Pistol recoil tolerance

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gspn

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Where does recoil begin to bother you?

I shoot a lot of magnum handguns. Tons of 44, 41, and 357 mag...and i cant wait to pick up a 454 casull...but this weekend i changed it up a bit. My model 29 was unavailable so i was shooting fullnhouse magnum loads through a short barreled 629. That experience is best described as a fist full of violence. I still shot it well...but it kicked like a three legged ninja. It wasnt as much fun as shooting the heavier revolvers.

Where do you draw the line? What caliber or caliber/frame size produces intolerable recoil for you? I know everyone is different...just curious to hear everyones thoughts.
 
I have shot several .454's and they stung but were fun. I can put a box of .357 through my KLCR without too much pain/flinch (I attribute that to the grip/poly frame). I draw the line at a S&W 340PD, I shot one cylinder full and I was done. My hand feels like shaking anytime I see a picture of one.
 
Muzzle blast, flash, and concussion are fine. Fun, actually, as long as you have enough hearing protection.

Straight up pain in your hand from the recoil pulse...no thank you. It hurts and it is not fun. The most painful handgun I have fired is my Smith and Wesson 642 with stock grips and Buffalo Bore 158gr +P LSWCHP. Holy mother. I put some Pachamary compact grip son after one range trip like that.

Now, the hottest Buffalo Bore .357 mag out of my 4" Ruger GP100? That's just plain fun, and I would like some more. .44 or .454 is in my future
 
When I hand-crank my Model-T, sometimes the crankshaft gets bent.. I just continue daintily sipping my cappuccino. true story
 
It depends. I had a Ruger Super Blackhawk 7.5" that I fired less than 20 rounds through. I hated it! It was very uncomfortable to shoot. I ended up trading it for a Savage Mark II(very happy with by the way).

On the other hand. I have a Smith and Wesson 500 8"that I absolutely love. It's one of the never trade guns I own. It pushes back into my hand when firing. No pain, just a big boom.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
 
The hardest recoiling handgun I have ever shot is my S&W Model 329PD airweight, a 25 ounce 44-magnum revolver. With 240 grain low velocity practice loads at about 800 fps, it kicks harder than my S&W 629 with a maximum load. My 6-inch barreled 629 weighs twice as much as the 329.

With a maximum load, the 329PD is a handful. However, it does not hurt me. I don't mind shooting it at all, and I am very thin with average size hands for a man. I'm also older. However, after shooting 50 full-power rounds in a day through it, I really don't have any desire to shoot more that same day. Besides, I'm concerned if it will hold up to that much full-power shooting.

I read a review about 10 years ago that said the S&W 340PD airweight 357 magnum revolver that weighs 11.4 ounces is the hardest recoiling production handgun in existence, with full-power 357 magnum loads. Maybe not anymore; I don't know.
 
I have shot all the magnums from the .357 to the 500 S&W and all are ummmm an experience.

I'm comfortable shooting any .357 Magnum load and every .41 Magnum load I have shot. Very heavy bullet .44 magnums at full power and not a fun round to shoot just to shoot them. Nothing wrong with downloading the .44 Magnum for range fun though...
 
ArchAngelCD said:
I have shot all the magnums from the .357 to the 500 S&W and all are ummmm an experience.

I'm comfortable shooting any .357 Magnum load and every .41 Magnum load I have shot. Very heavy bullet .44 magnums at full power and not a fun round to shoot just to shoot them. Nothing wrong with downloading the .44 Magnum for range fun though...
Click to expand...

What is the lightest gun (you have fired a full house magnum load out of of?
 
I have shot a full .357 Magnum load in a 12oz Airlite but I won't do it again unless necessary. It was not fun and I see no reason to do it!

I routinely shoot 145gr Winchester Silvertips and equal rounds from a S&W M640.

I have shot a 25oz S&W M329PD in .44 Magnum and while not pleasant it was not as bad as the .357 Magnum Aitlite!

I carry a 15oz Airweight .38 Special daily and shoot +P ammo most times at the range.
 
I haven't found a handgun that bothers me yet, but I haven't tried anything larger than a hot .357 or .44 special.

So far, the only thing without a stock that has bothered me was when my friend got a pistol grip for his Winchester 1200 in a kit and decided to give it a try.
 
Small and light can kick worse than big and powerful.

I could fire my neighbor's big heavy .357 all day. It's tremendously fun.

Firing a friend's subcompact .380 feels like getting smacked in the hand with a hammer for every shot. Firing more than a round or two takes a real toll on the hands, and you will have to recover for a while after firing a whole magazine.
 
I can shoot my 1911 45 or my SRH 44 mag all day long with no problem, but just after 3 cylinders of 357 in a friend's S&W and my elbow and wrist start aching.
 
Full throttle .357 loads out of a Smith and Wesson Airweight are no fun at all. I put a cylinder through one immediately after putting a cylinder through a Super Red Hawk in .480 Ruger and the little Smith was much worse.
 
recoil

I haven't shot every combination of hard kicking gun available. I have shot most of what has been mentioned already.
The most unpleasant was a T/C Encore chambered for the 500 S&W. I was testing some of Rick Gibson's 600 and 700 grain bullets. Not fun...every single shot hurt.
Pete
 
I shoot full power 200 gr and 325 grainers out of my 5" bbl 460 magnum, and it doesn't bother me. It is a handful, and impressive, but the recoil doesn't hurt or anything. I've not shot the 500, but I want to. I've looked at those 2.5 inch bbl ES 500's and 460's, but wouldn't buy one. I think that would be a bit unpleasant.

3" 410 shells out of my Bond Arms derringer are no fun at all. In fact I'm thinking of selling that gun because it just isn't any fuun to shoot. I don't particularly like 158 gr +P's out of my 642 airweight either, but they will do in a pinch.
 
C.O.P.

They used to make a COP handgun that was a 4 barreled .357 magnum.

It was stainless and I shot full house rounds from it and it kept going out of time due to the recoil.

I was young and did a good deal of one handed shooting with a pistol gripped 12 bore,that was more comfortable than the COP handgun.

I actually sold it due to the 'going out of time ' thing.

The other gun that kicks like a mule is a DAO .9MM derringer that I own.

Kicks more than the .45 LC derringer that I shot for SASS.
 
I've had the opportunity to shoot quite a few of the bigger hand cannons. While a couple of rounds is fun and a bit of a test I don't fancy shooting such things on a regular basis.

Even my recently aquired .44Mags are more fun for me when loaded down to about 10% less than max pressure loadings.
 
scaatylobo said:
They used to make a COP handgun that was a 4 barreled .357 magnum.

It was stainless and I shot full house rounds from it and it kept going out of time due to the recoil.

I was young and did a good deal of one handed shooting with a pistol gripped 12 bore,that was more comfortable than the COP handgun.

I actually sold it due to the 'going out of time ' thing.

The other gun that kicks like a mule is a DAO .9MM derringer that I own.

Kicks more than the .45 LC derringer that I shot for SASS.
Click to expand...
I have always been intrigued by the C.O.P. When you say out of time what do you mean exactly? The barrels don't rotate so was it an issue with the firing pin mechanism, or was the breach trying to open?
 
I had the opportunity to shoot a .500 S&W. 5 rounds in the cylinder was all I ever care to shoot.

One of the gun stores I frequent had a S&W Titanium .44 mag in the case. Mentioned to the salesman that the recoil would likely be stouter than I'd ever care for. He said it was back in the display case for the 4th time. The other 3 owners had brought it back after a while and traded it in after shooting it. Sounds to me like a good money maker for the store.
 
I draw the line when I'm shaken enough to not immediately notice where the shot landed on the paper. If I'm taken "out" like that for even a small moment, that has me concerned. This has led me away from short barrels for anything magnum to reduce the blast.

Shooting max .44 loads out of a snub barrel is worse for me than a warm .500 load out of a 6.5" barrel. The really nice thing about the .500 is that I don't have to use max loads to have piece of mind around bears.
 
Airweight pistols with max loads are too much for me, for example a 642 and buffalobore +p 38s are more than I can handle after wrist surgery. Now solid steel firearms like the GP 100 I will scoop up and fire without a flinch. Platform is everything for me.
 
twinny said:
100 lb deer are sometimes not stopped by the many times more powerful 12 ga slug, and you "think" that the 500 is good for the much larger, predation-minded bear? That's pretty funny.
Click to expand...

Not to digress away from the thread's subject, I will just say that my choice is well thought and is the best compromise for my situation. PM me if you want to debate it.
 
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