Canadian Airgun Forum

I don't get it. Every reference to a heavy recoiling rifle mentions the 300 win mag. It must be the most powerful rifle known to man...

I figure all these gun bloggers and whatevers, need to expand on their experience with guns. And maybe take some grammar lessons. Proof reading wouldn't hurt either.
Not saying I'm a professional writer. Just saying.
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

I have had my bsa 300wm for quite a while and I will tell you it's just not fun to shoot feels like a punch to the nose every time where as the 338 lapua and the bmg 50 are just slaps and a bigger boom

Have a 300 wsm... real world experience for me is it’s got more boom than the 308 or a 270. Without a proper muzzle brake installed, it’s got some good recoil. If you’ve got it all positioned properly, you feel it, but it’s not horrible. With a nice brake installed, it’s still got the loudness, but the recoil is honestly down to about a 308, very manageable.

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Highlights - Evanix Conquest
AA Alfa Proj, AA HFT 500, FX Dreamline, Diana Mod 70,
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Yes I agree they got some snap to them. In my experience, nothing like a 338 though. Most lapua and ultra mags I have seen are fitted with pretty serious brakes. Bore diameter plays a big factor in felt recoil. Add muzzle energy and you feel the math. I turned my 45-70 into a scout rifle, then my dad decided to chop the barrel on his old 338 win mag. His new brush gun. Rattles the head real good. 3 shots and my vision gets blurry.

A well designed stock can help a lot too. Owned 2 270wsm's, one was a savage 11 with accustock. The one I kept is a tikka t3 with a bell and Carlson stock on it. Tikka is way nicer to shoot. And a lighter platform at that. Quite the laser beam too

Woah, Daryl... green grass! Heck, the grass is darned well greener on the other side!

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Age quod Agis, et semper ubi sub ubi.

LOL - that was taken in 2017, seems to me, just after I acquired that rifle. I deleted my post before seeing yours.
We still have some snow in the front yard as it faces North.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

I have not heard of the .300 magnum having vicious recoil. Perhaps this is portrayed by bloggers, as you say, killercrow. I don't know about it.
Some .300's do have quite nasty, snappy sharp recoil. A Mark 5 WTBY I once shot was rather sharp & nasty, but lacked the overall whack of larger
bores. The Mark 5 stock didn't fit me well, and the recoil speed was high. Coupled with the sharp crack of the muzzleblast, I assume added to the
recoil.
Of course, felt is quite subjective. A fellow at the Barnet Club sold me a brand new, unfired ZKK600 .375 H&H barrel for my rifle (.358 NMag.), for $100.00. He had bought
the ZKK6002 .375H&H just for the action. This was mid 1970's. He had Ian Dingwall pull the barrel, replace it with a .510br. & chamber up a .505 Barnes Supreme.
I happened to be at the range when the short heavy set Hungarian was there with the rifle and he offered me a couple shots. The rifle, with it's new stock and
4X Weaver couldn't have weighted over 8 pounds. The fellow had fired about 8 or 9 rounds off the bags and was sighting it in at 50 yards. I fired one shot, off-
hand, gripping the forend quite hard, and was braced for a belt. Well, that thing spun me around like a weather-cock and I ended up back feel sliding on the concrete
back behind the yellow shooting line a full step back behind where I had been standing. That one kicked.
125gr. IMR3031 with 600 gr. Barnes bullet @ 2,650fps. I was only 190 pounds in those days and VERY fit/strong. I went up to the club house and drank coffee for an
hour. Then went back to my bench, shooting my .375H&H. It felt like a .222, even though it hurt to pull the butt onto my chest/shoulder pocket.
That's the hardest I've been hit. Felt like getting hit in the shoulder by a Volkswagen bus. That's the analogy I made, back then.
So - yeah, recoil is quite subjective - to the person and physical traits of the gun.
If in a 20 pound rifle, that .505 wouldn't have kicked more than my .375, which I rather enjoyed shooting, due to it's soft, easily managed recoil. That rifle weighed 11 pounds.
However, a 20 pound 4 bore does kick, like this one. The light 12 dram load produced roughly 200 pounds of recoil. A .458 Win, Mag, which is rather nasty, produces slightly less than 60.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDYtxxRU_cY

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Jeez... Well that's only 9300 ft lbs Darrel! Not that bad...
I bet that thing did fling you around like nothing.
Guy must have had a rhino infestation or something.

Have you seen the video on that T-Rex gun?
See if I can find it...
Yep, the 577 t rex. Looks like a good time.

https://youtu.be/-EVqT3XEzss

My take is, you hope you never need to use it.

That 4 bore is pretty interesting too, I never knew that even was a thing. Though I'm not too surprised really.
They used to mount giant shotguns on wooden row boats to take down whole flocks of geese.

The 375 H&H is quite a versatile round... And you can load some pretty wicked rounds using lightweight bullets (235-250gr)

The worst rattler I got the opportunity to shoot was a Ruger #1 in 458 Lott... Helping a friend working loads...

The Ruger #1 in .375 wasn't bad at all. Good rifle fit. I've never shot a .458 Winchester,
but made up a .458 Alaskan (my own wildcat) on a mark 10 Mauser Action. That one ran 510's at 2,200fps, so
ballistically was a little more than a .458 Mag. I also ran 400's at 2,450fps. I think that one is doable in a .458 Win. Mag.
About 5,334fpe. My 510's were running 5,482fps.
In the .375/06IMP, I run 235's and did shoot the 225gr. Hornady as well until they discontinued it.
The 235's were running 2,845fps and the 225's running 2,864fps.
My best loads with more "normal" .375" bullets are 270gr. TSX at 2,650fps and 300gr. Sierras, Normas and Hornadys at 2,472/4fps.
These were running about 4,100fpe with the light bullets & 4,200fpe for the 270's and 4,072fps for the 300's.
These are from an improved .30/06 case (79gr. water capacity).
The recoil isn't too bad off the bags - for a few rounds. It certainly is more than any 300mag., except maybe that 6 pound rifle.
This is my .69, shooting only 140gr. 2F with a 682gr. round ball. Normal hunting load is 165gr. 2f GOEX.
About the same muzzle rise as the 4 bore, Ian is shooting.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

The last cartridge I was seriously wanting to get into is the 375h&h. Like you guys have said, it is very versatile. Almost like a bigger 30-06. But I can't be thinking about that just yet, plan to replace the 270wsm with a 7 mag long range poker. Then probably a 375... We will see.


.69 cal muzzleloader looks pretty hefty! What's the outer diameter of that barrel?

1 1/8" across the flats. Weight 9 1/2 pounds. 31" bl., 32" if including the patent breech.

A 9 1/2 pound .375 is not too bad, but a 10 1/2 pounds (with scope) is a better weight, to
slow down the recoil speed, which makes it much more manageable & enjoyable. 233's at over
2,900fps, 2790's at 2,800fps and 300's at 2,500fps. A great round. In 1912, the ballistics were
235 @ 2,700fps, 270gr. @ 2,600fps and 300gr. @ 2,400fps. Those are the ballistics that made the
.375H&H famous around the world as THE BEST African dangerous and plains game hunting ctg. to date.

A #1 in .458 Lott (rechambered .458 WinMag.) would be a handful.

I found the Ruger #1 in .375 to be quite pleasant shooting, even with iron sights. Managed to
hit the sil. steel ram at 320 meters, shot after shot, offhand, just using the factory irons and
300gr. RN handloads.
Had a friend with that rifle, who missed shooting a large black wolf at 50yards. He had a 4X Leuy
on the rifle. I asked him to show me how he aimed. Thus he shouldered the rifle, muzzle high, then
attempted to find the target in the scope's field. That is why he missed the wolf. He could not look
at the target and raise the gun and be on target. If did not fit him- a very large man with quite a
short neck.
I removed the scope, fired a couple rounds and adjusted his rear sight to be on, at 100 meters. I
then had him shoot at a rock on the bank at that range and he hit it a couple times out of 3 shots.
I then shot the rifle at 320meters to get the 'setting', told him to hold 1/2 the front sight's staff over
the rear, place the bead on the ran and squeeze off a shot. He hit it 3 times in a row. Dave is a very
good offhand shot & from what I had just seen, he needed no scope to shoot a moose out to 300 meters
at least.
After the fall, I was over at his place and noticed the scope was back on his rifle. I asked why and he said
that )&^%$ his hunting buddy said he had to have a scope on his rifle, to shoot a moose. He didn't get a
moose that fall because he couldn't find it in his scope.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

I have seen it many times, some people just can't bring a scope into their line of sight. To guys like us it's just a reflex. But to some it's like trying to shoot left if you normally shoot right. It just doesn't feel right and you gotta think about it. And while you're thinking about it and focusing on the gun you lose track of the target. That's not to say just because a guy struggles looking through a scope that he can't shoot. Just not with a scope. And shooting at a critter in the bush is nothing like bench shooting. Too many unexpected variables with Hunting.

I had a clear shot at a cougar that walked out in front of my dad and I just a couple years ago. We were stalking a herd of elk. So was the cougar. We sat on a bench 150 feet above and 100 yards from cougar about 2:00 position. For some reason, I could not get a good enough position being a right handed shooter. Cougar lived that day. if he had been to my left, easy shot.

Also I had the jitters and couldn't really calm down. Crosshair was doing the dance on the back of Cougars head

This is the place.

Nice area. We have a couple targets on our BP trail walk that are left, or rather Off-handed shots, meaning you shoot from
your weak shoulder. One is offhand, and the other sitting. I am getting to the point I cannot see the sights left handed at
all now - I'm about 2 years behind (4yrs. total) in my eye-glass prescription and that is likely the reason for the vision trouble.

Being ambidextrous is/was quite a benefit sometimes, especially when were were hunting snowshoe hares, on snowshoes. If
the bunny was on your right side, a left handed shot had to be taken as any movement after spotting him would have him depart.
That cougar is a direct example of this. Close range is one thing - longer range is especially difficult if you do not have a rest. In
basic, we had to shoot left and right handed - that was a long time ago and I've lost the ability, more now due to eye sight, but
holding is not as easy as it used to be, right or left handed.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Being ambidextrous with a rifle would be a nice skill to have. I have only tried a couple times but it feels like I've never held a gun before
My dad on the other hand, is left hand dominant, but can do pretty much anything right handed as well as anyone else. Shooting included. Bows and guns.

So I grew up learning to shoot a left handed rifle (his old 300mag for example) holding right. It's not so bad really. Trigger hand stays put while you cycle the bolt. Kinda wish they made more airguns with the left bolt.