Just Let Recoil Happen.

I almost missed this, sorry.

Most recoil qua recoil is not physically painful for most people. Muzzle blast and flash do tend to be perceived as pain by new shooters, and it's entirely possible for people to separate out those components. The process happens more slowly and with more effort than most of us believe.
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If the muzzle blast is a problem then they should really find something with less of it. I do agree that what most call recoil is simply the blast at face level. The worst thing anyone can do is to take someone they really want to introduce to shooting, hand them any loud gun but especially any "magnum" and let them shoot it to show them how tough they are. Alot of times it will be a husband taking his wife for her first experience, handing her a .357 or .44 mag, no hearing protection and then they wonder why the wife doesn't like shooting. I've heard of and seen this way too many times.

Is a .44 magnum physically painful to me? No, but 50 rounds of full house .44 magnum on a bad arthritis day can leave souvenir aches and wreak havoc with my accuracy.
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I broke my right hand years ago. It will start to bother me after enough full house .44 mag loads. I'm glad I reload so I can still shoot some wussy loads in it most of the time. I do enjoy full power loads and usually wait until I am about done for the day and if my hand is willing I'll rip those off then and suffer the consequences later.
 
From personal experience, I can see the OP's point.

Resistance to the recoil causes the most pain. Note how much more it hurts to shoot a rifle than a pistol. Staying relaxed while shooting and allowing the pistol to rise naturally will eliminate most of the pain. Whenever we fight the rise of the gun, pain ensues.

Of course, when first learning the "right" way to relax into it and let your body act as a natural shock absorber. Over time, you'll learn how to recover more quickly to reaquire sights on target.

--Wag--
 
Being an old Contender man myself as well as an avid auto pistol shooter for decades, I'd have to throw the BS flag on this one as well. Fine advice for the novice standard revolver shooter, not so much for any other type of handgun shooting. Long distance shooting of any type requires complete control of your grip and breathing techniques. These are learned over time. The best action pistol shooters are never seen practicing in the same manner as what your initial firearms instructor may demonstrate in an NRA Basic Handgun class. My old .45-70 Contender barrel weighed nothing--it's all bore. With stout 500 gr. FMC loads, it split the web of my hand open twice. Advanced techniques are for advanced shooters, and are learned over time. Like I said, good advice for beginners though.
 
I can understand what the original post is saying, only I don't entirely agree with it. There are variables and there is also no reason to like recoil. It is quite true, however, that blast is confused with recoil (after all, it happens at the same time), but a gun with a terrific muzzle blast does not necessarily have all that much recoil, such as the lighter bullet loads in a .357 magnum when fired from a 4" barrel revolver. But I've never noticed muzzle flash at all.

Revolvers, in theory, can kick more than an automatic pistol. The automatic is using up some of the recoil to work the mechanism. And the dynamics of different pistols are sometimes noteworthy. A Colt Government Model actually seems to kick in both directions a little, if you follow me. On the other hand, a lightweight Officer's ACP, while not at all painful to shoot, can be a real handful to hold on to when you're shooting it and I suspect several other guns are, too.

Because recoil is real but not at all enjoyable to me, I never fired a lot of heavy loads at once from any of my guns. I've always believed that to be counterproductive and you aren't improving at all after the first box.
 
Advanced techniques are for advanced shooters, and are learned over time. Like I said, good advice for beginners though.
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Everyone should know you can't tell advanced shooters anything.
You have to try to teach people before they reach the advanced stage or they assume they know everything.

If someone splits the web of their hand with a handgun it was probably caused by improper grip that was way to tight and the person was fighting the recoil so hard the weakest point gave way. A little more relaxation in the arms letting them absorb more of the recoil so the gun could rise with less resistance and this probably won't happen.

I've shot TC Contenders in heavy calibers and have no trouble at all.
The first time my wife shot a .44 mag, it rocked her world. After making her relax and unlock more she had no trouble.
 
There are variables and there is also no reason to like recoil.
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Might as well like it or at least learn to get along with it, it ain't going away.
Sounds like you have learned to ignore it because it can really do no harm, if approched correctly. I also expect you have whipped the lean into and push the shot thing awhile ago.
 
It is not necessary to shoot guns that have recoil that exceeds your tolerance. If a .357 Mag is uncomfortable, then go to .38 Spl. It is foolish to think you are going to get used to a hard kicking gun. Instead you will develop a flinch.
Some recoil can be cancelled out with gun weight and proper grips.

Shoot what you can tolerate and shoot well, and don't try to be tough and think you can ignore it.
I recall many years ago Charlie Askins wrote an article on the .44 Mag where he wrote that some folks who wore pink drawers (or something like that) complained about the recoil of the .44 Mag. Several years later he wrote another article where he complained about the recoil.

A .44 Mag has more recoil than I can handle, so I don't shoot it. I shoot .45 ACP, and .38 Spl. Sometimes I shoot a steel .357.
A LW .357 kicks too much.
I continue to contend that to just ignore it, or try to, is nonsense.

I do not like recoil so I shoot SA pistols or light recoiling revolvers, gas operated shotguns, and rifles that I can shoot without flinching. It has worked for me with a lot of hunting and shooting including some large and dangerous game.


Regards,
Jerry
 
"Do not try to stop recoil before it occurs. Let it happen."

Well this is pretty obvious isn't it?
Muzzle blast can vary depending on powder and barrel length but if the same weight bullet is traveling about the same speed, regardless of load or muzzle blast, recoil remains the same.

If I don't get a good grip on my 50 cal Desert Eagle I get jams and the gun ends up above my head! And in the day time I don't notice any blast.

Connecting these two parts of shooting are like connecting the gas pedal to stopping a car. Just take your foot off the gas and the car will stop by itself. Let it happen. Don't worry about the brake. Like don't worry about a better grip and a firm stance and trigger control and preparing for severe recoil and taking care not to flinch!! Just let it happen!!!
Needless to say that I respectfully disagree with this oversimplification.
 
g.willikers said:
One of the top shooters/trainers says something similar.
Even with rapid firing, ignoring recoil and keeping one's focus on the sights coming back to target, will be plenty fast enough.
It matters less how high the muzzle rises, during recoil, than getting the sights back on the target.
With good technique, he says, the amount of time lost with muzzle flip will be more than overcome by having the sights fall back on the target, without a struggle.
He emphasizes ignoring recoil and staying focused mentally on the sight returning to the target.
So, I tried it on a six target stage, two ways.
One was the keep the recoil to a minimum approach.
The second was to ignore the muzzle rise and concentrate on just allowing the sights to fall back on the target effectively.
Running the stage both ways, the time and hit factors were identical.
And with less fatigue the second way, very important over a long day of shooting.
Very Interesting, as the saying goes.
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This just HAS to be one of my favorite posts in weeks. If every shooter that thinks the world of low bore axis and high bore axis is the bane of humanity would simply understand this, I'd be a happy Mod...

k4swb, I catch what you're trying to say about recoil without reading too much into it...
 
k4swb, I catch what you're trying to say about recoil without reading too much into it...
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Thanks. I've noticed some people read things that aren't there while others miss what is.

I tried to get my wife to read an article in Shotgun News a few minutes ago entitled "Those Other People" and because it was longer than her attention span and the author repeated the phrase Those Other People quite a few times she said he was just saying the same thing over and over. Skimming will do that. The internet has taught people to skim and not actually read.
It is a shame.
 
One thing I used to do to train myself to just let recoil happen was instead of fighting the recoil, I helped the gun recoil, letting my arm point the gun up to the sky as if I was trying to impress onlookers with exagerated recoil.

Take away the muzzle blast and the recoil of a .44 magnum is about the same as catching a baseball with a baseball glove. Maybe not even that bad.
 
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None of my handguns needed help in the recoil department. However, I never figured out how to take away the blast and recoil of either my .44 magnum or my .41 magnum. Maybe I didn't try hard enough. In any event, I couldn't honestly tell the difference between the two, which were otherwise almost identical revolvers.

I'd even go so far as to say that I almost couldn't tell the difference in the recoil of those two magnum revolvers and a S&W N Frame with a six inch barrel chambered in .45 Colt, although the blast was nowhere near as bad.

The only time I'd say that recoil was virtually eliminated, in comparison, was shooting a .380 from a Colt Government .380. In comparison, all other .380s I've fired had a real snap to the recoil. I understand the Walther PK380 has very mild recoil for the caliber.
 
I may be in the minority on this one but, I actually enjoy
recoil and find thats something I miss when shooting .22's

Give me the BIG BANG PLEASE :D
 
Here's a video of what it looks like for the gun and sights to return to target quickly, even with quite a lot of recoil.
He purposely allows the gun to recoil more than he would normally, to illustrate the technique.
It's a Travis Tomasie video on calling shots.
The part that petains to this discussion begins at about a minute and half into the video.
Pictures are definitely better than words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q1XC8k-tZc
 
Here's a video of what it looks like for the gun and sights to return to target quickly, even with quite a lot of recoil.
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That is a good video. Shows just what I'm talking about. Firm but relaxed, lets the gun rise with hardly any resistance in a very smooth manner, then sorta just settles the gun back into shooting position. He does this quickly and that is what needs to be done at times. At other times there is no reason to do it fast, especially when learning to shoot.

When learning to shoot, fast is not your friend!

Same thing applies to any handgun, no matter how powerful. Let it rise with little resistance and absorb the recoil, keep a firm but not chokeing grip.
Lock yourself into a powerful handgun with a choking grip and a rigid body and you will jar your children's children.
 
Recoil is anything but your friend.... I see a lot of well intentioned sillyness...

There are times and places were a large powerful handgun, rife or cannon is necessary as is proper follow through. However very few people (none I know of) can shoot large cal guns consistently without developing a finch over time although Im sure this forum must have at least 50 such people that never flinch. :rolleyes:

Many big bore shooters will practice with a much smaller gun to avoid getting into flinching and this holds true even for small bore target shooters who shoot air rifle instead of 22 long rifles to avoid even the smallest tremor of a flinch from developing.

Whatever you do if it works for you great, enjoy it but dont think that just allowing it to happen is a solution. The truth is if its happening its affecting your shooting to one degree or another.
 
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