Bring the pain!

[chui]

My worst was a Rem. 798 in .458 Win. at 8 lbs.
Now I know why Capstick wanted his .458 to weigh 10 lbs.

 

[instructor]

Some years ago, became fascinated with the Ruger RSM Mod 77 rifle and bought two of them, one 375H&H and one in 458 Lott calibers. Familiar with the 375 H&H for carried one while living in Alaska for a few years but the 458 Lott was a new caliber for me. Both rifles were beautiful in all respects, but that Lott was a real handful to shoot due to very stout recoil. Would use the 458 Winchester round from time to time and difference in recoil was certainly noticeable. The fascination for the rifles wore off so to speak and traded them for a few Winchester lever guns. The two rifles were indeed works of Art and shot well, but now live in WV and not needed for my hunting ventures.

 

[MHtractorguy]

I had a friend who worked at his father's pawn shop. It was a big pawn shop, right outside a big USMC base. They took quite a few firearms in from young Marines who should have paid their bills instead of buying fancy, new rifles.
One day, my friend called me to tell me he wanted to show me a nice Browning before he put it out for sale. I went and saw a Browning BLR in 308.
He had the box and paperwork, along with a 20 rounds of (military) 7.62 ammo. It was the lightweight, straight grip, magazine fed lever action rifle with beautiful walnut woodwork. It looked brand new and I gave him about $300 less than MSRP. I thought I got a great deal!.
I took it to the range the next weekend, loaded 3 of those rounds in it and fired one from the bench. It felt like I got hit by a truck. Another friend who was at the range, laughed at me for whining about a 308. He shot the other two rounds, bought the rifle from me and I believe it still hangs on his wall, never been loaded again.

 

[AZ10X]

Shot a 50-140 Sharps with a steel butt plate once - like I said ONCE.

 

[Snake45]

In 1989 I was gonna take Mas Ayoob's LFI-II, which involved shooting a lot of slugs and buckshot. I bolted a set of aftermarket rifle sights on my Mossberg 500 Turkey Gun (20" VR Barrel) and set about sighting in the slugs from my club's bench. Every shot loosened the screw-on sights, and I could barely pull the trigger on the 5th shot. My shoulder was bruised for a couple weeks. I'd later learn at the class that 12-gauge slugs in a typical shotgun have the same felt recoil as a .375 H&H Magnum, NOT "about like a .30-06" as I'd thought.

At the class, Ayoob taught us how to shoot the shotguns with several recoil-reducing techniques. I had no pain and no bruising. Even better, I discovered I could put five slugs in a group at 50 yards that could be covered by my closed hand, using only the Turkey Gun's standard bead--no sights! To this day I don't think I need "combat sights" on my social shotguns.

 

[Mobuck]

I lost interest in the 'hard kickers' when my right shoulder began telling me it had enough. I'd sent a considerable number of rounds through an 11 pound 300WM target rifle and an 8 pound 7mm RM hunting rifle over the years and suddenly found I wasn't able to maintain a good group. My recoil attenuation wasn't consistent and groups were stringing vertically. I started backing down the recoil scale until I've leveled out in the 25/06-6.5 Creedmoor recoil level that seems to be a 'happy place' for me. In the process, I've lost the ranging capabilities of rounds such a 7mmRM and 257 Wby but I've become a better (or more patient) hunter in the process.

 

[chui]

Yeah, I saw that movie too, I liked .338 Win. mags. & the .340 WBY. but soon found the same the same syptems you described.
However I just put an E R Shaw .35 Whelen barrel on a savage 110, it weighs in at 9 lb. 2 oz., I seem to be Ok with that. (Fingers crossed)