Excellent point, Gizmo---
Subjectivity of the shooter (personality and body type play here), stock design, and ammo all make for a wide varience in the recoil felt when shooting a rifle. A perfect example is the .303 SMLE in the plain Jane service rifle, which probably weighs 9 lbs. That SMLE will smack the HECK out of my shoulder, every time! This with a cartridge that barely reaches .308 equivelant?!?
But then I shot a sporterized #5 .303 that was lighter, but had a good stock and buttpad, and found that I could shoot it all day long... Difference was stock design. My .300 Win Mag Sendero doesn't kick much with its Butler Creek stock, but perhaps that's also a function of the fact the rifle weighs almost 12 lbs!
Remember that you're going to be practicing from the bench with a recoil pad on your shoulder (try the Past magnum recoil sheild for long bench shooting sessions. They work, and I'm NOT a weinie-- I just love to shoot long and hard.), and that recoil felt when free-standing is
far lessened, assuming good shoulder-stock weld. Rifle-load combos that will have people crying tears of pain from the bench can feel like a meer hard shove when shot from free-standing off-hand positions. And, given the game the .416 was designed to hunt, isn't that how you really ought to be practicing?
Go ahead and get it, Gene...
L.P.
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Will you, too, be one who stands in the gap?
Matt