This is always an interesting topic. But it sometimes gets unruly(usually by me) and seldom changes anyone's mind.
Here are my final comments on recoil. If you want to reduce recoil, start with the basics that cause it(true recoil). (1)Reduce the shot payload. Dropping from 1-1/8 oz. to 1 oz., better yet, to 7/8 oz. will reduce recoil dramatically. The birds will never know the difference but your shoulder sure will. (2) reduce the velocity by using less powder. 1150 fps will break clay targets and kill birds just as dead as 1300 fps. There is no magic powder. If one powder produced less recoil while giving the same velocity, that would have been the only powder anyone on the market, for 100 years. (3)Increase the weight of the gun. (4) Install a good recoil pad(for reduced felt recoil).

Back in the early years of back-boring and forcing cone lengthening, when the truth was important to the American Rifleman, a reader asked if these (then) new modifications could reduce recoil. The AR answered that "nothing you can do to the inside of the barrel CAN reduce recoil, unless it also reduces velocity". That was true then and it is true now. The only thing that has changed is that now the AR is more concerned with pleasing sponsors and less concerned with printing the truth, for its readers.
Thanks to all,

Last edited by Jim Legg; 04/17/10 05:08 PM.

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