Recoil, how much can you handle?

[harold89]

Let’s assume we are talking about single action revolvers used primarily for hunting at least medium size game. At what caliber for you does the fun end?

[cmillard]

Well, a BFR .500 jrh put big smiles on my face. Now I have one in .454 casull. I haven't shot .454 out of it yet, only heavy .45 Colt loads. Still have a smile when I shoot it. We will see what happens when I shoot full house .454 with that snappy recoil impulse. I will probably still be good to go. Maybe someday I will own on of those .475 linebaughs or a maximum.

[rufus]

I have only had the chance to shoot 300 gr .44 mag full power loads.
Not sure what my limit would be but those would probably be close.

[bobwright]

For me it has a lot to do with the grips. I've shot a lot of very heavy recoiling Single Action revolvers.

Those fitted with rubber stocks get painful after forty, fifty rounds when those abominations blister my hand!

Well fitted wood (never tried ivory of such guns) maybe seventy five rounds before the fun ends.


Bob Wright

[bula]

Everybody draws the line in different places. Age and hand/wrist size are factors. For me, the speed or violence of recoil a factor, rather than just doing the math and only talking FT LBS of recoil. As in, in 44mags, the 300gr bullets going 1200 fps, bother me less than a nominal weight, 240-250gr bullet going 1400 fps. Same in 480's with 325 gr vs. 385 gr bullets. 

[laylow]

A lot less now that I've developed the family arthritis at the ripe old age of 38.

[drycreek]

I can’t say, because heavy .45s and max .44s are the heaviest I’ve ever shot from an SA revolver. Never owned or shot anything bigger.

[dougader]

I don't like:

38 Spl 158 grain LHP +P in a lightweight j frame...
44 mag in the 69 L frame...

But I'm ok with a 395 PC HP at 1100 fps in 480 Ruger.

Anything snappy kills my wrists. A slower, big, heavy push is more tolerable. It's not the slam into my palm that hurts me, it's the snappy recoil that flips up that causes me arthritic discomfort.

YMMV

[taffin]

I am not sure what passes for required reading in high schools these days, however in my time many of the classics were required reading. I will remember “Ivanhoe”, “Silas Marner”, and definitely large doses of William Shakespeare. I also recall the latter had rare insight into the human character. One of his passages I have never forgotten has to do with the Seven Stages of Man. He points out we started out in this life helpless, then go through a period of growth followed by our declining years, and if we live long enough, we end up the same way we started namely helpless and requiring constant care.
As I look back on my shooting life I find the same pattern. I started out with a pair of .22s, a Marlin 39A levergun and a Ruger Single-Six sixgun. I still have both of them, however it did not take me long to add centerfire sixguns such as a 1900-era Colt .38-40, a brand-new 2nd Generation Colt .45, Ruger Blackhawks in .357 and .44 Magnum, and a Smith & Wesson .357 Highway Patrolman. From that beginning I went on virtually every sixgun, semi-automatic, and single-shot pistol available. In the midpoint of my shooting life most of my time was spent with the heaviest loads. Then came the time of going down the other side of the hill, and currently the vast majority of my sixgun reloads, be they .45 Colt, .44 Special, .44 Magnum, and even the .454 Casull are loaded to .45 ACP energy levels. The heavy loads are saved for when they are really needed.
Until a few years ago it was my practice to shoot two or three times a week, sometimes all day. Then the “all day” sessions were cut to half days, and now it usually three hours with a maximum of 300 rounds fired. It became my practice to two mornings a week always being thankful I could still see sights and my trigger finger still worked in conjunction with my eyes. That has not changed. However, my shooting sessions have changed and I now shoot the “serious” stuff once a week and the other morning is dedicated to nothing but .22 rifles and handguns and shooting with my two daughters. I am certainly not at the end of the trail yet and I hope I have several more years of shooting ahead of me. By confining most of my shooting to .22s and reasonable energy level big bores I hope to pace myself

[cas]

Also a matter of conditioning. Back when I was in my serious mode, shooting my (probably loaded too hot) 500 Linebaugh hunting loads, I would only shoot 25-30 of them at a time. As the number crept up, anticipation of recoil and flinch got worse and worse, and I was just wasting ammo. (meaning not making the best possible shot, recoil and the cost in lead too high for plinking/dumping rounds into the berm) I didn't stop because it hurt, it was just counterproductive.

TODAY... I don't know if I'd shoot any of them. I'd no doubt be flinching pretty bad before round #1 went off.

But the loads I shoot now, 500gr at 1000+ fps, I can not shoot the gun for a year or more, pick it up and shoot it accurately and comfortably. I don't need to be at the top of my game and at my best to hit anything (and not get hurt), like I did with the other loads.

My 454 is no fun anymore either, I almost never shoot it. Didn't used to be that way, but there's also 20 more years on my hands, wrists and elbows then there was back then.

[500fksjr]

Yes as age has crept along 500Ls with trail boss and 2 cylinders full we go back to 32's... 45 Colt an a mild load maybe 40...Back to 32's...Thinking about getting the 22 s out again The GC are getting to the age to use these again!!! And so am I for longer shooting sessions.

[bradshaw]

Oct 18, 2020 15:04:59 GMT -5 harold89 said:

Let’s assume we are talking about single action revolvers used primarily for hunting at least medium size game. At what caliber for you does the fun end?

*****

Harold.... to the title of your thread, “Recoil, how much can you handle?” the answer is Country Simple: however much recoil you handle delivering consistency at target with a single action revolver. One may tolerate more recoil than he or she handles. My limited, sharply accelerating experience with grip frames made by Ronnie Wells for Bill Ruger’s all-time benchmark single action revolver predicts a new wave of shooters will arise to wonder what all the pain was about. I’m shooting full .44 Mag one-hand with a couple of Ronnie Wells grip frames on Rugers, barely noticing and without the trigger guard smacking my middle finger, all of this without glove. Grip design is shaping up to change the picture.

I often mention Handgun Silhouette because it joined marksmanship to power. The discipline caught on and raised performance expectations.

I’m 76 and hope I never again have to wrestle or quell 2-leg animals, just carry on somewhere between fine & gross motor skills, ski, swim, throw lead and think. So, if I preach, it is to steer bulletproof youth to learn the Endurance Game, to BREATHE DEEP in PERFORMANCE, to learn what cannot be bought and cannot be sold, only lived.

Push accuracy first. Recoil tolerance won’t ever be known without accuracy.
David Bradshaw

[dhd]

I can still handle my FA 454 quite well when it's loaded WARM, but that's usually no more than 25 rounds or so. It's not the recoil that makes me put the 45 Colt cylinder back in, it's the blast and busyness of the thing while recoiling. Still, before I smoothed out the sharp edges everywhere and had JRH do his grip thing, my 4 5/8" SBH has drawn more blood than any handgun I've ever owned. The Super has been much more enjoyable to shoot since.

My most "not fun" revolver in overall unpleasantness is a S&W Model 60 in 357. I know they made/make a lightweight J Frame 357, but not at my house. I jist don't want to deal with that thing with Federal 125 JHP's.

[rhino]

For me it's a Ruger Blackhawk in .45 Colt with heavy loads 325-350 grain bullets. I have shot a .454 Casull Taurus Raging Bull, I didn't enjoy it.

[buttebob]

I have a TC Contender with a 12" Muzzle Tamer barrel in 45-70. The fun never begun.