Recoil can certainly be measured. They had pendulum devices more than 100 years ago. But "felt recoil" at least the highly questionable types can not be measured(to my knowledge) because much of it is the perception of the shooter, often times no more than wishful thinking. This, of course, is the way the SOS(snake-oil salesmen) want it. If the effectiveness, or lack of, in their illogical claims could be measured, the truth would be known. The results of adding a recoil pad, a recoil shock absorber in the stock and the effect of gas autos probably could be measured but these are all well accepted legitimate reducers of felt recoil, with physics on their side. There may be a few others I'm not thinking of but these are the most common ones that everyone would agree on(I hope!). Any sane person can feel the difference between an 8 lb. O/U with a plastic buttplate and an 8 lb. O/U with G-squared or J & S Air Cushion device in the stock. If 5 people believe they "feel" a difference now that they've had their 1" forcing cone lengthened to 1-1/2" and 5 people say they feel no difference after they had the same operation done to identical guns, why would that be? If it's real, why don't they all tell the same story? My conclusion is the first 5 are believing what they want to believe.
