Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Got Coyotes?

Oh most definitely. Between the adrenalin and excitement, you are both distracted and pumped up. Recoil is non-existent. I hate target shooting with hunting rifles. I use a very nice gun vise to sight them in, then any ‘target’ shooting I do is standing and shooting something that gives me a sense of satisfaction that I hit it, like an unopened can of Bud Light. The noise however is another thing. Even out in the boonies, when I fire a round through the 340, I am tone deaf for quite a while. That’s not a good think in Alaska because a round shot in many parts of the state is a dinner bell for brown and grizzly bears. Not hearing them comeing to find dinner is not a good thing.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at your story with getting whacked by the shotgun. I have a scar above my eye from a scope. Back in the day before I found out that everyone was lying to me about “how good sheep and goat meat tasted” I bought a custom ultra light mountain rifle. With scope it was about 6 pounds and chambered in a 30-378 Weatherby. I never did get used to this rifle. It just never felt right to me. Well anyway, I stalked a ram all day and finally got a shot off. I was so excited I just pulled up and fired without taking the time to position the rifle and got scope bit, bad. Sold the gun after that……. I don’t hunt sheep anymore either. I think the meat tastes like crap. I think everyone just says it’s good because they put so much effort and money into bagging it they don’t want to admit the truth.

michael_d,

My friend shoots a 325 WSM, but in a regular A-bolt, so the gun is a good 3lbs heavier with bi-pod. Pretty good kick on that one so I'd imagine you would want a decent hold on the 5.5 pounder. Sucker does hold a line good though. I'm a wuss when it comes to recoil, so .270 Win in a 7lb rifle is about all I'm good for. After 20 rounds or so I'm starting to think aobut the recoil a little, so I just pack up at that point.

Ding, Ding, Ding! What is depleted uranium Alex! What do I win?

depleted uranium bullet

Speaking of "Scope Bit" - when I was a rookie (at the ripe age of 38), my buddy that introduced me to Turkey Hunting invited me to his place. He has all manner of weapons - so we were shooting all kinds of firearms from pistols, derringers, rifles and semi autos. Towards the end of the day, he breaks out his .50 cal Black Powder with scope. He lets me pack it and offers no advice on shooting - I guess he wanted a good laugh. Any way, we had a target set up about 150 yds and he suggested that I steady myself on the well housing. I sorta squatted down and had no idea about gun positioning. I sighted in and squeezed it off. BOOM! the scope cut me "good" and the recoil rolled me onto my back. He was doubled over laughing. I did hit about 1 inch above center though.

Did it look something like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD-KaUl_olo

I'll have to wait till I get home. Can't view You Tube here at work.

I wouldn't shoot that damn thing for anything.

Yeah, Rick; them .577s can kill at both ends.

I was surprised by how low my recoil threshold turned out to be. Most of my friends hunt with 30-06's but I always found the recoil was just high enough that I would flinch a bit after a few shots, so I went with a .308 and a heavier rifle (just over 10 pounds with scope) since I figured most of my shooting would be at targets anyways. Even then the recoil seemed a bit higher than I liked.

I tried 150 grain bullets while sighting in for this year's deer hunt, rather than the 165-180 grain I had previously been using, and that seemed to reduce the recoil just enough to reach some kind of personal comfort level. I guess there's a reason so many "dream rifles" are chambered for milder cartridges like 257 Roberts, since they give about the same level of recoil in a lighter rifle while still being pretty effective on most of the animals we are likely to hunt outside of Alaska.

Presumably finding time to get out and shoot more than once a year would help too

John, also consider these Remington loads , for example in .308 .