I saw an 1885 Low Wall in .243 - I believe that it was one of the Winchester/Miroku rifles, but it might have been a Browning/Miroku.  It was a nice, trim little rifle, but it looked pretty light weight, which translates into sharper recoil. But they were made!

Years ago there was a short article in The American Rifleman about calculating recoil.  You added the momentum of the bullet to the momentum of the gasses escaping the muzzle to get the momentum of the rifle back toward you.  The figure they gave for the muzzle velocity of the gasses for a standard pressure (so ~50K- 55K psi round) as 4100 fps.  So you multiply the mass of the powder times 4100 fps to get the momentum to get the momentum of the gasses - giving a not inconsiderable portion of the recoil.  If you have a muzzle brake with matching opposing holes on the sides of the barrel, the recoil of the gasses is decreased to near nothing, decreasing the recoil of the rifle against your shoulder.

I don't know about muzzle brakes, but if I were to go that route I'd go with one of George Vais' most recent designs.  I know George, he restocked a pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .264 Winchester Magnum.  Some one relieved me of that rifle, but I know who he is & where he is.  One of these days when I'm better able to travel, I hope that day comes, I'm going to drop by & pay that guy a visit with an ATF agent in tow.  I don't ever plan on shooting that rifle again, but I'd like to give it to my son, he seems pretty resistant to recoil.

Newton’s third law of motion: “When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body” (Simplified: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”). 

So, very simply, when the cartridge is fired, it puts equal thrust both forward and rearward. Fortunately for us, the rifle weighs approximately 500 times the weight of the bullet, so the energy must first overcome Newton’s first law of motion: “When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force.” (Simplified: An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an external force acts upon it). 

So, the variables that can affect the above are: less power, heavier gun, or lighter bullet. 

But, as John Taylor brought up there is also a “rocket effect’ caused by the expanding gasses, being pushed out the end of the barrel. These gasses add to the felt recoil; back to Newton’s first law of motion. Muzzle brakes reduce recoil by diverting part of these gasses to the side so that they do not add to the rearward recoil.
 
Now, if I was really bored, I could probably do the math, and tell you how much they could reduce recoil. I am bored today, but not that bored 

Bottom line is that a properly designed muzzle brake will reduce recoil, not sure if one could get a 50% reduction, since you can only affect a portion of the recoil impulse (burning gasses), and no muzzle brake can get rid of it completely.   

I suspect that with a very mild caliber such as .243, a good fitting stock, muzzle break, quality recoil pad and a mercury/impulse type recoil reducer (Newton’s First Law of Motion), you should be able to reduce recoil to very manageable levels.