BTW, I think big guys actually feel more recoil with rifles because the smaller guys have less mass resisting the recoil.  The heavy guys don't "move" as much and therefore absorb more of the energy into their frames.

If it was a switch barrel DW, the user can must set the gap with special wrench and feeler gauge.

I think you might win; I can't imagine shooting .416 anything out of any handgun.  Frankly, I'm not quite sure how you'd cram the rather gigantic Rigby case into the Lone Eagle design safely.  At about that age I turned down the opportunity to shoot a Lone Eagle in .308 without a brake.  At that point I'd never shot a handgun more powerful than .357 and wanted no part of that .308.  I'd have no qualms about shooting the .308 now; still wouldn't even think about shooting one in .416 though.

Davis Derringer in .38.  Cheap alloy pistol with 15 pound trigger pull.  Punishing to shoot and the most safe person in the room is the one you are actually shooting at.

Big guys have more padding though.  Skinny, boney peeps feel everything the gun delivers, right to the bone.

I am a big guy and I can shoot trap all day long.  When I was skinnier, I usually stopped after the third round.

7mm rem mag, one or two shots wasn't bad but after an extended zero session, I went from it to a 5.56 bolt action and noticed I was flinching with the 5.56.  I'm an OK shot but I'm not a good enough shot to survive a bad habit.

Sold it that day for more than I paid for it.

For me it was my brother-in-law's .500.  It had a short barrel, like 3 inches or so.  Pulled the trigger once and handed it back to him.  Not fun to shoot at all.

This.  One shot was all I needed to know..nope not again

1960’s Winchester Bolt Rifle with metal butt pad in 300 Win Mag. One shot and sold gun.

A most unpleasant gun. Really now, I should think that gun would have learned it's manners, but no. I truly asked it nicely to behave, but it was genuinely a waste of time. Rather boorish, I should say.

Actually, on better advice of counsel, I shall save the tale for another time.

Same here, hot hand loads as well.

Tikka T3 light in 30-06.  I have a 375 ruger, I shoot 300 WM as my main rifle, and I own other 30-06’s…my goodness was that T3 brutal on shoulder.  Great rifle for hunting but not fun on the range.

Enfield No5 with the recoil enhancing metal wrapped rubber recoil "pad". Shot it once and then made sure I wore a PAST pad every time after that.

My brother has an AR pistol with either a 5.5” or 7.5” barrel in 5.56. Hate it. I wear plugs AND ear muffs when he pulls it out.

My bro's 8.5" AR with a flash can on it is nothing short of obnoxious. My 10.5" with an A2 is nothing compared to that.

Unpleasant? S&W 45.

Why? A ND from a protruding primer (loaded round) in my reloading closed. Damn that was loud

Winchester model 1894 with steel crescent buttplate.

Bond Arms 44 magnum derringer.

I am surprised at some of these responses.  Hunt all day long with 12 ga 3-1/2” goose and duck loads in an 870 super mag.  Disliked the portion of a shotgun instructor class where we fired a lot of full power slugs prone, but it wasn’t a big deal, I have fired cases and cases of slugs...  G3/HK91 collapsible stocks in a t-shirt leave an pattern on my shoulder but aren’t bad, and in a regular stock those guns are fine.  Nagants aren’t bad, the M44 version is a little more concussion than I like though, rattles the brain a bit more than I like.  Benelli M1 Super 90/ Beretta 1201 FP types kick like a mule, but I love them for how fast they can sling buckshot and how light they are.  I am tall and skinny so I don’t have a lot of shock absorbing materials built in...

But the ones that bother me are stuff like the Bond Arms .357 derringer.  Trigger is horrible, and when it finally goes off it is like slamming your hands in a car door.  Same with a Ruger .44 Alaskan with full power loads.  My hands are arthritic at an early age so stuff like that just isn’t happening.  I sometimes wonder if shooting large amounts of .40 cal for 25 years isn’t what caused much of the trouble with my hands to begin with.

I do hate the Blackhawk/Knoxx 870 recoil absorbing stock- damn thing pinches my beard’s whiskers when it moves under recoil.  Their breacher grip version is great for taming pistol grip only 12 gauges though, otherwise I stick with regular old shotgun stocks.  

The Armalite AR-50 is the only gun to ever sort of “scope” me.  Didn’t break the skin but it had such ooomph behind it that it managed to make painful contact.  Didn’t stop me from shooting it again though...  Wanted my own until I busted my back....

After breaking my back, and having too many concussions over the years, too much exposure to explosions and gunfire of various sorts, I won’t buy a .50 or any serious magnum rifle.  A .300 Win Mag is about my max, even a lot of .308 prone in one session will jack my back up for the next day, so I try to do prone in calibers above 5.56 / 7.62x39 in moderation.  Getting old, being broken, and having to be more careful with what I shoot sucks, but it sure is better than the alternative.  

For me I don't think the recoil is bad at all on the AR-50.  Never been closed to getting scoped by mine.  The worst part about it, IMO, is the concussion.  Before the AR-50 all of my experiences with 50s were shooting a Barrett M82.  The shooter gets almost no concussion, or at least I can't remember feeling much from the M82.  The brake seemed to send the gasses to the side a bit better.

The brake on the AR-50 sends the pressure back in sort of a slim cone.  If you're directly inline behind the gun with your left eye closed it isn't horrible.  I had my left eye open for one shot though and the pressure wave hit my eye (I had eye pro on too) and it felt like my left eyeball was sucked into my skull lol.  It was a weird feeling.  That wasn't really what happened, my eye was fine, but the feeling of that pressure wave hitting my eye was very uncomfortable.

S&W 500 for me. When I was a young man I would have loved it!

Single shot 12ga, kicked like a damn mule.

This.  I shot my coach gun once with 2 3/4" buckshot - Done!

I can't imagine 3" shells in that beast

Bunch of ladies in here.

A custom Savage smokeless muzzleloader, 300gr @ 2800 fps without a brake is the most recoil I've gotten from a rifle.  Normally I shoot these with a brake or silencerco hybrid. Attached File


For a handgun, 50AE DE is the most I have shot, but don't consider it bad.

I shoot 10mm Glocks a lot and I've considered it soft compared to 10mm 1911's.

S&W 340PD

Ruger LCR 38 spl

Rem 870 3” magnums by far the most unpleasant. My 300 Weatherby is fine for hunting but off the bench after a few shots it starts hurting. Once I went from 300 Wea to shooting a .22 rim fire, the first shot with the .22 I jumped or flinched a lot! No problems with any 50 BMG I’ve shot.

Tiger Dragunov.  I bought it new and just did not like the way it shot so traded it for a colt series 80 1911.

Dumbest trade I ever did.

Man, you are recoil sensitive.  7mm Rem Mag does not have much more recoil that most other hunting cartridges such as .30-'06.  Maybe it was an ultra light rifle.  Weight matters.  More weight, less felt recoil.   Shooting from bench will always seem to have more recoil than shots taken in the field.  And, when taking a shot at game, your adrenaline masks the perceived recoil.  Don't even notice it.

Even my light weight .300 Weatherby Magnum (no brake) is quite manageable at bench with lighter 150 grain bullets at about 3400-3500 fps.  But, it does start getting my attention with heavy 200 grain bullets.  Its more a vertical recoil - have to grip the fore-stock tightly or it will literally jump out of my hand.

Yes, with full power 3" 00B.  I think its the poor stock design and relatively light weight.  With a slip on recoil pad mine is much more manageable.

Ruger Blackhawk .44mag 4 3/4 bbl.  I shot one with a much longer barrel and it was fine.  I sent my short one out for dual Magnaporting.  It is also fine now.

Well, now that I think about it.  One new year's eve I was at a friend's girlfriend's trailer for a party.  The guys were outside shooting black powder, then came to get me at 12:00.  "Here shoot this, no bullet", & handed me a muzzle loading pistol.  I casually pointed it at my Camaro and touched it off.
Damn thing about broke my wrist, flipped back and stuck my cheek with the hammer, bounced up and splintered a chunk off the wooden beam on the porch roof.  Went off like an open-ended pipe bomb and knocked stuff off the walls on the inside of the trailer.  Turns out they filled the barrel complete.  Do not do that, does not slow burn. Blood all over, went back in for butterfly stitches and booze.  

Ruger No1 in 45-70 and one in 375 Both smoking hot home reloads by a Ruger employee

Cured me of wanting one

This with surplus Balle N ammunition.



Bleh.

A S&W 296 when it had a set of wood Spegel boot grips on it, rather than the larger, softer, black rubber stocks it comes with.  The 296 is a hammerless, Titanium/Scandium frame, 5 shot 44 special.  It got nicknamed Geezus because by about the 4th round almost everyone hands it back and says "Geezus.

1st round:  surprised at the amount of recoil and hand slap.  People think they had to mis-perceive it.
2nd round:  after the second round people realize that the first round wasn't mis-perceived.
3rd round:  because they think they are tough, they will try a third round..they get a puzzled look on their face; probably wondering how much more they are able to shoot.
4th round:  screw this, I don't need this kind of abuse is what most folks think as they put it down.

The Spegel boot grips are beautiful, and really well made, but the pistol is much more tolerable with the factory black rubber grips because they are larger and softer to absorb some of the recoil.

It is a great pistol to carry a lot and rarely shoot.  Just not fun to shoot.  Imagine a 2" titaniup/scandium frame 357 magnum revolver on steroids...the 44 shoots a 200 grain bullet...It gets shot enough to confirm that the sights are accurate with whatever loads are currently being used.

I’m pretty sure it was a smith and Wesson 500. A close second was a ultra light weight .44 snub nose with a yitrium frame.

S&W 296. Scandium framed hammerless L frame in .44special. One buddy bought it and shot a cylinder through it, passes it to another friend who did the same, and they both agreed he needed to sell it immediately.

FWIW, I've heard they were much less punishing if you had Smith swap out the Ti cylinder for a stainless one.

I was going to make a similar post.  I don't recall the brand though.  Took two fingers to squeeze the trigger.

Springfield Aromory SAR-8.  Mine wasn't the good HK-91 clone, made on HK tooling in Greece with the stamped steel receiver.....mine had the crappy aluminum receiver with built in p-rail.


Rollers had worn out the receiver rails to the point that it was basically a blowback action.  Every shot felt like getting hit in the shoulder with a sledgehammer.  Trigger was an easy 12 lbs and the barrel was so far off true to the receiver that I couldn't zero a scope to hit paper at 100 yards before running out of windage.

Winchester 1911 "widowmaker" 12ga that I think the spring and frictions were completely toast on. Barrel just acted like a slide hammer. Made my 300RUM look like a 223

Dad's Rem 700 in 270 from the 80's.

Cock sucker kicks like a mule, and I own a lightweight 45-70.

1903
30-06
Steel butt.
Lighter than M1 Garand and no gas system makes for sore shoulder pretty quick.

8” single barrel break open 10 gauge SBS with a 3.5” slug.

I like the look & feel of lever actions with the old-style metal curved butt plates, but in the bigger rifle calibers, these are not volume shooters.  It doesn't really hurt that bad when firing, but when I get home from the range, I have bruising there for a couple days.  

Pistol caliber ones are fine.

Ishapore Enfield in 308.

Maybe slim metal buttstock, but I've shot 50 bmg that hurt less.

Handgun: Full power .357 in a lightweight snub

Longgun: Mossberg 500 with a 3" slug

Ditto, I used to own one of these Scandium devils...painful to shoot with .357!  Shooting it is line smacking your cold hand on concrete.