What's your recoil limit???

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I've shot the 500 magnum and I enjoyed it. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Still, for sustained fire, and practical use, I don't go above .45. I think controllability is important, in the sense that it's not what round you put down range, it's how many you put down range quickly. I like my 9mm right now, but I have no trouble with .45s.

I can't "handle" the rate of fire of a 500 mag. I can handle the recoil. I'm not 10 years old.
 
44mag airlight. With hot loaded ammo I went 3 rounds before I threw in the towel. With a diffrent grip, and a glove I might be able to shoot a box of 50. I don't care for torture though :p
 
Well, I'm a lot more confident now that I put a muzzle break on my .22LR Ruger Mark II with the bull barrel....

Seriously, .44 mag tops my limit. Walking around Alaska I'd want nothing less and probably nothing more. I love the 629 with a 4- or 5-inch barrel.
 
I bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk in the 70's, and got a box of the (then new) Hornady Frontier rifle loads. The Rugers were the only handguns rated for them at the time. I shot out the 20-round box (my hands and wrists were sore for a couple days) and promptly sold the gun, and bought a .357 Blackhawk, and could shoot the hottest ammo available (CCI Lawman 125s at that time) all day one handed. I eventually settled on Winchester 145gr. silvertips for all but small game. My wife has a Super Blackhawk now, and we shoot Silvertip HPs in it without anywhere near as much punnishment as those Hornady loads, but although I can shoot it accurately, I don't enjoy it much, and my wife doesn't shoot it well at all, though she enjoys my .45ACP Taurus PT-145 immensely. OTOH, my brother's buddy has a 4" M-29 Smith that has been Magnaported and gripped by Hogue that is more comfortable to shoot with full-boogie magnums than a 6" Ruger Security Six with the aforementioned silvertips...
 
Recoil limit? I've shot the 454 casull & I've shot a 308 silhouette handgun...not something I would do on a regular basis but I still had fun doing it...the guns I haven't enjoyed shooting are smaller guns (like the AMT 380) that have awkward grips, really short barrels, no real sights and are no fun to shoot.
 
Recoil is subjective to everyone, just like pain is. Pain can be your friend. Tells you when enough is enough.
I've shot 44's. Shoot a 500 magnum. In rifles, 300 weatherby and 460 weatherby.
I believe in the one shot, one kill, or possibly two kill approach.
 
Well I have some shoulder damage and it's made me quite a bit more recoil-sensitive where long guns are concerned.

I love .357 magnums and can fire them for quite a while before I have to quit but I don't much like the .44 mag.

The heaviest rifle I'll shoot is a .44-70 guide gun but after about 6 rounds I'm done!

12ga shotguns with full power loads? About 6-7 shots and I'm done.
 
I reached my limit w/Super Redhawk in 454. After the first trip to the range I didn't even stop to clean it before dropping it off to have the barrel ported. MAJOR difference. :uhoh:
 
I'm a recoil junkie

I must love my Ruger Redhawk .44, because I somehow end up taking it on almost every range trip. I reload for it, which is the only way to afford to shoot it.

I usually load for max recoil, 240 gr LSWC and WC820 surplus powder (cheap but so much smoke I've had folks think I was shooting Black Powder!).

I've shot .50 AE from the Desert Eagle. Now *that's* an awkwardly bulky pistol! But fun. Gas-operated semi action seemed to soften the blow a bit.

I've shot .500 S&W, and was almost disappointed that it didn't hurt. Kind of anticlimatic, given all the hype. Yes, full factory loads in an unported gun.

The most *painful* one-handed recoil I've felt was 12 ga Winchester 2oz Turkey loads, from my Serbu Super-Shorty. That was with the original plastic grip. I shot it once, figured I had bruised my palm, then shot it again just to make sure. I've since changed to an almost ridiculously soft grip, but it works great. Any other 12ga loads are violent, but not in any way painful.

I've also fired pistol-gripped riot shotguns one-handed (once with one in each hand), and the extra weight (and shift of center of gravity) counters the higher muzzle energy from full 18" barrels.

The platform has everything to do with it. For instance, here I am shooting an AA12 full-auto shotgun one-handed:

http://members.aol.com/fiftyguy/AA12_FIFTYGUY.jpg

...which was utterly controllable and painless.

Now, lest some of you think I'm being all "macho", let me say this: I've found many "lesser" calibers to be VERY painful to shoot from smaller platforms. I DO NOT like shooting .380 from Walther PPK's - the gun is just too small and awkward to grip in my hand, and the round makes for an uncomfortable level of recoil. Same with .357 Magnums - to me, there's usually not enough gun there to absorb the recoil.

I also like my CZ-52. But until I ground down the trigger guard and frontstrap to fit my hand it was unpleasant. It's got .357 energy, but with a fast, light bullet that makes for less recoil.

I imagine even a .22 derringer or pengun could be plenty uncomfortable to shoot.
 
I have tried several different guns in various calibers and recoil levels.

.45 in a 1911 is no problem. Very nice and extremely accurate in a semi-custom pistol.

.44 Mag in a Ruger Redhawk 5.5" made me flinch a little at first. I took it back to square one and started to work up my tolerance to magnum level loads. I started working with a 240 gr. SWC over 16 grains of 2400 and then worked up to 18.5 grains of 2400. Much more pleasant now, I am able to hit bottles from 10-25 yards consistantly now without flinch and pulling the shot. When first started loading for the pistol I was doing 20 grains of 2400 or 24 grains of H110 over a 240 gr. SWC. On a side note, I tried my first .44 Specials today and they were a real breeze. Sounded like a BB gun almost when I was alternating between the Mags and the Specials.

The biggest thing I have noticed about the Redhawk is not the noise for me; it is the recoil. I bought a set of Hogue monogrips for my pistol but found that I did not like them as well as the factory grips. Too much depth and not enough width for my hands. I now shoot the pistol with the wooden factory grips and absolutely love it. Everyone I shoot around though absolutely hates it when my pistol goes off. Makes them flinch and cover their ears etc. They are wearing earplugs and 10-20 feet away.

I have shot a .480 Ruger and a .500 S&W. They were alright but I would not want one. On paper they have more energy/performance than most .44 mag loadings. And I guess they would put down a T-Rex and the .44 Mag might not. I can afford to shoot/load the .44 Mag and has all the practical power I could ever need. Usually it has too much and in its most powerful loadings it has plenty of recoil and noise to satisfy my hand cannon cravings.
 
I love the S&W 500 but on the practical side, my .357 or .45 is the most powerful I would want on a daily basis. I practice both using strong hand, weak hand and both hands. Makes me feel safer if I actually have to protect myself and can't use both hands in a hurry. No, I did not one hand the .500. :D
 

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I always find shooters that fire the big boys, 460,500 magnums, always fight the recoil. This leads into flinching, overcompensating. Just go with the flow. The more practice with those things, the better. Yes, you can shoot'em one handed. Don't let it intimidate you. Unlike some handguns, those are called Shirley, Betsy, or some other girly name. The big bores are to be treated and handled differently. They don't want to be babied.
 
.357

After shooting full house head banging .357's out of my SP 101 a few times, I have no desire to step up to a .44 mag or (shudder) .500 S&W :eek: .

Since I'm not likely to encounter grizzly bears when taking out my garbage on Galveston, I figure a medium .357 load (Golden Sabre) or the FBI load will suffice.
 
.357 mag is about my limit for extended shooting, and I try to minimize that and stick to .45 or 9mm.

44 Mag doesn't really bother me, per se, but it does tire me out faster. I don't care to shoot more than a box of it in a day because it will start to affect my accuracy with other guns.
 
I found the 454 Casull in a revolver and heavy 45/70 or 375 H&H in a rifle to be my limit. Fired a 45/70 T/C Contender and 3 shots was the most I could take.
 
300 grain .44 mags from a ruger was the heaviest I've ever fired. Wasn't fun, but wasn't miserable either. I'd be willing to shoot any handgun actually. Maybe I'm just weird like that.
 
Depends a lot on the gun, the grip, and the purpose.

I like my GP100 with hot .357 magnum loads. Full house .44 Magnum in a heavy revolver is tolerable with good grips. Hot .357 magnum in a light snubbie can be a bit much, it just feels like there's nothing to hang on to.

I've shot up to .45/70 in a Contender. That's when the Sorbothane glove goes on and I get REALLY B****Y about the grip and go plug and muffs.

The real trick is to shoot this stuff without picking up a flinch. With the bigger magnums I'll do pretty regular skip drills to make sure I'm not.
 
.44 Magnum is about the tops I have encountered in handguns. I have had a couple of 4-inch barreled S&W M29s and a .44 Auto Mag (the real one). I also had a .357 Auto Mag with the eight-inch barrel that looked like a Buck Rogers ray gun. The recoil wasn't so bad, but the muzzle blast would make you sit up and take notice. We were chronographing some handloads with one of the old Oehler Skyscreen systems and the muzzle blast blew the second unit right off the table.

I don't have any intention of trying one of the S&W scandiums or the LCR .357; to me they are prime examples of having the ability to do something but not the wisdom to ask if it's really a good idea. I have an Airweight that's quite enough for me with +P ammunition. One of my first times out with it, I decided I was going to master this handgun and put 50 rounds of +P downrange. I had intended to follow that with checking out my then brand-new 9 mm Beretta PX4 Storm but I had FTE problems every shot -- I couldn't grip the pistol well enough to avoid limp-wristing it. (Subsequent trips to the range showed the PX4 performs flawlessly when I do my part.)

I resolved many of the issues with the Airweight by dumping the boot grips and installing Hogue grips that allow me to use all of my fingers. That made a huge difference. I also dropped back to regular .38 Special ammunition. Now I can shoot 50-100 rounds on a given range trip.
 
.44mag is about as high as I can go without saying "yeah, screw this," and even then, i wouldn't want to fire a full box of the stuff. .357mag is about my upper limit for firing 50-100+ rounds in a single sitting.

step down to .45acp and i'll shoot all day.
 
.44 mag is as far as I even care to go. I have a scoped 6.5" Taurus .44, but it's really no fun to shoot at all, and I'm planning to trade to for a 6" GP100 - .357 mag's a perfect combo of pleasant recoil and power.
 
I tolerated 5 rounds of S&W .500 mag and really don't care to ever shoot one again. Not that I'm afraid of it but it does hurt a bit and not fun in the slightest to shoot for me.
 
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