Dealing With Recoil

"WOW!", I thought, the first time I ever fired a 44 Magnum revolver, back in 1969. It was a big Ruger Super Blackhawk that I'd bought in Fremomt California, brand new for $135.00 (I wish I could buy one TODAY for that!)

Although fresh out of the Marine Corps, where I was well qualified on rifles and the bazooka, I'd never fired a heavier kicking handgun, than the old 45 automatic, which to ME, barely kicks at all.

Since that first time with a 44 Mag, I've gone on to collect and shoot even BIGGER pistols (and rifles), but the principle is the same----the more power, the more "kick."

I once heard it said that recoil is merely a price you have to pay for knockdown power, and that's essentially true, but learning a few things over the years DOES make this situation a lot more managable if you know what you're doing, be it with a handgun, shotgun on a rifle.

There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and where guns are concerned, if you learn it the wrong way, there can be dire consequences. Guns are not dangerous on their own. People who mis-handle them are. Just like with 4,000 lbs of automobile.

But, this isn't a "safety course blog", it's a "RECOIL" blog. So I'm gonna pass along a few things I've learned over the years that hopefully prove helpful to those who have decided that "bigger is better" out in the field.

Although I'd shot with my Dad as a kid, I began my military career with the M-1 and the M-14, two big 30-caliber combat rifles, chambered in 30.06 and 308 respectively. I never fired a "pop" gun until I shot my first M-16, which basically has no recoil at all with that little 223 varmint bullet.

One of the first things you learn with the larger caliber rifles, is to tuck it SNUGLY into your shoulder, so that when you squeeze the trigger and it goes "bang", both YOU and the rifle move backwatds TOGETHER. Holding the rifle butt too lightly in your shoulder, gives it "room to come back" freely and HIT your shoulder before it moves you backward a little. The rifle is recoiling BACK no matter what YOU do, so why let it hit you in the process? SNUG IT UP IN THERE!

WEIGHT is a serious factor all firearms. Example-------a factory-loaded 30-06 cartridge with a 165-grain bullet, produces about 26 foot pounds of free recoil. If your rifle weighs say 10 pounds....the weight of the rifle itself will soak up the first 10 pounds, and YOU catch the other 16. If you buy a LIGHTWEIGHT rifle that is easier to carry around all day.....say....one of the 7 pound "featherweights", IT will only absorb the first 7 pounds of its own weight from the firing cartridge, and YOU get 19 of it.

For the most part, it's a moot point, as once on the hunt and your adrenalin is UP, you don't "feel" recoi, like you did back at the bench when you were initially sighting it in.

Rifle TYPES make a diference in recoil too. A semi-automatic for instance, in the same weight and caliber as a bolt action rifle beside it, will not "kick" as hard because of the springs and buffers that allow it to chamber the next round for you by itself. They often work from a system that "taps" off a little expanding gas from the burning powder in the cartridge, so you don't get quite the bullet performance that you get in a BOLT ACTION, which allows ALL of expanding gas to push the bullet, and nothing else. But you don't get the recoil either, if that's something that' important to you.

STOCK design. I got the surprise of my life in 1970, when my Dad & I went out to the range. He had this old Winchester lever action 32 Special. Ballistics were fairly close to the 30-30, and nowhere NEAR an '06.......but the gun had been cut-down a little......(barrel shortened slightly, and the "octagon" rounded off into a slightly lighter "Carbine)." The old walnut stock was of a NARROW design, with a curved steel buttplate.

When you touched it off, it would almost bring TEARS to your eyes! Having been "lightened-up" years ago, I was catching more "shove-back", the narrow butt didn't disperse "impact area" in the shoulder the way the modern wider ones do, and that old 1894 buttpllate itself was STEEL, not hard plastic or wood. You FELT it!

Scopes on a rifle add a little weight, and lessen recoil a tad, but it is CRITICAL (especially with the hotter calibers), to keep the rifle tucked-in SNUG into your shoulder, so the gun desn't "jump" back in recoil and cut your forehead open with the "lip of the scope." My son Danny, can tell you a story about that with my old 270, that is now his. Again.....You and the rifle need to recoil TOGETHER. If IT starts before YOU do, and it's scoped????.....you're asking for some stitches. (this applies mainly to the heavier calibers, but it's not a bad idea to shoot 22's the same way, just to keep in practice.

The factory recoil pads aren't much more than DECORATION. There are BETTER ones out there today, like the Pachmyar Decellerator.

These same basic principles also apply to shotguns....same equations for barrel length, weight, gauge (caliber), etc.

HANDGUNS. Boy, do we get into some factors HERE!

Recoil-wise, automatics are generally easier to shoot. The springs that allow them to reload themselves shot after shot, also damper a lot of the recoil. Because they are flatter in design, they tend to "conceal" better than revolvers and probably out-sell the "wheelguns" today, at least 2 to 1........maybe even 3 or 4 to 1, depending on where you live.

Not much "recoil" has to be dealt with in the "automatic world" because most of them don't generate the kind of power we find in the revolvers (particularly the magnums). I dunno.....maybe that's why so many of these "high-tech" autos NEED 15-round magazines!

Let's concentrate here on the revolvers, which DO entail some of the "hand-cannons" that CAN "bend" your wrist and break your nose if you don't watch it. (and the shooting techniques apply to ALL handguns anyway).

As with rifles & shotguns.......WEIGHT is a HUGE factor in handgun recoil. Caliber-for-caliber, the larger the frame and the more barrel length you've got "hangin' out there", the less recoil you're gonna catch at YOUR end of this deal.

Problem IS......if you're wanting to carry one CONCEALLED, you aren't likely to want a "Wyatt Earp" Colt Buntline that holsters all the way to your KNEE! If it's gonna be HIDE-ABLE, it's got to be compact.

If it's got to be compact, it isn't gonna weigh very much.

If it's not gonna weigh very much, it's gonna kick more than one that DOES.

If you're like ME, a DEFENSIVE pistol is USELESS if it isn't powerful enough to get the job done with the first shot, before the "bad guy' can return the favor.

As most of my readers know, I favor the 357 Magnums for daily carry. I have a few long barrelled revolvers in this caliber, which I enjoy taking to the range, but I also have a couple of short-barrel 357's which are NOT as comfortable in recoil, but they carry well, even when I'm "concealled," and are much faster to get out of a holster if needed.

A handgun is much more difficult to shoot WELL, than a rifle is. Where a rifle is "anchored" to you at THREE points (left hand, right hand and shoulder), the pistol was originally designed as a ONE hand weapon, although you should always use BOTH hands whenever you can, even with the little 22's-----just for steady control & accuracy.

The wrists are not as strong as the shoulders are, and where people get into painful situations with the big magnum handguns, is NOT knowing how to properly HOLD one.

The NUMBER ONE thing to remember when you're shooting one the more powerful handguns (especially the magnums), is to grip that gun, with your wrist & elbow lined up DIRECTLY behind the barrel.

What this means in "english".........is that you make an "imaginary line"----from your elbow, through your wrist-----and that "line" should run STRAIGHT down the barrel to the END of it.

Your hand....with the gun IN it....should be as straight as if you were pointing your finger at something with your arm extended.

Try it right now....with NO GUN....

Extend your entire arm and point straight to a light switch in whatever room you are in right now. That's how straight your arm should be with a gun in it. Your hand should not be angled off at all. When the gun fires, the recoil should come STRAIGHT back in an unbroken line....through the hand, wrist, forearm and finally, to the shoulder.

Your OTHER hand is a key player here too. In a proper two-hand hand.......you do NOT wrap the other hand "around the wrist" (which does practically nothing), you do NOT just place it under your "gun hand" as some kind of "palm support".....

Your basically just "clap your hands together", wrapping your hnad around the botton 3 fingers of your "gun" hand............and pulling BACK slightly.

Yes, you heard that right.......the NON-GUN hand is used in slight "retention." It not only gives you a better grip on the gun, but a steadier hold on the target as well. Your gun hand needs to be holding the piece FIRMLY......you don't need to have a "white-knuckled death-grip" on the gun, but from 357-UP, they DO recoil progressively worse as caliber goes up, and "conceal-size" goes down, so you DO need to hang onto it, so it doesn't try to im-bed itself into your forehead, (and I used to shoot a 500 Smith & Wesson Magnum that tried to do JUST THAT everytime you "lit one off" (at $2.30 per trigger-squeeze).

One of my 44 Magnums IS a short 4-inch barrel, and with the weight reduction, the recoil IS pretty stiff if one isn't used to it, but as with the rifles...........in a parking lot or a dark hallway when the adrenalin is PUMPING, you don't really notice it, like you do at the range. I do CARRY that one from time to time, so I'm always "aware" of that added jump. But I shoot often enough, that it all becomes pretty much 2nd nature. As with the rifles, there is a good selection of after-market recoil grips for handguns as well.

I LIKE "recoil" in a way, though. If you ran into something nasty in the woods, the recoil at YOUR end, gives you a pretty secure idea of what that bear or cougar is getting at HIS end!

The same with some scumbag who THINKS he's gonna rob you!

The only recoil I've never dealt with, is that "upside-down-sideways" stance the gangs seem to use. it just looks like a waste of ammo to me, and if you DID manage to hit something, it would be more by accident than anything else.........I can see the obituary now...."he was killed in a street fight, but he LOOKED cool while he was dying!

Recoil wouldn't be bad on the wrist though.....most of them only use 9mm's or 40's

The key to it all, though....is practice. "Theory" means absolutley NOTHING out in the manimade jungle of "society."

If you're gonna BUY one.........don't just store it away and look at it occasionally. Take it out once in awhle, get to know it...how it shoots...WHERE it shoots and how to quickly reload it if need be.

And of course, CLEAN it afterwards. A poorly-maintained gun can sometimes fail you at a critical time.

And that would be unfortunate.