The Trapdoor carbine 45-70 thread got me to thinking about recoil sensitivity.  (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

I have always wondered why shooting a 12 gauge until one's shoulder is black and blue down to the elbow does not seem to affect shooting the shotgun or even shooting tweety birds and ground squirrels offhand with a .22, but recoil in rifle target shooting causes lower performance.   

When I shot high power silhouettes, I started with a hunting rifle I had, a .280 Remington.  During the sight in period, I was hitting nearly all the targets.  When the match started, I was doing ok, but noticed I was missing more as the match continued.  Of course, schuetzen rifles have much lower recoil, but after shooting a higher recoil rifle, performance seems to suffer even if there is no noticeable flinch. That is why I usually shot a .40-65 rather than my .45-100 in the BP matches in all of our schuetzen matches here in the PNW.  I usually shot our .45-70 Military Musket match after my other offhand was finished.   

Anyone else notice that?

It is interesting.  I have had shooters watching me shoot say, "Do you know your barrel doesn't move when you shoot?"   "No", I hadn't noticed 

Schuetzenmiester wrote on Aug 11^th, 2018 at 12:20am:

Bob,
Have you ever tried shooting a couple boxes of 12 gauge off the bags sitting at the bench?   

It's a fact, lightest recoiling cartridge that gives acceptable ballistics on target will shoot higher scores. "acceptable" is the key here. If the bullet won't do the job there is a heavy penalty.  But holes on paper are not hard to punch.

When several international shotgun disciplines started restricting loads to the metric equlivent of 1 oz scores went up. Shooters that shot 1 1/8 oz were surprised   

Boats

bnice wrote on Aug 11^th, 2018 at 8:07am:



Pretty sure, not that I don't have to watch that and put the gun down on a bad day.  It doesn't seem to happen with the .33, .25 or .22 unless I shoot a .45-70 before shooting them. Then there might be a little of what I will call "Recoil Distress" for lack of a better term.

Another thing I have noticed is about once a year I will have a flinch coming on.  I either shoot it off to the side concentrating on a dirt clod or weed if the trigger is set on  a hot load.  If not, it can be done away with dry firing a shot. After it is gone, it is back to holding the barrel still for another year or two 

BP wrote on Aug 11^th, 2018 at 2:18am:


Never carried a bench around looking for moving targets   

I do indeed have recoil sensitivity for nearly all my life, thanks to a buggered right shoulder. I has always reduced my ability to shoot many shots on any given day.

It really does help if felt recoil is lower, but, it is more complicated than that. Some long guns I simply shoot better, even much better, than others. Partly it is how easy it is to hold gun steady -dugh! -- and how easily I can control trigger -- dugh again! 

However, there is definitely a limit to how many shots I can fire from a given gun & load before it is really time to quit wasting ammo. Of late that is presaged by the first stray shot -- QUIT! -- and come back some other time, it is over for that day.

As I have aged and various body parts function less well, I have had to make adjustments and/or try to rehab needed muscles. Head position has been an unexpected one, resulting from failing eyes. 

Effects of medications is a common one that I am slowly recovering from, thanks to quitting all but one prescription pills. And I am enjoying additional bonus that my old bod feels and functions better -- DAMN PILLS & the doctors that insist I take them!!

I've always hated high recoil in anything; rifle or pistol. I don't mind low recoil and don't see much difference between calibers like .32-40 and .38-55 for my uses. But even those calibers I load to mild levels, so likely that's why they aren't an issue for me.