle you're going to pack around in the woods.
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I was thinking I'd probably take it off if I was hunting so my tender uncovered ears weren't bleeding after shooting. I have sensitive ears already, and I don't think I can afford electronic muffs or game ears. Besides, I'll get made fun of ;).
 
The simplest way to reduce recoil is to shoot a lighter recoiling gun.

For that power, you pay a price...
 
He designed the brake himself and said it has been copied
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It seems almost every gunsmith has a brake he designed which he claims is "the best." I'm just sayin'...

Bottom line, a very effective brake makes it possible to shoot 250gr @ 3000fps (.338 LM) "all day" from a 13# rifle.

-z
 
The simplest way to reduce recoil is to shoot a lighter recoiling gun.
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Well, I'm not selling my 700.

For that power, you pay a price...
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I know, the price is either buying a pad, a muzzle brake, a mechanical recoil reducer, or a combo. Thanks for helping me decide.

It seems almost every gunsmith has a brake he designed which he claims is "the best." I'm just sayin'...
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Well, I just met the guy, but he seems like a "straight shooter" (excuse the pun) and was recommended by a guy that is also honest and strait forward so I'll take his word for it.
 
A good, soft pad makes a night and day difference if you don't already have one.

Doubling up on ears (plugs and then muffs over them) helps psychologically.

Not a fan of brakes. The extra blast is worse than the kick. (Cannons like Zak's 13 pound Lapua are probably an exception.)
 
Install a limbsaver or the Remington factory equilivent pad. and try the reduced recoil loads and work up to the heavier stuff.

With practice the recoil of a .300 is certainly manageable, at least for me. If you find that you cannot get comfortable with the recoil trade it for something else. While I own a .300 and do not find recoil terrible I shoot my .308's and other calibers far more often.
 
How about reloading

and downloading it? Buying the gear would cost less than you're looking at spending anyway, and makes the gun cheaper to shoot to boot.

Can a .300 WM be taken down to .308 Win levels safely? What's the slowest you can safely push, say, a 165 grain bullet out of a .300 WinMag?

--Shannon
 
Pachmayr Decelerator or Limbsaver recoil pad would help a lot. Mechanical recoil reducer installed in the buttstock would also help. I was reluctant (being older & small) but still bought a .300 Win Mag for elk hunting. I had to cut an inch off the synthetic stock and installed a Pachmayr Decelerator pad myself. With a little practice, I was able to put 180 gr Nosler Partition Protected Points (expressly designed for the .300 Win Mag) in 3-shot 1" groups at 100 yds. I recommend practicing with some 165 gr loads until you are comfortable with the rifle. Enjoy!
 
For 300WM and larger rifles you almost have to go with a brake to get the recoil manageable. We're putting a KA-1830 on Ron's 14lb (not including scope) Savage 110FP because even with that much weight the gun still kicks like a mule with heavy loads. We did the same muzzlebrake on his 7.5lb (not including scope) TC Encore in 300WM and you can shoot it all day with the same loads even though it has half the weight. Here's a little vidclip I put together awhile back of the Encore in use

http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll284/kingarmory/?action=view&current=KA-1830demoI.flv
 
Well, its cuts two ways...

The brake issue: It will help, a very little, muzzle rise yes, kick? Not much.
But there is a much larger issue with the brake solution and you might as well be aware of it now. Noise. A muzzle break that is actually going to effect kick...most do not as they are designed for muzzle jump (as in up, or to correct side movement) will require that the blast be...you got it, send right back at your face. Fact is that all the muzzles designed to reduce rearward kick focus a large amount of the blast energy right to your head. In the case of your rifle, its a problem. Also, nothing worse at the bench than to shower your neighbors with a kick brake as they get it too..

The "in stock" (usually replacing the butt pad as well) units are nothing short of fantastic. They are the absolute best way to reduce muzzle blast....but, again, at a price. First, your gun is no longer stock...some say is worth less others say its worth more. They are expensive to buy and expensive to mount properly.


As to the recrown and pad idea....recrown will do Zero....pad will do a little...no more than a thick jacket.

I shoot heavy rigs and go without anything special....Are you sure you can't as well?
 
Getting a .30-06 is the real answer---even if its not the one you want to hear.
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What? Didn't hear you...

The brake issue: It will help, a very little, muzzle rise yes, kick? Not much.
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Muzzle brakes do not reduce recoil?

recrown will do Zero
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You didn't read. I have to do a recrown, dinged it up somewhere along the way. This is another reason to do a muzzle brake, which includes a crown job.
 
On my .300 WM the muzzle brake vents vertically up. The .300 does kick, but after a while you do get used to it.

The most effective recoil reduction will be from a suppressor. The one on my .260 makes it feel like a .22 lr.
 
Getting a .30-06 is the real answer---even if its not the one you want to hear.
Click to expand...

Quite a bit of truth to that. There isn't a big difference in the ballistics between the 30.06 and the 300WM but there is a huge difference in recoil and muzzle blast :(
 
A muzzle break that is actually going to effect kick...most do not as they are designed for muzzle jump (as in up, or to correct side movement) will require that the blast be...you got it, send right back at your face.
Click to expand...

I think you are getting confused between muzzlebrakes and compensators. A brake is designed specifically to cut recoil, a compensator is designed to reduce muzzle flip (and may or may not cut actual recoil). On most of our brakes the blast is diverted perpendicular to the barrel, not back at the shooter. You still don't want to be the guy on the next bench over, but its not coming back at you. Some brakes do divert the blast rearward towards the operator but it is usually on larger calibers like the 50BMG, and those brakes are bad no matter where you're at on the range :D
 
Handloading is your friend.
Even if you want the max power for hunting loads, you can still download for practice loads and not beat the snot out of yourself as much.
Honestly, I've never noticed the recoil of any gun while hunting so I kind of doubt that you really need any mechanics to help you tame that (unless you have an injury that can't stand up to repeated beating).
And if you want to keep the versatility of the larger cartridge but still shoot the ballistic twin of a .30 '06 out of it for hunting critters that don't require being teleported into the next time zone to stop them, handloading is great for that too.
If that sounds like an option to you, maybe you could find a friend who reloads. You wouldn't even have to buy all the stuff to try it out that way, just the dies and components. Then you could try reloading some on his/her press for your test run.
At the very least, it could save you some money on gunsmithing.
 
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