As gentle as the recoil is I'm going to lite load some 300gr. just as soon as i get time. If you can find one of these revolvers to try, by all means do it. They are a real hoot. With factory ammo they do have quite a bit of muzzle blast. Cost wise for the type of workmanship, and having a cartridge that should be just about perfect for dense cover hunting, they are very reasonable. I gave 750 for mine with two boxes of shells.