It would be a toss up between my 454 Cassul and a friend's scandium J frame 357.

Both can be pretty brutal.

Tuckerdog1

Tuckerdog1,

I agree that the recoil in an airweight or scandium revolver is brutal. I do not even like the FBI Load (158gr 38 Specials) in a Colt Detective, they will get to you after 50 rounds.

I wonder if anyone else has fired a S&W M296 44 Special, mine got my attention in a hurry! When I mentioned the recoil to Lou Alessi he said: "Richard, why in the world did you buy it? They kick." Terry Murbach once described the recoil of a S&W M329 as memorable.

Lastly, I have never fired a 454 Cassul nor do I intend to.

Regards,

Richard

I owned a Super Black hawk in the early eighties. It wasn’t too bad for me but when my wife shot it it about put her butt on the ground. Luckily I was behind her to catch her. She had a nasty bruise on her hand the next day. She didn’t find it as humorous as I did.

I haven't shot a (what I'd consider)"hard-kicking" sidearm. Most powerful I've shot is my own 5" S&W M29. After hearing how much of a "hand cannon" it was, I was horribly dissapointed after firing full-power loads for the first time by the lack of recoil from what I expected from all that I've heard about it. I have fired many rounds since then(it's my #1 and probably always will be) and I love the .44 Remington Magnum cartridge as I find it to pack a nice punch without being hard to handle. I suppose if it were one of those new Scandium framed ones, it may be a different story. But then again, I only like the older Smiths. I'd love to try one of those Ruger SRH Alaskans(in both .454 Casull and .44 Remington Magnum). I find them to be attractive and of course they have that Ruger ruggedness which means that you can get away with loads that would kill a S&W.

Ruger Alaskan, .454 Casull...damn near knocked me down when I first fired it...but then again, I did do it one handed, and thought it would be no worse than a 44 mag.

I have a S&W 500 Mag PC Hunter, 6 ½” barrel. It weighs just over 70 oz. without the scope I put on it in QC mounts. Recoil is reasonably stiff with full power loads. Mostly, I shot reduced loads. But the recoil of the .500 isn’t close to the recoil of a S&W Model 360, which is the 3” scandium .357. Full power loads really have breathtaking recoil in a 12 oz. gun. I put Pachmayr rubber grips on it to ease the pain from the hard grips it had.

I had a Super Red Hawk 7 1/2" that everytime I shot it the trigger guard would hit my middle finger, this of course made me not want to shoot it even with light loads. But my 5 1/2" Ruger in 45 Colt with full powerhouse loads was more than I could take...... my shooting hand hurt for 5 days after.... so I had to back off the loads a bit.

Some grips are designed wrong and cause us problems.

I also had a little Taurus 605 that when shot with 125-gr Mag loads was an extreme handfull.


Maybe I'm just getting old...... like Bob

Kicks harder than .44 Mag by far, but the auto action makes it less sharp somehow. Getting off a fast second shot isn't possible because it will rise. The fun factor is enormous. Highly recommended with COR-BON 325 grain.

I shot a guy's .460 S&W magnum today that was a real handful. I only shot three of them and my wrist is feeling it a bit this evening. The recoil is something I've never felt, it's the usual revolver recoil but combined with a fairly strong twist. It ends up making the gun go right toward your face if you're a right-handed shooter. I'm not really jumping to shoot something like it again, to be honest.

Wow. this could be a poll. the 45-70 TC would be way up there. I shot it at the range, the guy asked if I wanted to shoot a second round. No, thats ok.

I have to go with the S&W j-frame scandium. It wasn't too bad with .38's but loaded with .357 Corbons and it just plain hurts.

Handgun: Charter Arms .44 spc. Bulldog

Rifle: Suppressed TRG-42 .338 Lapua. Reminder that muzzle brakes were invented for a reason.

Smith and Wesson mod 29 44mag is the worst I shot for recoil. The 460 S&W with a ported barrel is not as bad as you would think.

My brother in laws Dirty Harry .44 Mag. I haven't shot it quite a few years but I sure remember the kick.

Derringer- .45colt/.410 4" barrel

It wasn't bad in 45, after about 4 rounds my hand ached.. But i only shot 2 .410's out of it in 3 years. However, talk about a pocket pistol- that was a Pocket Pistol.

Rifle, well IDK, i shoot 45-70 out of an 20"NEF as my hunting rifle, but i figure that doesn't count.

500 S&W and a .50cal ???? blackpowder of my Brother-in-law's. Ouch.

Originally Posted by cupsz71

500 S&W and a .50cal ???? blackpowder of my Brother-in-law's. Ouch.

My Dad built himself a .62 caliber hawken flintlock and loaded it pretty hot sometimes. That would leave bruises, in no small part because of the plain brass buttplate.

5 1/2" 45 Blackhawk with PMC 300gr. 45 "magnum" loads. Put on gloves after 3 rounds. Quit after 6! Felt a bad case of wrist "arthritis" coming on.

I've felt those before. When you can do that with the old .45 colt, why ever did they invent the .44 magnum?

For me, for the longest time, it was a 45/70 TC. I had shot several rounds and it was very memorable! Then, last summer, a relative from California came to town for awhile and we spent several days, shooting, metal detecting and so on. One of the guns he had brought with him was a Freedom Arms .454 Casull. Single handed, the first round I fired snapped the gun up and back so hard that I almost smacked myself in the head with it. I think it scared me more than it hurt me. The next round, two handed, send an electric shock of pain straight through the center of my palm, through the wrist and through my forearm. That really hurt!!! I didn't fire it again!

This one is easy. A buddy of mine bought one of those S&W 329's and 325 grain handloads....ouch!!!

I own a SBH in 44 mag that with the stock grips would bite a little but my hardest kicking firearm is my Winchester 1300 shotgun with 3" slugs. The hardest kicking firearm I've ever shot is a 378 Weatherby Mag rifle.

Anyone see the pictures of the guy who blew his thumb off with the 460? Apparently he had his thumb next to the cylinder or something like that and when he fired the gun it blew his thumb off and even cotterized it, apparently.

Originally Posted by SuckLead

Anyone see the pictures of the guy who blew his thumb off with the 460? Apparently he had his thumb next to the cylinder or something like that and when he fired the gun it blew his thumb off and even cotterized it, apparently.

After shooting one, I believe it. I shot it kneeling taking a rest on the bench and it burned the bench a good bit, more than I expected.