Recoil and length of pull

by AaronB, Monday, December 16, 2024, 07:49 (5 days ago) @ JohnKDM

I am wondering whether the degree to which people perceive recoil as "punishing" depends on how fully in-contact with the stock they are. If your body is more or less welded to the rifle butt, forcing your torso to move with the rifle as it comes back under recoil, I am thinking that this reduces the "impact" of recoil to a degree... but only to a degree.

As velocity and energy levels rise, so do the third- and fourth- and higher derivatives of the position equation. There's not just acceleration, but also "jerk," and whatever the first derivative of "jerk" is. Consider standing and holding an empty rifle stock in firing position while someone takes a roundhouse swing on the tip of the fore-end with a baseball bat... it doesn't matter how welded to the stock you are, you're going to be taking a blow.

I suppose that's where a good cushiony butt pad comes in. It dampens all those derivatives down to just acceleration, which can then be bearable.

A longer length of pull may better enable a shooter to keep the butt solidly planted on their shoulder, which would help.

-AaronB (musing)