I have an old friend who loves shotguns, rifles and handguns that hit very hard at both ends. Everything had to be a magnum on steroids. He was the kind of guy who started handloads at the maximum load, and worked his way up from there until he saw very real signs of excess pressure. He blew up his older brother's Benelli Autoloader with some crazy handloads, and I have fired some of his revolvers that bruised my hand and left my fingers bleeding from under my fingernails after shooting them one-handed. But one night years ago, he met his match from the recoil of a .22 rimfire rifle.

A bunch of us were at camp for a weekend of ruffed grouse and squirrel hunting. At the time, I had a modest collection of around twenty rimfire boys rifles, such as Stevens Favorites and Crackshots, Remington rolling blocks, Hamilton bicycle rifles, H&R falling blocks, Floberts, etc. I had just purchased a Stevens No. 14 1/2 Little Scout .22LR, and as an afterthought, tossed it in the truck to try out at camp that weekend.

On Saturday evening after dinner, we were playing poker and enjoying some adult beverages, and the conversation turned to guns and the subject of recoil in particular. My friend flatly stated that the only gun that has no recoil is a .22 rimfire. I replied that was foolish nonsense, and that he had taken too many math and physics courses to make such a dumb statement. I recited Newton's Third Law, but he insisted I was wrong, and an argument ensued. I bet him $10.00 that he was wrong, and he accepted, and we shook hands on it. Then he asked, "How are you going to prove it?"

I said, "I don't know...", and then I remembered bringing along that Stevens No. 14 1/2 Little Scout. Now, the Little Scout No. 14 1/2 is a very small and light rifle, even by Boys Rifle standards. One reference I found says that the Stevens No. 14 Little Scout with a full stock weighs only 2 1/2 pounds, and I'd say the No. 14 1/2 with the two piece stock is probably a couple ounces lighter. I grabbed the rifle and some standard velocity shells, and said, "Let's go out back... I'm sure you will feel the recoil with this."

We all went out behind the camp, and I chambered a round and handed him the gun. He put it to his shoulder and proceeded to cock the hammer. I said "Wait a minute... put the butt on your chin." He said, "No problem", and placed the slender and unforgiving little steel buttplate firmly on his chin, and cocked it again. I stopped him a second time and said, "No, wait... hold it so the buttplate is about a 1/4 inch away from your chin." He smugly said, "No f**king problem."... and he moved the buttplate a bit away from his chin, and cocked and fired.

Instantly, he nearly dropped the rifle, and grabbed his face, and cried out in a muffled voice, "My chin!.. I broke my f**king chin." In my kind sympathetic manner, I said, "You owe me ten bucks... pay up!"

Of course, he didn't really break his chin bone, but he certainly did not wish to try the physics experiment again. Even with the low recoil energy of a .22 rimfire, I'm sure getting smacked with that skinny steel butplate felt like getting rapped on the chin with a ball peen hammer. There is a lot more to felt recoil than just the absolute number of foot/pounds of recoil energy.