20 12 guage sabot 1 oz slugs leaving the muzzle at around 2000fps, from a bench.

Enough for the day...

The worst one I've ever seen, was when a client mistakenly put a .270 cartridge in 7mm Remington magnum. Suffice to say, that was pretty ugly.

A 10 gauge single shot with 3.5" turkey loads and a Ruger #3 45-70 with stout reloads kicked like mules.

Yep, I've made that mistake! I have a heavy 10 ga double, and I found I couldn't do a sit up with it on my chest. Only fired it once from that position, but even as slow to learn as I am, it taught me not to do it again.

I believe that it was Colonel Charles Askins talking about the .460 that said "even in the face of a charging buffalo, I always thought about the recoil and how much it was going to hurt before pulling the trigger".

Memorable events:

- When my 5#14oz sidelock 20 ga doubled with one ounce field loads. I got the pheasant!
- Sighting in the Williams peep sight I put on an 870 to use as a back-up gun when bowhunting on Kodiak. Those 3" prior mentioned Federal slugs just about won out. I gave the gun to my buddy years ago! Brutal and a headache plus bruised shouolder from shooting it.
- Shooting 200 rounds in one day out of a Browning 12 ga sporting clays OU that bit my cheek every shot. It was gone shortly too. My 391 is great!
- Shooting more than a cylinder full of full power loads from my S&W 329. My palm goes numb. The 500 grips helped, and I really enjoy it with 1,000 fps cast bullet loads. Wish I could use it as a backup while bowhunting here in BC. Somehow bear spray doesn't feel near as good in the tent at night with grizzly sign all over the mountain.
- Sighting in a .270 Remington M721 from prone. It had the "crooked" factory stock with a metal butt plate, and was not fun!

Me too..............
Only a sample of one, the tang safety 77 in .338 Win mag had some recoil but not painful or excessive.

500 Jefferey loaded with a 525gn pill.

I was about 12 and we went out to the pit at a town called West Linn . A guy out there talked me into shooting his .300 Weatherby from prone.

Yup, it kicked.

A client once, who emptied his 7mm Remington magnum on a grizzly bear and didn't have any other shells in his pocket, so I handed him my .375 H&H magnum. He fired one shot and then handed it back to me, saying; "You go ahead and finish him, I think I just broke my thumb".

When I first started turkey hunting (mid 1990's) I owned a lightweight 12 gauge M1300-XTR Winchester with plastic buttplate, Mad Max .655 turkey tube, 2 ounce, 12 GA, 3" magnum turkey load. Wow - had no idea what I was getting into - my control was much better on the second round!