Big bore recoil

[Ray B]

In addition to the previous postings I add 2 considerations:
1. recoil is worst when you aren't familiar with it- just as a trip seems longest the first time. What I do is start a rifle that has recoil potential with light loads, then work up to full power in several steps and after I have adapted to the recoil at each step.
2. To keep my mind off of the recoil I try to focus on seeing the bullet leave the muzzle and travel to the target. This is similar in concept to being distracted from recoil when shooting at game.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Recoil management is vastly mental and the rest is technique. It's very possible for you to learn how to manage larger calibers with the tips stated above. Whatever you do, if you start flinching you'll need to start over and drop down in caliber to something like a .22LR quickly, or it'll impact you shooting other calibers you're used to.

Personally one of my favorite rifles to shoot is a M70 .375 H&H. I find it more enjoyable to shoot than most 300WM's, and have zero issues shooting it from a bench. Conversely I took have shot a .270 and a .30-06 that I absolutely couldn't stand. Again, I think a lot of it was mental and I didn't use good technique since it was "only" a .270 or .30-06.

One of the things that I think helped me is I love Turkey Hunting. I've always shot 3.5" shells regardless of if it was in my old Mossberg 835 or my Benelli Super Black Eagle. The only time I don't shoot 3.5" Shells is when I've killed a bird and I've switched to the .410. Over the last 8 years I've spent a lot of time, and a small fortune at the range patterning my 12ga guns with different shells, and different chokes. Now when I'm patterning, I'm almost always shooting off a bench, and taking 3 shots per choke/load. When I first started, I'd almost always sit to pattern the gun so my body could roll with the recoil. After time I quickly became used to it and can now sit at a bench with no issues. I've even had some range sessions that have been upwards of 75 or 100 shots to check pattern densities between different chokes at a variety of differences.

Like all the advice here on the forum, it is coming from great experiences over a great lot of years . There is however a perspective I would not make use off when shooting Dangerous Game hunting rifles.."shooting of a bench" there is not one aspect in a Dangerous Game scenario that correlates to shooting your rifle from a bench when you stalk a Dangerous Game animal.
Shooting your rifle in from shooting sticks is a more realistic exercise at all times when preparing for such a hunt.

Shooting from sticks surely is a difficult exercise but it tells you a lot about your shooting technique and give you a lot of insight in how the rifle performs after you took the first shot.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Like all the advice here on the forum, it is coming from great experiences over a great lot of years . There is however a perspective I would not make use off when shooting Dangerous Game hunting rifles.."shooting of a bench" there is not one aspect in a Dangerous Game scenario that correlates to shooting your rifle from a bench when you stalk a Dangerous Game animal.
Shooting your rifle in from shooting sticks is a more realistic exercise at all times when preparing for such a hunt.

Shooting from sticks surely is a difficult exercise but it tells you a lot about your shooting technique and give you a lot of insight in how the rifle performs after you took the first shot.

I shoot my .375's off a bench when swapping/zeroing scopes, confirming a scopes zero (if I haven't shot it in a while), or testing new loads for groupings. I want to control every possible variable before I get up and start shooting off sticks, kneeling, offhand, off a branch or something else.

 

[Sideshow]

Reading with interest has anyone tried one of these?

Recoil Systems

Recoil Systems design and manufacture various custom damping and comfort mods for shotguns, using the most advanced materials available. These add-ons greatly reduce the impact and discomfort that unabated recoil can cause.

www.recoilsystems.com

They get good reviews in the shotgun press.