What produces "soft" recoil?

[muzzlebrake]

I think the difference between a sharp kick and a shove can be explained by acceleration. A faster burning powder gets the bullet up to speed quicker and the recoil feels sharper because it is spread over fewer milliseconds.

True and they also create much higher chamber pressures. Short mags go as high as 70,000 psi. Many of the large bore loads use faster burning powder but less charge weight. This helps recoil a lot but they are not looking for high velocities. Just look at cowboy shooting loads that use shotgun powders with tiny charge weights like 5 to 8 grains. There is starting to be more and more data available for reloading with reduced recoil loads and subsonic loads.
Lot of good points in this thread

[az2tx]

I think the difference between a sharp kick and a shove can be explained by acceleration. A faster burning powder gets the bullet up to speed quicker and the recoil feels sharper because it is spread over fewer milliseconds.

except those big magnums that give you a thump use slower burning powder, faster burning is for handguns and SBR with light bullets

[muzzlebrake]

except those big magnums that give you a thump use slower burning powder, faster burning is for handguns and SBR with light bullets

Not always true. 45-70 GOVT uses RL7 and H335. My 375h&h uses RL15 on 300gr bullets both of which can be loaded with slower burn H4350. All are faster burn powders as opposed to H1000 or Retumbo used in my 300win mag. or 300RUM. There are many loads for large bore magnums that can use faster burn rate powders with less grains for reduced recoil and lower velocities. I can also load the above with slow burn compressed loads and get more recoil from the increased powder/bullet weight total. More recoil and velocity does not always mean better accuracy and accuracy is what us reloaders are after. Lots of data out there now for reduced recoil faster burn powders.

http://www.reloadersnest.com/burnrates.asp

[muzzlebrake]

Here is some reduced recoil load data from one of Hodgdon/IMR's newer fast burn powders.

https://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-Reduced-Loads%20R_P.pdf

[az2tx]

Not always true. 45-70 GOVT uses RL7 and H335. My 375h&h uses RL15 on 300gr bullets both of which can be loaded with slower burn H4350. All are faster burn powders as opposed to H1000 or Retumbo used in my 300win mag. or 300RUM. There are many loads for large bore magnums that can use faster burn rate powders with less grains for reduced recoil and lower velocities. I can also load the above with slow burn compressed loads and get more recoil from the increased powder/bullet weight total. More recoil and velocity does not always mean better accuracy and accuracy is what us reloaders are after. Lots of data out there now for reduced recoil faster burn powders.
http://www.reloadersnest.com/burnrates.asp

I was under the assumption that we were talking about cartridges for hunting African Dangerous game where using reduced loads would not be a real good idea.
Accuracy is my thing also in many rifles but not in African Dangerous Game rifles, there I want a hvy bullet at medium velocities that will travel on a straight path thru muscle and bones breaking everything in its path.

The easiest solution to the OP is take a classic cartridge and build a 10-11 lb rifle to shoot it out of. My 470 Nitro Express is 13.5 pounds loaded, a dream to shoot

[muzzlebrake]

Target shooting and hunting are two entirely different things when it comes to felt recoil. I never even think about recoil if I'm shooting at an animal. Heck I never even feel it.

[TacticalCowboy]

Stock design and rifle weight have a BUNCH to do with it. For example, I had an Encore .308 that kicked like a mule. I quickly sold it after I shot a buddy's .300 mag Model 70 that had about half the recoil. Likewise, I have a 30-06 700 CDL that barely kicks.

[mab0852]

It's design, not caliber. I have a light weight 243 that kick like a 22 mag and 20 gauge that kicks worse than a .50 cal Barrett.

[Horitexan]

In my experience the effect of recoil is also due to the design of the butt stock. Yes powder, bullet and stock weight effect the felt recoil but the other part is gun fit.

We should start with the comb of the butt stock. In the early days the rifles had a large drop at heel to compensate for the iron sites. This did not facilitate a very good cheek weld to the stock and produced large felt recoil regardless of the round. In the 1930's Weatherby started putting what is known as "Monte Carlo" on their rifle stocks. This was a raise in the stock for the shooter to rest their head to line up the sites. This provided the shooter less felt recoil due to a tighter hold on the rifle.

As time went on the gunstocks started being made with less of a drop at heel and were less and less. Majority of rifles made today have a pretty straight line from the line of sight to the comb with out a Monte Carlo. The tighter that you can hold a rifle and the less "jump" in the stock will reduce felt recoil and improve accuracy.

X2

My dad and my pre-'64 Model 70 .375 H&H's both had Monte Carlo stocks and the recoil wasn't bad at all. I started shooting mine at 12 and took my first elk with it at 13. On the other hand, when I would hunt in Germany with my grandfather, his Weatherby 7mm (I think that was the caliber) would knock the snot out of me and it scope tracked me a couple times because it had a terrible jump whenever I shot it. BUT, it had no such jump for my Opa - he was a stocky man with short and thick arms and that rifle fit him perfectly. The point being, it's not just the stock design but the relationship between that design and the shooter. I'm tall and slim with long arms - very different than my grandfather - so the same rifle produced different results for both of us.

As someone mentioned, form is a huge factor too. If you are good at snugging a rifle to your shoulder the felt recoil is sure less than a guy that's sloppy and doesn't suck that buttstock into the shoulder.