"As far as what one FEELS . . . there you get into an area that can't really be measured. But blind tests conducted with British shotshells and reported by the late British shotgun guru Gough Thomas showed that a team of shooters " . . . unanimously voted that the variety giving the least sensible (felt) recoil were those that, unknown to them, had been loaded with the fastest-burning powder."
Which is the opposite of the thoughts of every single trapshooter I used to shoot with years ago. They loaded Green Dot and PB to 'spread the recoil out over time'. Push vs. sharp kick.
I read Garwood 20 years later and just shook my head. His dissertation on tiny headspace variations making enormous differences in felt recoil is rich too.
He may have been an engineer, but his train was off the rails.
What is it they say about old trapshooters? Sooner or later, they all go to a release trigger due to a flinch?
Remember, there is some science behind what Thomas wrote. When calculating recoil, while all factors other than shot charge and velocity may be minor, you can't completely exclude them. Thus, the amount of powder used is part of the total "ejecta", along with the shot and the wad. And with fast-burning powder, you use less of it than you do with slow-burning powder. Which means--assuming everything else in the load remains the same--you should expect to feel less recoil because you've reduced the total ejecta by a few grains. So what Thomas reported is not at all counter-intuitive. Push vs sharp kick . . . would you rather have the nurse push the needle in slowly, or do it quickly?
