New handgun shooter and recoil?

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spazzy

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Hey all,

I have been shooting rifles/shotguns and hunting for the better part of 20 years, but in the past year or two have started shooting handguns. I bought a browning buckmark and have been shooting it every chance I can get. Plinking has become a whole new challenge with a handgun and I am hooked. Very humbling to go from a crack shot with a rifle (off hand golf balls no problem at 25 yards) to barely keeping groups on a paper plate! but I am improving fast.

I have always wanted a 1911 for its historical significance and because they are just plain cool to me, and I would love to blast some .45 caliber holes in tin cans! I am a bit concerned about recoil as 45acp is quite a bit more energy than my 22lr handgun. That being said I am not recoil sensitive with long guns. I love bringing out the 30.06 and 12 gauge slugs! I am an average sized guy, 5'8'' 185lbs

How much more felt recoil are we talking about with the jump from 22lr to 45acp? Should this be something to worry about? I would not like to buy a new gun and hate shooting it.

I dont really have friends into handguns so little opportunity to try one out
 
From a 22 to a 45 will be very noticable.

That being said it is very manageable. The only way to get competent with a bigger caliber is to step up to that bigger caliber and start practicing. Since you already have a 22 you can work with that if or when flinches or trigger pull give you fits with the 45.

Honestly I don't notice hardly any difference recoil wise any more between my full-size plastic 9 and my all metal commander size 45 1911.
 
Keep in mind, a long gun can hurt your shoulder. All a handgun can normally do is push against your hands.

If possible, the best thing you could do is go somewhere where they rent handguns and gradually move up in calibers. I have taught a lot of people to shoot handguns, and I go from 22, to 32, to 38, to 380, to 9mm, etc. gradually, until the person doesn't want to move up anymore.

Everyone is different. 45acp in a 1911 is NBD to me, but my nephews really don't like it. It varies a lot from person to person.

Nice choice on the Buck Mark, BTW. I absolutely adore mine.

As an afterthought, my 13-year-old daughter dislikes recoil very much. She has absolutely no interest in shooting 40 or 45 caliber handguns. However, her grandfather and I both have 1911 style pistols in 9mm, and she shoots those with no problem at all. If 45acp is or might be too much for you, 9mm versions are a viable alternative.
 
Good Ol' Boy said:
From a 22 to a 45 will be very noticable.
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I agree.

Compared to a rifle or shotgun though, a .45 ACP 1911 will have the recoil far away from you torso where you can use your hands, and arms to cushion the recoil - which is less than a .30-06 or 12 gauge - rather than having it smack against your shoulder and cheek.

While you can probably comfortably shoot a whole bunch more .22 pistol than .45 ACP, you can probably comfortably shoot a whole bunch more .45 ACP than either 30-06 or 12 gauge.
 
+1 on the suggestion of a rental. I find that handgun recoil is heavily affected by the weight of the gun and the fit to your hand. A full size 1911 should be pretty manageable once you get the grip settled in because they are boat anchors and 45 ACP really does not kick that much (we are not talking about 357 or 44 mag). I have actually been waffling between a 1911 and an XDM in 45 and despite the lighter weight of the latter the improved ergonomics meant the recoil felt pretty similar to me.
 
+2, find a place to rent a few... or a friend who has a variety of handguns who will go shoot with you. If you can sign up for a basic handgun course that involves instruction and shooting that’ll be even better.

Recoil isn’t going to send you flying, and with decent instruction you will be firing a 1911 .45 in a short time. If recoil is an issue for you in .45, the 1911 platform also comes in 9mm... which gives you all of the 1911 feel with less recoil.

Good luck on your quest, and stay safe!
 
A full size steel framed 1911 with ball ammo is pretty manageable. Put in the time on one and they are a lot of fun. Have someone who knows demonstrate the proper grip though. I've heard all sorts of remarks about twisting, etc... all because someone was shooting limp wrist-ed or something. If my 19 year old daughter can have fun shooting a .45 1911, you should be able to as well.
 
In my opinion a full size 1911 in .45 is a very easy gun to shoot well. Recoil will depend a lot on what load you are shooting. I load some .45 with 185gr FMJ and just enough Bullseye powder to cycle the 1911 reliably. I can shoot these all day long with less fatigue than even my Beretta 92. I also load some 230gr JHP's that get close to the +P range which are not pleasant to shoot in my XDS 3.3. In one of my 1911's these +P loads still let you know you have shot something substsntial.

Bottom line, the ammo you choose to shoot will make a big difference in the felt recoil. A full size 1911 with a steel frame is not a lite weight and tames the .45 quite well... a big push instead of a sharp crack. .40S&W on the other hand is much less pleasant to shoot than .45 in a 1911... much more of a sharp crack than a big push.

If I were you I would go for the 1911 and choose a lighter .45 load while you are getting used to it.

I also reccomend Hogue rubber grips with the finger grooves... they give a really secure grip with less grip pressure due to the extra contact area of the finger grooves. Pachmayr rubber finger groove grips are just as good as the Hogue... I own both and don't feel much of any difference between them.
 
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I characterize a .45 acp pistol as having a stout “push” rather than a “kick.” Of all the powerful large caliber handguns, I think it’s the most manageable in terms of recoil. I find it less intense than .40 s&w, and .40 isn’t that bad. Of course, this contingent on the weight of the handgun, generally speaking. A full size1911 is no sweat but the smallest 1911’s can ba a handful, especially when they have alloy frames.
 
spazzy said:
How much more felt recoil are we talking about with the jump from 22lr to 45acp? Should this be something to worry about? I would not like to buy a new gun and hate shooting it.
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There is a considerable difference in recoil between the two cartridges, as well as a considerable price difference in ammo costs. However, in a 5" all steel 1911, recoil of the 45 acp is completely manageable and not unpleasant.

Let me put it this way, a few years ago I took my sister to a range and let her shoot a variety of guns. Some were 357 magnums loaded with 38's and magnums both. Some were 9mm and 22's. And there were two 45's mixed in. The 1911 was her favorite.

The one suggestion I'd make is if you have the money and interest, and like revolvers too, get a DA/SA 357 revolver first like a S&W 686 or Ruger GP 100. If you are trying to improve your handgun skills, shooting a DA revolver and mastering a DA trigger pull will advance your skills faster in my opinion than a 1911.

After you've gotten used to the long sweeping trigger of a DA/SA revolver trigger, the short and crisp 1911 trigger will feel like a dream.

Don't get me wrong, a nicely broken in revolver trigger is every bit as functional in my opinion as a nice autoloader, but the trigger takes more movement and I think leads to better trigger control on all guns early on.

If you just want a 1911, then enjoy. Now you just need to figure out which brand.
 
A few observations:

  • Yes, there is a noticeable difference in recoil between a .22lr and a .45ACP. There are really at least two big perceptible steps in recoil between them (all the sub-service-caliber stuff, such as .32 being one step, and 9mm/38 special being another step).
  • Recoil in handguns is almost entirely driven by momentum (sometimes called "power factor"), not energy. Looking at energy figures (or pressure) for handgun cartridges will not give you a sense of how much recoil there will be - looking at momentum (weight of bullet times velocity) is what you want to do.
  • As others have said, assuming a decent grip, there is no reason for service-caliber, service-sized pistols to cause physical pain. Consider the round counts typical for practice sessions for competitive handgun shooters... there's no way people are shooting 500-1,000 rounds in a day if it's physically painful!
  • Bad grip technique can make an otherwise manageable amount of recoil miserable. You should really, really, really do some serious learning on the proper, modern/current way to grip a pistol. There are acceptable variations, but there are some basic fundamentals that are pretty much non-negotiable.
  • You mention that you have been shooting with a Buckmark. That actually sets you up pretty well in terms of transferring grip to a 1911. Both of them have frame-mounted down-to-fire safeties. I hope you have been shooting the Buckmark with your thumb on top of the safety - that helps force the high grip that is one of the non-negotiable fundamentals. Failure to do that with a 1911 can easily lead to a greatly-increased perception of recoil (as well as reliability problems, depending on the gun and ammo).
  • There's a lot of variation in the recoil levels of 45ACP ammo. Full-power 230 grain hardball will have a noticeably-greater amount of recoil than, say, 200 grain semi-wadcutters loaded for target work. The only trick is that a lot of the lower-end 1911's will only reliably feed and cycle the hardball stuff.... just know that going into a purchasing decision.
  • Anyone of ordinary physical abilities (i.e., not cursed with crippling arthritis or the like) can learn to shoot a 45 1911 at an enjoyable level. How much effort/practice that takes will vary by the person, but no exception gift or pain tolerance or strength is required. Hand strength becomes very important when you're talking about shooting fast. But just to plink? Anyone (man or woman) of ordinary strength can get there.
TL;DR - If you have a good grip, you can absolutely do this. If you don't have a good grip, it will be frustrating.
 
As someone who's only recently (last couple months) shot a 1911 for the first time, I have to say it's an easy platform to shoot with, and handles the .45acp well. So well in fact, that I started shooting it from my non-dominant hand almost exclusively, and have quickly reached a level of competency I had not anticipated (which is to say, thoroughly mediocre).

I've shot very little .22lr in handguns, and not much 9mm either, so my perception may be somewhat skewed. But I don't find the .45acp in a full sized 1911 to be any kind of issue with recoil using target loads. It's certainly more than a .22, but it's not in any way unpleasant.
 
Load a couple of dummy cartridges at random into the magazine and you'll know if your flinching or not. If that happens, spend a little more time with the Browning and maybe get harder springs for your 1911 or softer shooting ammo (usually target wadcutters) and work your way back up. A flinching can happen to the best of us and it shouldn't be a deal breaker.
 
Been shooting .45s since I was 14, never found 'em painful or particularly difficult to shoot accurately.

That said, 9mm is a pussycat, especially in a 1911 platform gun, and way cheaper to shoot. I own 3x .45s, but 12x 9mm handguns and actually plink with the 9s a lot more.

Plus as much as the 1911 is iconic, there are many historically significant 9mm handguns out there everyone should experience as well at some point, such as the Browning High Power, Beretta 92, CZ75, Walther P38, and Luger amongst others.....

Either way, you can't go wrong, good luck and have fun!
 
Before I went into the Army all I had ever shot were .22lr pistols, had never even held a centerfire pistol in my hand. I heard all the stories of how bad the recoil was from the 1911 and how you had to hold it in a death grip or it would fly out of your hand when fired, etc., etc. I was unimpressed the first time I shot one, it had recoil but was very mild which is due a lot to the weight of the platform. I shot a 500 S&W revolver expecting an experience in recoil but was quite surprised how low the recoil felt to me. It is a big gun and had a ported barrel which reduced flip of the barrel but recoil wasn't what I had heard about. I did have a snub .38 spcl with wood grips that did get painful to shoot after 50 rounds, replaced with rubber grips and had no pain after that. I'm not a big man, 5 foot 9 and about 190 lbs so I don't believe body size has anything to do with managing recoil.
 
This is an excellent thread. It's a great example of why THR is my favorite firearms website.

Here are some gratuitous pictures. My Turkish 45acp 1911 cost $399 a few years ago. The Spanish Star Super B 9mm cost a little over $200. It's the one that my daughter enjoys shooting. I think that she could shoot the 45acp just fine, but I always let her go her own way on what she wants to shoot.

View media item 1556
Star Super B

Star Super B

 
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I did the exact same thing you did. I was a rifle only shooter and a good shot. When I shot a couple pistols with family I couldn't hit a darn thing, so I took up the challange and bought a buckmark and shot about 15,000 rounds in the next couple years. Its very rewarding to go from not being able to hit anything to also being a crack shot with a pistol.

The recoil in a 45 1911 is pretty mild due to it being a heavy steel gun. However I will warn you that your in for a brand new learning curve going rimfire to centerfire. Your doing it the right way, but all the marksmanship skill you learn with a 22 have to be relearned once you add recoil into the equation. And thats true for a 45, a 9mm, a 44 or whatever. With a 22 your able to perceive whats going on when you fire the gun. You can tell if you broke the sight picture or flinched on the trigger. With a centerfire gun that is all lost in the blur of the gun recoiling. Its not a testimate to your manlyness or anything, its just that you can't percieve whats going on as well with the gun moving in your hand. So you may find yourself being frustrated and having a hard time hitting compared to your 22 at first. Go back and forth between the 22 and the centerfire and also do dry fire practice and concentrate on applying the same trigger control you use with the 22 to the 45 and soon you'll make the subconscious mental connections and be able to apply the fundamentals you learned on the 22 to also shooting centerfire.

Also my advice to you would be to first get a 9mm. Either a 9mm 1911 or a CZ75 or clone. Not because of recoil, but because of ammo cost. 9mm is half as expensive so you will shoot it twice as much. Once you have that down add the GI style 45 1911 for nostalgia and fun. After that if you want to keep skill building add a striker fired pistol, a revolver, and a pocket sized semi auto and then you can learn the intricacies in shooting them well too. Pistol marksmanship is a fun and diverse challenge!

This is my 9mm 1911 I shoot action pistol with

D7264B79-D081-4DC7-8D38-DDA6F5574A23.jpg
 
In 1911 platform, consider 9mm.
My wife has both 45 acp and 9mm Ruger Lightweight Commanders, 9mm has noticeably less recoil.
Yes, going to a full size steel frame 1911 would dampen felt recoil for both calibers, difference remains.
 
460, that pistol is absolutely gorgeous! :)

And Someguy too. All of my handguns are inexpensive and utilitarian. I amazed by the beauties that some of you own.
 
I have usually started beginning handgun shooters with a .22 (revolver or semi- auto, their choice), then a centerfire cartridge gun (again their choice), either a 1911 in 9mm. or a .38 Special in a S&W K frame revolver. Once they feel comfortable with those then I let them try a 1911 in .45 and most if not all do just fine with it.
 
Thanks for all the great tips and advice (and photos of gorgeous guns!)

It certainly sounds like ill be able to handle the 45. I am a month or two out from serious shopping but am excited! I am definitely looking for a classic blued and 5 inch barrel
 
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