Well survived first outing with baby cannon, I havent done any loading yet but did some factory shooting( you think gas is high) I shot some hopped up 45,s about equal to hot 44,s and recoil was nothing. Then went to 300gr hornady,s with 1650 fps at muzzle, now I,m here to tell ya Ruger did an excellent job on this gun with the Hogue grips and weight. The Smith 329 with xframe hogue grips with max loads is worse then the Alaskan. Now don,t get me wrong you definately know you,ve touched off a 454 but recoil is not unpleasant at all. I havent benched it yet, but will probably stick to hopped up 45,s I hit a pie plate twice at 50 yd,s with them and the two holes you could cover with 50 cent piece. I probably was lucky as not used to gun yet. Ruger has done a good job again on building a mini tank and recoil is not painfull even with 454.