Two worst guns for recoil I ever shot

by AaronB, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, 09:29 (4204 days ago) @ TomC

The worst-recoiling gun I ever shot, hands-down, was a Smith model 500 belonging to a friend of mine. He handed it to me, I shot a cylinder through it, and I handed it back. I doubt I will ever own such a beast and if I do, I will only shoot reduced loads in it. Every time I dropped the hammer on it, I felt like somebody had smacked me in the palm of the hand with a ball bat. No, thank you... no fun, don't need it, don't want it.

The other worst-recoiling gun I ever shot was a long gun, RangerBob's Ruger No. 1 Tropical in .458 WinMag (which formerly belonged to Lloyd Smale, if I recall rightly). This handy single-shot is a lovely rifle and great fun to shoot with Bob's reduced cast-bullet loads at .45-70 levels, but put a factory round in it (or worse, a "Lloyd load") and Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde PDQ. I wanted to like it and tried to shoot it, but putting a box of factory loads through it from the standing position was like going a round with Joe Frazier.

Bob loads RCBS gas-checked 500-grainers over a moderate load of 4895 now, and we are all the happier for it.

-AaronB