Not to derail the thread that NtS has been doing a good job of steering back on track, but ive always been bothered by the mentality behind statement like that, and ive seen it written and heard it said alot.
Recoil is subjective, doing stuff that hurts suxs, so unless your paying me to do it or I have a damn good reason I wont, nor will I expect anyone else to. My wife will happily and comfortably shoot any rifle I own (thankfully shes tall, so my stocks arent overly long for her), she even shot my 11lb .338L a couple times before deciding she didnt like it, It took one round for me to not want anymore (I still shot the 30ish rounds it came with just because). Ive had some kids shoot some of my larger rifles, and be ok with them, Ive had some that werent.
Ive also known a guy who thought his model 7 in 7-08 was plenty enough, and shot a 20g for birds because a couple boxes into a day of dove flights his arm hurt from a 12ga. I applaud his choice to move to lower recoiling guns.
I have a few friends who only fire their rifles while hunting, so sometimes once or twice every 3 or 4 years, they all prefer and shoot better with smaller guns...a .308s a big gun with that group.
Ive also seen, and hunted with guys, that have a serious flinch, ive never seen a hunter with a .243 or similar have one.
Shoot what you want, and are comfortable with. In fact i generally suggest people shoot the largest cartridge they are comfortable with unless they are very confident of their abilities.
But dont belittle anyone for choosing a lighter recoiling cartridge.
from some future laser pulse weapon with no recoil
8mm mauser put a wallop on my shoulder when i was a young chap with 220 grain surplus rounds
