RECOIL and GETTING OLDER?

Have any of you found that as you have gotten older,you don't like the recoil of your favorite gun and load? I guess i've gotten soft over the last 65 plus years?
About 2 or 3 days,after a good day at the range,i know i was there! I love my 308's and 30-06,but wow,what a pounding they seem to give me? I have 243"s but i like a bigger bullet than these shoot! Thought about muzzle brakes. Now,i am loading 30 cal-125 grain bullets,in them. These seem like the answer?
Any body else use these 125's for deer?

I couldn't shoot my beloved '06 for about 8 months. I needed surgery on my shoulder.
It enabled me to shoot again but having a muzzle brake makes all the difference.

And the 125's are OK in the .308.
A 30'06 deserves a man's bullet, not those girly 125's. Set that '06 up with some 180's of better....
Just a little input from yer 'ol Uncle Frank....

Willyp I am close 69 years old and have been shooting just about all of my life. I have had a shoulder rebuilt with pins and screws as a result of a wrestling match with a horse, neck surgery, and numerous broken legs and arms . I have decided it is not worth the pain anymore to shoot the bigger one and the biggest I shoot now is a 25-06 in a 13 lb. rifle. At the last Shootout I shot a 300 Rem. Ultramag with a 190 gr bullet that a friend had there. He had a Harrels brake on it and it did not kick as much as my 243 does. I could hardly believe it !

to use an old pa dutch expression, ( ve get to soon old und to late smart)

Amen.

I'm a big fan of a brake myself. I shoot a lot of long range and honestly when you are sitting there taking your time on a shot the last thing you want on your mind is the recoil. You gotta relax and thinking you are gonna get hammered doesn't help. There is a company here in Colorado that does a fitted clamp on brake. I've tried it and it does pretty well. The place is called Witt Machine. You give them a couple measurements off your barrel and what cal then they cut the brake to fit. The price isn't bad and I'm thinking if I remember right they have a sale going on through the end of the month. Might be worth a look for you. No need to go get the barrel cut on if you aren't sure a brake is for you.

Actually, the older I get the more immune to recoil I seem to become. At 20, a .30-30 levergun was a bugger to me; at 60, it's barely discernible from a .22, and a heavy-loaded .45-70 is just fun. Maybe my nervous system is just shutting down.

I'm with you Pisgah... seems like the mags don't bother me as much as when I was young....... course nowadays I do most all my target shooting on a lead-sled :thumb: offhand I'm fine with most anything 60 must be the last of our magic eh.........

Muzzle brakes are your friends. When I was young I was almost impervious to recoil. I used to shoot ground hogs with my 300 Weatherby. Now that I am older, I still shoot varmint with magnum rifles but they have brakes on them.

You guys are making me feel older than I am.

Thanks.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need my oil the wheels on my walker.

Rinodods,i have a Witt brake laying on my loading bench! I took it off of a 308 barrel i bought. I can't bring myself to trust it being on the right way???????

One thing to consider is length of pull (distance from trigger to recoil pad) Have hog hunter 308 with muzzle brake in bell & Carlson stock that was hard to control & thumping me pretty hard, shortened pull to 13 1/4 inch. & now it is very comfortable. You guys taller than 5 ft 4 in, might want to try longer.

My 300, my slug guns and my muzzle loaders makes my eyes go blurry after about 8 or 10 rounds.

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Originally Posted by EFBell

My 300, my slug guns and my muzzle loaders makes my eyes go blurry after about 8 or 10 rounds.

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Not a factor for me; mine are blurry when I start!:biggrin-new:

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Originally Posted by pisgah

Not a factor for me; mine are blurry when I start!:biggrin-new:

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perhaps I should refrain; blurrier might be a better assessment :o

I hunted deer a few years ago with a 308 110 gr Vmax loaded down a bit for neck shots. Think it was pushing about 3000 FPS.
Also the 110 gr TTSX barnes bullet is a good one and they also make a black tipped TTSX bullet for a 300 blackout that should be great if you want to down load to say 2500 or so.

Probably the hardest hitting low recoil round I have used is the 6.8 SPC. We have hunted hogs and deer with it and its a good round.
That is what my 92YO dad now uses and he loves it.

I load 3 bullets. Either the Raptor cutting edge brass bullet (expensive) and that has shrapnel that shears off the bullet and drops animals almost in their tracks, or a 110 gr pro hunter which is good for deer and small hogs, or the 95 gr TTSX barnes bullet which is a great hog bullet for more penetration.

I also have loaded the 95 gr TTSX bullet in 270 win to 3700 FPS and it makes a real mess.

My daughter for some reason decided to buy a 270 win after I told her to buy a 260, but any way she was complaining about the recoil.
I loaded her some 95 gr TTSX downloaded to about 2800-2900 FPS and thats a pretty mild round with a lot of kill power. The 82 gr ER Raptor bullet drops them faster but is more expensive.

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Originally Posted by pisgah

Actually, the older I get the more immune to recoil I seem to become. At 20, a .30-30 levergun was a bugger to me; at 60, it's barely discernible from a .22, and a heavy-loaded .45-70 is just fun. Maybe my nervous system is just shutting down.

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Maybe you guy's just forget it hurts sooner than the rest of us :) Lol

I'm no fan of recoil so I bought a slip-on Limbsaver and use it on several thumpers and it's well worth the money. These things work incredibly well making a *****cat out of a kicking 270. Highly recommend.

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Originally Posted by willyp

Have any of you found that as you have gotten older,you don't like the recoil of your favorite gun and load? I guess i've gotten soft over the last 65 plus years?
About 2 or 3 days,after a good day at the range,i know i was there! I love my 308's and 30-06,but wow,what a pounding they seem to give me? I have 243"s but i like a bigger bullet than these shoot! Thought about muzzle brakes. Now,i am loading 30 cal-125 grain bullets,in them. These seem like the answer?
Any body else use these 125's for deer?

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Will, did you ever consider reduced loads? My "Go Poof" load for the 45-70 is 19.0/TB with a 300 Hp.


http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail%20B...oads%20R&P.pdf

Youth ( and old geezer) loads.

http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/H4895%20R...le%20Loads.pdf

Bill you always come up with the answer.