What materials reduce recoil in a handgun?

S

SPUSCG

New member
Ive seen a lot of talk on forms of gun (x) having a material that reduces recoil. Like the polymer lcr kicking less than a scandium or aluminum gun. Ive heard certain polymers reduce kick, and so do some alloys. Was wondering what materials do this and how?
 
The shape of the grips, the weight of the gun, and the height of the bore above the grips have alot to do with felt recoil. Most polymer handguns frames ' flex ' slightly when shot and this absorbs some of the recoil impulse, which reduces the felt recoil.
 
Im not recoil shy, just wondering about the physic of how a lightweight polymer or alloy gun kicking les than a stainless gun.
 
The claim is made the LCR kicks less(felt recoil) due to the polymer grip flexing. This results in the recoil being spread out over a longer period of time, much like the pneumatic shotgun stock recoil reducers. A "push" recoil is much easier to take than a snappier one.

If half the energy goes into distorting the frame, that energy is not felt until the frames start to go back into its normal position. That would almost certainly have to happen only once the other energy is absorbed by your arm.
So, some of the energy goes into distorting the frame, the rest goes into your arm, then the energy in the frame is delivered to your arm as the frame un-distorts itself only after the other energy has been absorbed by your arm.

Maybe the frame takes 10%, maybe 70%, IDK.
Maybe what I am saying is totally incorrect, but I made it through Engineering mechanical and electrical physics without too many tears.
 
I can't imagine that a polymer gun would have less felt recoil than the same gun made of steel. The concept of the polymer gun flexing more and absorbing some of the energy and/or spreading out the impulse sounds valid, but I have a hard time believing that it can more than counter the difference in mass. Intuition says the polymer would have to be so flexible that fatigue cracking would be an issue. I'd have to see some analytical data to be convinced.

Be sure what you're reading is comparing apples to apples. It'd have to be the same model gun, one in polymer and one in steel, firing the same ammo to be a valid comparison.

It all boils down to energy management. When a cartridge is fired, a fixed amount of energy is released. Part of it is recoil.
 
While recoil energy is easily calculated, how it is distributed in time and perceived depends on many factors that are NOT easily calculated.

While weight changes the recoil energy, grip size & shape, bore axis height, grip material, and any number of other facors affect the perception of the recoil energy.
 
Im not recoil shy, just wondering about the physic of how a lightweight polymer or alloy gun kicking les than a stainless gun.
Click to expand...

Think of it like this:

This is a typical momentum physics problem..

One person has a mass of 100 kg, and another has a mass of 50 kg. If both are facing each other on ice and push off from each other, which person will fly backwards the most?

Of course the answer is the 50 kg person, why? Simply because something with more mass has more resistance to a given force. There are numerous other ways this could be physically explained but this one is the simplest.

It dumbfounds me sometimes reading on forums that people are surprised how hard something recoil when its a lightweight tiny gun. What do people expect!
 
The recoil formula is pretty simple:

weight of the gun
weight of the projectile or bullet
velocity of the round

Weight of the gun is an easy factor to change ...but picking or reloading the right round is a big factor as well.

If you want to shoot a heavier bullet for a given caliber / at a high relative velocity for that bullet - its way better to be doing that in a heavy gun - if you want less recoil. Now Heavy Gun vs light Poly gun ( and some factor for absorbing recoil thru flex ) ....might affect Felt Recoil --- but Felt Recoil is an abstract thing ( based on all kinds of stuff, strength of grip, grip angle, etc ). Actual Recoil - comes down only to the weight of the gun, weight of the projectile and velocity of the projectile.

I'll take a heavier gun every time ......for any given bullet .... slow or fast / and I'm not recoil sensitive either.
 
Heavy guns are easier to shoot. Light guns are easier to carry. Which is more important? I am not a physics major but I find it hard to imagine that polymer frame flex reduces recoil to a point that is even measurable.
 
I have Ruger P97's and P90. The P90 is heavier and all metal. The 97's have the polymer frames. The P90 definitely has more felt recoil than the 97's with the same loads. I would have thought it would be the other way around until I tried them.
 
Heavy gun plus light load equals light recoil.
Light gun plus heavy load equals heavy recoil.

Gun fit, action type, and grip material will all contribute to "felt", or perceived, recoil
 
Back in the day golfers used "Lead tape" to change the center of effort on golf clubs. If a guns too feisty, maybe you could look up some of that stuff and add some mass to it.
 
Grips that fit the shooter's hand will reduce felt recoil and if they are made of a material that absorbs shock they will reduce the felt recoil even more.

A material that flexes will tend to reduce felt recoil but if the use of that material substantially reduces the weight of the gun the net effect may actually be an increase in felt recoil.
 
recoil

Nice to see the distinction between recoil (which, for a given load in a given gun, cannot be reduced) and felt recoil - you can't reduce the recoil but you can change the way it feels.
An added note about recoil formulae -

weight of the gun
weight of the projectile or bullet
velocity of the round

And you have to factor in the weight of the powder charge and its velocity since it leaves by the muzzle when the bullet does and it's going fast.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top