doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Recoil Question

Hi all, does anyone have a table or chart showing the foot pounds of recoil by shot charge, vel. and gun weight?

Thanks!

Greg

I don't know how those "chart" figures are derived, but they can only be an arbitrary guide. A 1 1/8 oz. load @ 1250 fps from a 7 lb. sxs is going to have a lot more free recoil than the same load from an 8 lb. gas-operated semi-auto. Just saying...
JR

"I don't know how those "chart" figures are derived"

John - see: http://www.saami.org/PubResources/GunRecoilFormulae.pdf

Nigel.

There are numerous recoil calculators on the web. This is my favorite because I can do comparisons....

http://www.handloads.com/calc/recoil.asp

NOTICE THAT THERE IS NO PLACE FOR "PRESSURE" INPUT IN RECOIL CALCULATIONS.

You need to get your head around how the "free recoil energy" relates to YOUR perception. Simply calculate the value for a combination you know to be comfortable to you.

For me, it's 1 ounce @ 1220 fps in an 8 lb gun for 300-400 rounds per day....that's about 14-15 ft-lbs for all-day comfort.

I also know that I'm perfectly OK with the above load in my 6.5 lb 20ga for a box of hunting loads in one day.... in other words, 18 ft-lbs is "tolerable" in limited amounts.

That would warn me that 1 &1/8 oz @ 1200 fps in a 6.5 lb SxS is going to hurt....22 ft-lbs.

etc., etc.

For us non-deep thinkers

http://www.omahamarian.org/trap/shotshellenergy.html

12 gauge, 2 3/4" 7/8 oz. at 1280 fps, 7.5 pound shotgun = 12.7 ft/lbs of free recoil
12 gauge, 2 3/4" 24 gm. at 1325 fps (International Trap), 7.5 pound shotgun = 16.2 ft/lbs of free recoil
12 gauge, 2 3/4" 1 oz. at 1180 fps (2 3/4 Dram), 7.5 pound shotgun = 17.3 ft/lbs of free recoil
12 gauge, 2 3/4" 1 oz. at 1280 fps, 7.5 pound shotgun = 19.9 ft/lbs of free recoil
12 gauge, 2 3/4" 1 1/8 oz. at 1150 fps, 7.5 pound shotgun = 20 ft/lbs of free recoil
12 gauge, 2 3/4" 1 1/8 oz. at 1200, (3 Dram) 7.5 pound shotgun = 23.0 ft/lbs of free recoil

In case you want info on may commercial loads book entitled Shotshells & Ballistics by John Taylor is good source of info. Unfortunately avg gas pressure values of different commercial loads are not found there.

Recoil velocity plays a very major role in how one can handle recoil. This is how people manage to shoot the Really Big Guns. Some of them have tremendous Recoil Energy, but their heavy weight keeps the recoil velocity down to a manageable level.
Take two guns of different weights & shoot loads which both produce say 20 Ft Lbs of free recoil energy, but the lighter one gives 16 fps recoil velocity & the heavy one gives 12 fps. In spite of the fact the produce the exact same recoil energy the higher recoil velocity of the light gun will "Kick" you a lot worse.