is it just me or does 308 hurt?

pilot2001 said:
Lots of guys here are recomending recoil pads, which i agree is a good idea. I personally think that you would find that if you installed a ' Kickeez"
recoil pad you wil notice a big diffrence. Recoil pads can absolutley change your shooting exsperience for a small investment.

I have shot a 300 wsm for about 7 years now " which is your cartridge on steroids "and have had several diffrent models in that calibur. When i first started shooting it i would get red marks with broken blood vessels on my shoulder. It really didnt bother me, im a big guy and just shrugged it off. After a month i stopped getting the marks and thought that i had just built up a tolerance and everything was good. After about 6 month and 700 rounds of shooting this gun i actually started to get sharp pain in the ball and sockett of my shoulder joint and realized i was doing permanent damage. I then put the gun down for a few months untill my shoulder felt better and only shoot 300wsm a few times a year when im getting ready for hunting season.

I told this story to a few old timers that the range. They informed me that they have all done lots of damge to there shoulders from pounding thousands of roundes through 308 caliburs over there lives. They now all shoot 6ppc at the range.

My point is, although 308 isnt considered a big cartridge your shoulder isnt designed to be pounded on time and time again. So dont let anyone tell you that your not man enough, or your a p**sy because you cant handle the recoil. Get a good recoil pad, and maybe a shooting jackett with a good shoulder pad. If you have to, although people will never hunt with you again if you unexspectly fire a shot near them with muzzle break on... Get one if you need to and be respectfull of others. Its your shoulder and your gonna need it for along time to come.
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This is great advice. Not worth hurting yourself, object is to have fun. This is why I now prefer the 6 and 6.5mm cartridges, no recoil or brake required.
 
I've done quite a lot of target shooting with a .308. Shooting jackets even out the kick of the rifle. If your rifle is light weight, the kick will be more severe.
In short, if you are familiar with physics it goes like this. The momentun of the rifle backwards is always the same size as the momentum of the bullet going forwards, but the kick you feel is related to the kinetic energy of the recoiling rifle. Double the mass of the rifle and you will half its kinetic energy. Triple the mass of the rifle and you will reduce its kinetic energy to a third of the original. So, a heavier rifle will hurt less, but a suitable butt pad will help also. Also, the rifle will pivot upwards if the bore axis is above the point of contact with your shoulder. That would hurt your cheek rather than your shoulder, and the higher the bore axis is above your shoulder contact, the more pronounced the effect will be. My target rifles are not very punishing to use, but I have fired an FN C1A1 rifle in the old days, and without any padding, and with the wooden fore end of the butt smacking my face each time I fired it, it was a punishing rifle to shoot in pretty short order.
 
I popped it off with a 1" wood chisel. Mixed up 1.5lbs of lead shot with some epoxy and poured it into the cavity in the butt before gluing the "recoil" pad back on. Less recoil and it rides the rear bag much better now.
 
lonely_wolf said:
308 is pretty tame.

The 5R is a medium weight gun so it absorbs a fair amount of recoil. The pad on the HSP stock is garbage, so maybe look at upgrading to a Limbsaver or other quality pad.

I'm not sure your experience with firearms, so you may just need to get your body acclimated to the recoil.

Please do not get a muzzle break. They are very disrespectful to everyone around you. A 308 does not need a muzzle break.
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It is a gun...it is loud, you should have ears ALWAYS in when shooting them. You sound like an anti...don't shoot guns cause its loud and disrespectful...
 
Ya I have to agree that you are a wiener. My 30WM used to get to me, but after a couple boxes I got used to it really quickly and have no problem pumpin' 40+ rounds down the pipe now.
 
jeffcarr88 said:
It is a gun...it is loud, you should have ears ALWAYS in when shooting them. You sound like an anti...don't shoot guns cause its loud and disrespectful...
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Have you ever shot directly next to sombody with a 30 caliber rifle and an effective muzzle brake?

The shooter may feel great, but it's not a great way to make friends with the guy beside you.

Whenever I take braked rifles (reasonably frequently I will add) out I always make sure to leave an empty bench or two between the nearest shooter, or at the very least let them know well in advance of me setting up my guns, out of courtesy. They are great fun to shoot, but suck to be beside for anything other then the giggle factor of a blast wave. If you have a guy trying to shoot groups it is seriously disruptive to him.

Just my .02.
 
My friend as a similar rifle and yes, it hurt when shooting it. The weight of the rifle is one cause. My Mauser 98K 8mm mauser with 198gr bullet and steel buttplate don't even hurt my shoulder...but it weight a lot.

For the 5R, it's fairly light weight for a tactical rifle, and minimal (cappy) recoil pad leads to a bit more brisk felt recoil than most of the heavier tactical rifles. So I suggest replacing the recoil pad first, maybe getting a heavier stock if it still uncomfortable to shoot.
 
M-A-X said:
My friend as a similar rifle and yes, it hurt when shooting it.
For the 5R, it's fairly light weight for a tactical rifle,
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I just don't see that... My 5R is pretty heavy. The recoil is childs play. I guess it's all relative. My Remington 700 Mountain in .270 kicks more but it's only 7lbs soaking wet.
 
This is kind of fun, an online recoil calculator: kwk.us/recoil.html

I don't know how well that matches real world experience, but at least in theory you can see what kind of difference adding an extra couple of pounds to your rifle makes, or power of the round.

There's definitely a trade-off between a heavier rifle and less recoil. If you are mostly target shooting, or you don't mind carrying an extra couple of pounds around the bush with you, investing in a heavier stock could make a bit of a difference. According to that calculator, with a typical 180gr .308 round, going from an 8lb rifle to a 10lb rifle reduces the felt recoil by about 20%. If you also drop to a lighter 150gr round, the heavier rifle combined with the lighter load theoretically cuts felt recoil by over 40%.
 
allan92 said:
ive gone out a total of three times now with my 5r milspec over the past month and after about 50 rounds i cant handle the recoil. there is no bruising visible but it sure hurts and it will hurt for the next three days. is a muzzle brake the answer to my pain? or am i a wiener :confused:
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Your just use to shooting that .22lr of yours. Now you got a real rifle it hurts lol.
 
Kevin M. said:
Have you ever shot directly next to sombody with a 30 caliber rifle and an effective muzzle brake?

The shooter may feel great, but it's not a great way to make friends with the guy beside you.

Whenever I take braked rifles (reasonably frequently I will add) out I always make sure to leave an empty bench or two between the nearest shooter, or at the very least let them know well in advance of me setting up my guns, out of courtesy. They are great fun to shoot, but suck to be beside for anything other then the giggle factor of a blast wave. If you have a guy trying to shoot groups it is seriously disruptive to him.

Just my .02.
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I am not saying to be a ####...

But if I show up to a range and their is not many spots left on the bench and buddy with his breaked .338LM is there I do not expect him to stop shooting so someone can try to shoot their SKS off a rest.
 
Recoil for a .308 is negligible, there either must be something wrong with the fit of the stock, or, you have a pre-existing shoulder injury?
 
agilent_one said:
Recoil for a .308 is negligible, there either must be something wrong with the fit of the stock, or, you have a pre-existing shoulder injury?
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I am not recoil sensitive...at all but there are people, without injury(s) that cannot handle a round of trap with a 8lbs gun and bird shot so yea :p Everyone is different.
 
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