what is the upper limit for all-day shooting?

It depends more on rifle weight and stock design than anything else.

Also bullet weight.

I can shoot 90gr hollow points from my .270win all day, but my 130gr deer loads kick more than my 154gr 7mm Rem Mag deer loads, even though the 7mag is lighter, just because of the stock design.

My brother has a Win94 30-30 that I load for, and hate to shoot, because it has the light, skinny stock that bites into your shoulder. I load full house 220gr 8mm Rem Mag loads for him and I'd rather shoot those than that .30-30.
 
I reload, hunt and shoot with 300WBY and 340WBY. Without an aid I can shoot 16 rounds and I'm really flinching after round nine.

I sometimes use tube socks filled with #8 lead shot, doubled and sewn well. It must weigh 12-15lbs. I put it between my shoulder and rifle butt, with the butt kind of recessed into the sock filled with shot. This is only good with a proper rest, and requires a modified cheek weld, due to the change in lop. This really reduces felt recoil quite a bit. It allows me to shoot and chrono more loads than I could ever tolerate otherwise.

I must sat though, that I have never noticed the recoil of the 300WBY, when I pulled the trigger hunting and the effects on a mule deer are awesome!

In years past I would shoot 40+ rounds of 7mag and never really noticed the recoil.
 
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Last time I shot my rifles at the range, I shot 7 mm Mag with a hot 160 grain load, .30-06 150 grainers and some 250 grain .358 Winchesters and never felt anything and didn't get a bruise.

Then I packed up my target stand and Lead Sled and went home. :)
 
Recoil is far more bothersome at the benchrest than when using field positions. In Basic Training with the Garand, 100 rounds was not onerous, as it was all field-position shooting.

At the bench? I guess I'd call my .243 an upper-limit for a really lengthy session.
 
Scorch said:
Bingo!

I have had a lot of people tell me they can shoot their 243 or 7-08, or 30-06 all day long, but I have seen them by the end of a box: flinching, trigger jerking, and recoil anticipation is not a pretty sight. It may not hurt as much as shooting a 300 Win Mag, but it sure teaches you a lot of bad habits. That's the main reason I shoot my 22LR more than anything else, my 223 runs a close second.
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I agree, the flinch limit is a lot lower than the sore shoulder limit. I remember one gun writer stating that one of the reasons the .222 gained a reputation for stellar accuracy was that it was about the upper limit of most people's zero flinch recoil tolerance.

About the only guns I shoot "all day" are shotguns in trap. My sore shoulder limit is about 1 1/8 ounce in a 8.5 pound gun. 7/8 ounce in a 6 pound gun. It's not always the shoulder that hurts, my cheekbone gets bruised too and that leads to lifting my head off the stock when I pull the trigger and another miss.
You ought to see how much a shotgun kicks when the shooter experiences a failure to fire.:D
 
I've only been fortunate enought to shoot .223 all day. My other calibers are more like half day trips (4-6 hours) for the .270, .308, and 30-06. I have gone through at the most 100 rounds for each one (usually when testing out a reload or new ammo).
 
I've found that a Lead Sled will allow me to shoot even the hardest kickers in my collection without any pain. Now this is at the range from the bench only!

Edit: If a sled is considdered a recoil reduction system, then I would use my .204!:D
 
Yesterday we made a trip to shoot long range.
My younger son and I shot our .308 and 7.62 x 54R (30-.06 class) respectively and sent our usual 100 rounds each downrange.

He's only 14- and has no problems with his Savage in a Choate Tactical stock.
My Mosin sporter is in an afermarket stock with a Limbsaver recoil pad.

Neither of us had/has ever had an issue with discomfort from recoil even after that many rounds.

OTHOH, my older son brought the 8mm Mauser he just got for Xmas...I don't know if it was the 8mm round- or the steel buttplate- but that sucker THUMPED.

My point is, it's more about the rifle stock, recoil pad, and shooter technique (shouldering the stock in correct form) that have the most effect on comfort related to felt recoil.
 
Well, I haven't reached it, I don't think.

One day I shot 100 rounds of Beowulf, 180 rounds of 7mm WSM, close to 500 rounds of 6.5 Grendel, and several hundred 308. I don't know how many rounds of .223, but I picked up almost 200 cases.

It was a long day, but the next day I shot almost that much.

My shoulder was a bit sore on the third day.

Some of my friends say I don't have much respect for recoil.
 
.17 cal air rifle to Wby 300 Mag I can shoot till I am out of ammo or I get tired of loading the gun.

Win M71 .348 cal I used to be good for 20 rounds, then 10, now 3 or 4 good shots and anything beyond that is pain and no fun. I have a 12 gauge the same way even though I can shoot my 10 gauge till I'm to tired to lift that 36" barrel up into the air.
 
I had a friend who made a trip to Africa and spent a day on the bench before the trip with his .458 Win Mag Ruger! The next day at work his arm was black from shoulder down to wrist and shoulder down his side to his waist. And yes, he was a white guy. He couldn't lift his arm. He had to be insane. :D
 
I shot a couple of rounds out of somebody else's .458 Magnum once. A Winchester Model 70.
Actually, it wasn't a whole lot worse than 3 inch 12 gauge magnum shells shot out of my Ithaca single shot shotgun. If you didn't have a tight grip on the stock, the trigger guard would bruise your trigger finger from the recoil.
 
In my younger days when the "family" would go out for a weekend shoot, we would fire a lot of different cartridges. Excluding pistol and semi auto, it wasn't uncommon for me to go through 500+ rounds per day using rifles chambered in 22-250 to 30-378.

Since I am older now and no longer have family near me, a day at my range usually dosnt exceed 100 rds.

Reloading has save me a fortune!
 
"Get off the bench and there are very few cartridge/rifle combinations that can't be shot all day."

Exactly.
Also if you have a rifle that bothers you use one of the PAST recoil pads that you wear on your shoulder.

It turns a hard kicking very painfull rifle into something that you enjoy shooting.
 
You mean rifle can actually be shot without a bench?:confused:;)

A .22 long rifle or a .36 caliber or smaller patched round ball shooting muzzle loader is about the only thing I can afford to shoot "all day".
 
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That's why god invented the .22lr
Bingo!

I have had a lot of people tell me they can shoot their 243 or 7-08, or 30-06 all day long, but I have seen them by the end of a box: flinching, trigger jerking, and recoil anticipation is not a pretty sight. It may not hurt as much as shooting a 300 Win Mag, but it sure teaches you a lot of bad habits. That's the main reason I shoot my 22LR more than anything else, my 223 runs a close second.
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I take a Mosin M44 (with a nice butt pad) and .22 LR when we go to the range. You practically have to pull people off the Nagant. We'll shoot at least a 200 rounds of the 7.62x54R and a brick of the .22 LR.

Talk about instructional: Take someone who just got through shooting 20+ rounds of 7.62x54R and put them on a .22LR! Can you say "FLINCH"? Then you teach them how to not flinch and then put them back on the Nagant. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Good practice. That'll shrink your groups :).
 
My all-day range sessions typically involve two bandoleers of .30-06 (96 rounds) from a couple of my Garands or 100 rds out of my AR15, a couple of magazines (40 rounds) of .308 Win from my M1A SuperMatch, and a box of either .308 Win or 6.5x55 SE in one of my hunting rifles. I have also had 60-round sessions with one of my .30-06 or my .25-06 hunting rifles.

I have a nice 100 yd rifle range about 6 minutes from my house that I have unlimited use of so I usually have shorter (2 to 2-1/2 hr sessions and occasionally short ones to test a single load) practice sessions.

FH
 
I have shot 200 rounds of 45/70 (#2 marlin loads) from my 1895 in a single session.

My father loves the 30-06 and I have shot 2 boxes of reloaded ammo from that in a session.

I can only shoot a few rounds from my fathers 450 nitro express before I am done for the day (Ruger #1)
 
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