Hello All...Buzz, percieved recoil is all that matters to me. I'm not a scientist, I'm an obsesive duck hunter. I shoot 3" magnum non toxic shells in my Citori and A5 and 2.75" in everything else. All my guns have recoil pads, not because I can't take the pounding, but because less recoil allows one to get back on target quicker. Numerically quantifying recoil holds no appeal to me.
Eightbore and 2 Piper, its entirely possible you are right in that the reduction in percieved recoil is due to lower velocity. However, I am inclined to belive it is due to the peak of the pressure curve having been spread out over a few extra milliseconds. Absent ownership of pressure trace equipment or a chrongraph, speculation on top of observation is all I can offer on those subjects.
Lastly, the use of lower speed/lighter load shells for late season divers (goldeneyes) would be counterproductive. I pride myself on having a very low birds lost to birds shot ratio. That ratio was improved immensly when I went to using steel shells at 1450 fps 1500 or so fps. However in a point that somewhat proves your advice about using a slower shell, when I tried Remington Hyper Velocity at 1700 fps, my shooting went to hell. And truthfully, I think I was flinching. The second finger on my right hand was getting beat to pieces by the rear of the trigger guard. I only shot a half box and gave the rest away to a friend with a 3.5" Benelli.
Heres a question for you guys that have been shooting doubles longer than I have....Would the lower perceived recoil (perhaps due to a pressure spike that was spread out over a longer amount of time)slow down the rate at which hinge pins wear? Would a gun with long cones that was shot a lot take longer to loosen up compared to a gun with "standard" length forcing cones?
Mergus
