Recoil

[Onward Allusion]

I've always thought, the heavier the gun, the less felt recoil. Snubbies in 38 or 357 are snappy and 6" 357's are tame. Hence a 8 3/8" barrel should be like shooting a 22LR, right?

Nope

I have 3 Taurus 608's. A 4" with the compensator lopped off, a 6.5", and now a 8.375". I was shooting the 8 3/8" for the first time at the club over the weekend. Dang! The thing kicks! As much as my 4" 44 Mag. Granted, I was shooting full-house mag loads, but it was a real surprise, until I took a bit of time to analyze. The length of the barrel acts like a lever and my wrist is the fulcrum. The added weight in the ~ 2" of barrel isn't enough to offset the actual physics.

Learned something new...

 

[HighValleyRanch]

KICK??

There's recoil, and then there's muzzle "flip".

Muzzle rise is related to both the recoil from the energy output, and also the hold, i.e. fulcrum, bore axis, gun design and shootes ability.

Two different shooters might have different muzzle flip based on ther hold abilities.

It's not so much the barrel length. As you noted, a longer barrel might have more "flip" since the bullet is in the barrel longer, and might be producing more energy given the longer time in the barrel.

You might try a thumb over wrist hold to help with the muzzle rise and more forearm strength.

 

[TXAZ]

Recoil and 'felt recoil' are 2 different things.

A large bore / or ultra high velocity bolt gun will product a much greater (and painful) felt recoil than a .50 BMG semi like the Barrett M107A1.

Why? The full force of the bolt gun with 2-3000 ft-lbs of energy is going to dump all of the recoil energy into the rifle and your shoulder in about 1 millisecond.

The .50 BMG with 12,000 ft-lbs of energy is going to distribute that energy over 100 milliseconds, with a slow rise and more of a push than the very sharp impulse of the high energy bolt.

Handguns will be similar but I don't have the numbers for those.

 

[T. O'Heir]

"...8 3/8" barrel should be like shooting a 22LR..." Nope is right. No .38/.357 will recoil, felt or actual like a .22 regardless of the weight or barrel length. It's called Physics and there's a law about it. Equal and opposite reactions. A .38/.357 bullet weighing 158 grains will never have the same recoil as a .22 weighing 40 grains.

 

[stinkeypete]

All things the same, weight helps tame recoil.
So does bore axis...
So does porting and breaking and action type and and and...

Grip fit.

I am not a fan at all of the big rubber grips, even if they are made of an impact absorbing elastomer. (High tech rubber that doesn’t bounce, it absorbed energy) because I have medium/small hands and the grips don’t fit me well. I get hot spots and friction rubs. You can’t sand em to fit your hand.

When the grips are a good fit for your hand, the recoil is the same but how it applies to your paw is “better” so we feel it “less”.

T... never? Simple momentum is mass times velocity. 40 grains x 1020 FPS = 158 x S
S = 258 fps which is about negative three grains of Unique or a beefy slingshot. Okay, you are right.

Perceived recoil is about momentum, impulse curve, torque, grip fit, physical and mental condition and yips.

“Yips”... I had this .454 Casull lever gun that simply didn’t weigh enough. It hit my shoulder and cheek so hard I smelled blood from my sinuses and had huge bruises even through winter jackets. That gun owned me. Even loading down to .45 Colt, that gun made me flinch. It shouldn’t have, but sometimes you get a notion that’s hard to shake.

 

[Ricekila]

The exact same frame - 1911 -- 9 MM barrel - average 9 MM recoil ----- .22 TCM barrel - almost zero recoil --- the slug for the 9 I use is 115 grain / .22 TCM slug 40 grain -- the casing is close to the same ( 1000th difference ) as they share the same mag size -- but I don't know the powders volume ?