In the early 1980s, NATO put out a call to its ammo friends. These are good things to remember when comparing rifle cartridges. The higher the recoil velocity, the greater the discomfort.

A recoil velocity of over 10 fps is about the point at which shooting starts to get uncomfortable. From Newton's second law, the energy of a moving body due to its motion can be stated mathematically from the translational kinetic energyas: 1. If it's too much, it becomes hard to practice or train with the pistol. Let m and M be the masses of bullet and gun,respectively. Also, please understand that there are dozens of loads for any given bullet weight in any cartridge that will produce the same velocity, but a different amount of recoil. You need to know the load weight in ounces, the muzzle velocity. One of the most important of these is the fit and shape of the rifle stock. The backward movement of the gun is called the recoil of the gun. Let me put another demo to make you clearer once again. Also, please understand that there are dozens of possible loads for any given bullet weight in a given caliber that will produce the same velocity, but a different amount of recoil. But that's not the only important thing by far. Based on his ability to shoot, you may want to limit the distance he attempts to shoot a deer.A good recoil pad can help soften the blow to the shooter's shoulder. The more he shoots the more he will become accustomed to recoil and accuracy should improve. Let your son practice with all but about 10 rounds (saved for hunting). When you find a load he can handle, load the rest of the box of bullets with that load. W231 can be reduced a reasonable amount without concern. If necessary drop the powder a grain and try again.

Try a couple shots yourself first and if you think it's good, let him try it. I would load six rounds with each starting load. XTP's are designed to perform at less than max velocities. Velocity from a 16' rifle barrel should be over1,200fps.Įnough to kill a deer in my opinion. Velocity is 1,021fps in only an 8' pistol barrel. I'll offer some suggestions and hopefully you can find a way for the young man to hunt this year.įrom the Hornady book: a starting load for the 240gr XTP is 21.8gr/2400.įrom Hodgdon's website: a starting load is 8.0gr/W231. Recovered the well mushroomed bullet under the skin on the far side.

I shot a buck with a 240gr XTP from a muzzle loader with a sabot. All recoil values have been rounded off to one decimal place.Ĭartridge (W of bul MV). In the table below rifle weight is given in pounds, free recoil energy is given in foot pounds, and free recoil velocity is given in feet-per-second.

In addition, a solid buttplate vs a rubber recoil pad will also influence felt recoil. Please note that a lighter rifle and one with a small buttplate will produce more felt recoil than one with a larger one.

Chukk hawk rifle recoil table