recoil force generated by the M14?

The M14 recoil is very little if you compare it with a shotgun. I don't know if you go trigger happy with it (anyway with 5 bullets in mag :p) but for target shooting you shouldn't get a bruise from it.
 
Definitely nothing to get scared about. My little cousin (120lbs) shot it. She loved it. I'd say about 50% of a 2 3/4" slug out of an 18.5" barrel. If you are looking for specifics then I have none for you.
 
I found the M-14 somewhat unpleasant to shoot prone. The metal buttplate bashes my bony shoulders. standing I can choot it all day.
 
diemaco said:
I found the M-14 somewhat unpleasant to shoot prone. The metal buttplate bashes my bony shoulders. standing I can choot it all day.
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past recoil pad- and flip the butplate up- there are lots of guns that generate too much recoil for some shooters and are too "pretty" to mount a recoil pad on the stock -i think the past comes in 3 or 4 strengths, and if that's not enough, you can dismount the buttplate assembly and fit a rubber recoil pad that's specially meant for the m14-
 
Its more like some mechanism that jumps around than recoil. Much less than a light bolt action 308 rifle. Mine seems to twist and jump to the left. I'd wonder if it lifts the right foot of a bipod?
 
I made the mistake of resting the butt on my collar bone while lying prone. Left a little checker marked bruise. It hurt like a ##### too. Otherwise the recoil is nothing, I can shoot all day with no soreness.
 
suprathepeg said:
Anyone know how much recoil force the M14 generates with standard loads?
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Could look up a figure in foot-lbs of recoil energy, or foot-seconds (not even sure if that's the right unit of measurement!) of impulse, but there's no point bothering with that, because it's quite unrelated to what you probably really want to know: how pleasant/unpleasant is the rifle to shoot?

It's unusual that a rifle hurts you just because it is powerful; it's much more common that a poor fit (to you, as an individual) is what is really causing the pain (e.g. a trigger guard pinching a finger, a cheekpiece whacking your face, or a poorly fitting butt digging into your shoulder). One of the nastiest, most painful rifles I've ever shot is a lever action Marlin in .32 Special (!!!), because it was whacking me in the cheek bone quite severely. I've fired a good .375 H&H, that was more pleasant than most ordinary hunting rifles; and a bolt action .50 BMG that was monstrously, impressively powerful, but actually more comfortable to shoot than most 12 gauge shotguns I've fired.

I have found an M-14 to be a remarkably, unusually pleasant .308 rifle to fire. Its cycling action somehow seems to actually soak up and spread the recoil in a useful manner; gun writers talk about this being a feature of semiautos, but an M-14 is the only semi I've ever fired in which I've noticed, "hey, this is nice!". And yet my Garand somehow seems much harsher, frequently poking my thumb into my nose; and a .303 Lee-Enfield, or an FN-FAL are far more brutish, at least to me.

I find an M-14 to be much more comfortable to shoot than a .308 bolt action rifle of hunting weight (some of those can be mighty sharp!), and even many of target rifle weight (~14#). And, the one time I got to shoot a full-auto M-14, it was completely pleasant and enjoyable to shoot (but totally uncontrollable, confirming at least for me all the things you read about it and the FN, and why in practice they were only used as semiautos; I couldn't hold it on a fridge at ~15 yards).
 
B said:
I made the mistake of resting the butt on my collar bone while lying prone. Left a little checker marked bruise. It hurt like a ##### too. Otherwise the recoil is nothing, I can shoot all day with no soreness.
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I have done that many times...does give a nice stable spot to press the gun in to but definitely a bit painful. I cranked out 80 rounds that way one time and was pretty bloody by the end of it. Still, good and accurate. In some positions I find it hard to stay off my collarbone, anyway.

But if you can keep it in the shoulder pocket there is very little. My gf has no trouble with it at all, even wearing a tank top.

If you run 500-1000 rounds through it in a day in a course I think you'll be pretty beat up but that is too rich for my blood these days, unfortunately.
 
The only way an M-14 will bruise you is if you put the butt over bone....In other words you are holding the rifle improperly.

Take your fingers and dig around roughly at the pocket between your chest and you shoulder. There is a spot where you can push very hard without inducing pain...This is pretty much where your rifle goes.

I shoot rifles up to and including the 416's from the prone position....You need not fear the M-14! :)
 
My M14 kicks far harder than my AR15, or VZ58. Even my super light Remington 1100 shotgun with field loads would kick less than the M14 with standard Mil surplus rounds.

The M14 is a kicker, so anyone saying "negligible" isn't being helpful to people trying to get nervous small framed noobies out shooting. Besides, why else does the M14 destroy cheap glass on people so often?

You could do a simple experiment to find out the exact force using springs and a grade 12 physics book.
 
I have a feeling he's looking for a scientific answer, as opposed to our subjective thoughts on the matter. Supra does own and shoot one. With a semi-auto, the recoil is bound to be a complexity of various events that create, counter, and redirect recoil. Flinging that oprod and bolt out of battery in a wink of an eye has to be an event in itself, followed by the bolt slamming shut again. The bolt rotates and flings the brass, and I think that creates a rotational force that also moves the rifle laterally. It sure doesn't rock my noggin like a 300WM with a light barrel and stock does.
 
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