Recoiling in horror from things that go bump in the shoulder? Simon James discovers some solutions to felt recoil
Felt recoil is more of an issue now than ever because the vogue for long-range Sporting targets has seen the popularity of powerful, high velocity shells explode. Put 28g of lead down your barrels at 1500fps and, believe us, you’re going to feel it.
It’s not just the physical punch that should concern us. Recoil has a profound influence on accuracy, especially second target acquisition. Then, of course, there’s the issue of fatigue and, worse still, a devastating psychological condition called trigger freeze.
Recoil is horribly complicated too. It falls under Newton’s Third law, which states that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Simplistically, this means the forward momentum gained by the shot as the gases in your barrel expand will be balanced out by an opposite momentum.
Trying to control it is a bit like attempting to herd tigers – it rarely behaves as you’d expect and has the tendency to bite you on its return. This means that some solutions promise more than they can deliver – so what does work?
Pads and dampers
David Izzard knows a thing or two about recoil, including the havoc it can wreak. A talented Sporting and FITASC shot, with numerous England and Great Britain team places to his name, he founded Recoil Systems after falling victim to trigger freeze in the late 1990s.
“It got to the point where I couldn’t shoot 24g loads through a semi-auto,” says David. “Recoil affects people in different ways. For example, just as you reach the fire point you may push the gun away, pull it in very tightly, lift your head, squint your eyes, stop your swing or fail to pull the trigger. Your brain anticipates what’s coming and says, ‘I don’t want to do this’.
“I’m a tool maker by trade so I originally decided to fabricate some pads in the hope I could carry on shooting.”
Fitting a squishy pad at the end or your stock is the tempting thing to do, but that’s entirely the wrong approach, warns David.
“The energy has to go somewhere, and with a soft pad the energy bounces back. During the course of firing a shot, which takes about 0.007 of a second, a soft pad will compress and return about five times. So, you’ll get four or five hits rather than one. You won’t notice the individual hits
