TAMING THAT AFFECTIONATE PUNCH

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