Felt recoil on 7mm-08 vs. .260 Rem vs. 30-06?

[farmplinker]

In an identical rifle, like a Remington Model 700 Mountain Rifle, how much difference in recoil will there be between a 30-06, a .260 and a 7mm-08? I'm sure there is more with the 30-06 than the other two, but how much?

And between the .260 and 7mm-08, is the recoil difference (if any) significant?

I'm planning on buying a lighter-weight, lighter-recoil deer rifle to supplement my 700 BDL 30-06.

Any recoil expert out there that can help?

 

[Art Eatman]

It ain't recoil expertise; it's learning Old Math instead of New Math.

Take the ratios of the product of bullet weight times muzzle velocity. Simple example: '06, 150-grain, 3,000 ft/sec; and 7mm-08, 140-grain, 2,800 ft/sec. So, 150 x 3,000, divided by 140 x 2,800 = about 1.15. So, the '06 would have about 15% more recoil. That's a lot like, "Not much more", unless you're recoil sensitive...

This works only for the same weight of rifle, of course. For different weights of rifles, though, you just keep on doing the math, using the weights of the rifles. If in the above, the '06 is a 9-lb rifle, and the 7mm-08 is a 7-1/2-lb rifle, you multiply 1.15 x 7.5 and divide by 9 and you find that the '06 kicks four percent less.

And now you know why folks like a Garand: Heavy rifle, mild load, not much recoil.

, Art

 

[9mmepiphany]

art - i looked at your math and it sure does make sense however consisder the following:

i shot a friend's ruger m77's (both long actions) in both 30-06 and 7x57mm. (bear with me, i'm thinking that the 7mm-8 is a modern loading of the 7x57mm for a short action). the 30-06 really beat me, up after about 20 rds i was ready to go back to handguns. the 7x57mm was very comfortable and i was quite taken with it but he wouldn't sell.

another friend was willing to let me try his mausers, m93 in 7x57mm and m96 in 6.5x55mm. again consider that the .260 rem is the 6.5 swede loaded for a short action. the 6.5mm was much sweeter (softer, less blast) to fire and was more accurate for me.

but, like they have said for years, recoil is reaaly a matter of perception.

farmplinker - i won't even touch a 30-06 anymore. i'm also looking at putting together a LW rifle around the .260 rem short action, synthetic stock and fluted barrel ( can't quite swing a carbon fiber wrapped one). i was hoping colt would be producing their ultra-lite line by now

 

[Keith J]

There's more than bullet weight

Powder mass, as a gas, exits the muzzle AND contributes to recoil. How much? In rifles, considerably. Take the 30-'06 for example. 150 grain bullet at 2850 ft/sec has about 50 gr of powder behind it in its gas form (burned matter still has mass) but it exits the barrel at 4600-5000 ft/second.

What does this mean? Conservation of momentum must be followed so we have 150/7000 lbs of bullet at 2850 ft/second and 50/7000 pounds of powder gas at 4600 ft/second for a whopping total of 94 lb*ft/second where 33 lb*ft/second are from POWDER ALONE! That's over 1/3 of the total recoil is from powder.

What does this mean in recoil? Free recoil velocity, that is the velocity of the rifle if it were floating in space, of the typical 7.5 lb rifle would be 12.53 ft/second if firing this round.

Back to this thread, if the round uses less powder to launch an identical weight bullet, the recoil will be lower.

 

[Art Eatman]

Keith, that's one that's hard to quantify...But still, I think the relative bullet weights do make a larger difference. No le hace.

The 7mmX57 has always had a good reputation for doing an excellent job of killing deer and not beating on your poor ol' shoulder. It, and the 7mm-08 have been in the back of my mind for quite a while. I guess the 7mm has had a lot of development work on the bullets, given the interest in long range target competition which for many years was often won by the 7mm RemMag.

I'm just more comfortable with a bit more Oomph! available in 30-caliber, living in mule deer country. On a running shot, I want all the help I can get. As far as "just killing deer", I did in around 20 with a .243, on cenTex whitetails--they're smaller.

Better to focus on shot placement with a rifle you can shoot very well, than to flinch and miss with something that's beat on you too much.

Art