need foolproof recoil reducer for 375,am slight built.don't want to muzzlebrake,and want to do alot of comfortable practicing before getting there

Breako or Kickeez (sp?) mercury recoil reducers should do the trick.

bulldog563 is giving you good advice.

Kick Eez is a brand of very soft recoil pad (originally made for the competition shotgun games). They work great at reducing felt recoil, but they are a bit fragile. I've put them on several big rifles and if you use the gun a lot you'll need to replace it once in a while. Typically I'll get several years of rough service out of one until it looks shabby (although they don't look classic by any means even when new).

As bulldog mentioned a mercury tube will help also but they are mostly just effecting the physics of the gun. Increasing the weight to counter act the recoil. There is a piston in most of the tubes on the market but the real effect is most likely the added weight. They change the balance of a gun as well.

Muzzle breaks REALLY work but they aren't in vogue today (never were for some people) and they are really loud (as well as pretty ugly).

You could also do some of your early practice with 235 gr. to 270 gr. bullets rather than using all "full house" 300 gr. stuff. For several years I had great luck on smaller game using 235 gr. X bullets with very little recoil.

Kyler

And make sure your rifle has a good Pachmayer Decelorator recoil pad too.

JPK

I like the Pachmayr 990 decelerator pad...
A light weight past pad...

I posted about a month ago on
" Recoil Management " it describes how to hold a rifle if you need help with recoil...
Any questions email me...

Mike

Handload 250 grain bullets at 2550 fps for practice and when you are comfortable with that go to a 270 grain at that velocity. When you are comfortable with that, go to the 300 grain at same velocity, or use a full power 270 grain. By then you will love and know your rifle.

For position shooting a Military sling also helps alot. I still use on on my 375 improved and can shoot it prone without the scope hitting my eye.

I also have a mercury tube in mine. All up weight of ten pounds with scope sling and ammo.

A good all purpose 1.5 x 6 scope will weigh about a pound, and a mercury tube 12 ounces as I recall. All of that will help.

Andy

the muzzlebrake is a noise issue,i ported another rifle and have bad memories,wanted to get away from the merc for weight/balance reasons and wanted to pick brains about new or forgotten technology,thanks for the help,keep it coming

Andy is on the right track
load either the 235 Speer or the 250 Sierra, both bullets are fairly inexpensive.
Start with 60 grains of IMR 3031.

If you want to hunt Buffalo, use 270 gr Barnes X. It will reduce the felt recoil a little and still knock a Buff over.

I have a Remington 700 in 375. The barrel is very heavy, this adds weight. It feels like my 30-06 when I shoot it.

Oh, and sorry I said a curse word (Rem 700) Please do not let this turn into a PF vs CRF thread.

Ravenr, What type of 375 do you have? Scoped yet?I am 58 yrs old 155lbs and shoot the 375H&H and 458Lott. Do you handload? If not PMP Ammo is not to bad.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=148323

sells for $17.00 Box and should be in stock
March 1.

I know a Namibian woman who is very slim and weighs about 120 pounds. She does not have any trouble with her .375 H&H.

I have a lady friend who is also small who shoots a .458 Lott (she moved up from the .416 Rem). Also no problems.

You will find that slightly built people seem to have less trouble with recoil than larger folks.

Usng lighter bullets as noted by Kyler and others above really reduces felt recoil.

jim

Practice the way you hunt. That is the only advice I can give you.

quote:

Originally posted by ravenr:
need foolproof recoil reducer for 375,am slight built.don't want to muzzlebrake,and want to do alot of comfortable practicing before getting there

Try reduced cast loads. Plenty of practice at low-recoil.

R, brought up the post on recoil management for you to read..
any questions just email me...

Shooting off bench build up shooting support.. do not lay down on bench..Sit straight up with elbows on bench top...

Mike

ravenr,

I'd suggest that you get a stock that has extra width in the butt and use a good recoil pad. I like KickEz pads. Make certain that it fits you well; shorter is better than long in my opinion.

I'd use a slightly shorter-22" or 23"-barrel in a heavy contour and add a little lead shot in the stock under the recoil pad to balance the rifle exactly as you like it, but a little barrel heavy.

Finally, I'd install a barrel diameter muzzle brake, and have the smith make a barrel diameter cap for the barrel. If you make it a banded front sight, it will just dress up your rifle. Use your brake for practice. Everyone wears or should wear ear protection at the range anyway. Take it off for your trip where you will not really notice the recoil.

Make sure that you zero for the hunt without the brake. Kudude

Another effective recoil reducer is the Dead Mule ( can't kick), Brownells has them.I have them on my 375 and 416 Rigby and they do produce some reduction in recoil. I believe HunterJim is onto something.Small statured people seem to be less affected by heavy recoiling guns than large people. I think it takes less energy to get them moving backwards, large people absorb more enegy before starting to move. Nothing scientific, just empirical observation.

Seriously? I know several small-framed women (105lbs - 135lbs?) who shoot bigger calibers than a 375. They don't flinch and they don't bitch. I heard this a long, long time ago. Still rings true - "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the damn porch."

Hey People, The Man ask for help. Just because
some of you can shoot an 874 bump bump, every
one can not. Give him a break. As has been said
here before"Shoot the Biggest Gun you shoot well"

I do think with a few rds he will find the 375
as nice as we do. Remember, The young ones grow
up hunting with some 22cf not an 30-30 or 06 like we did.

The aftermarket Sims recoil pad was all I found I needed on my synthetic stocked 375 H&H (weight 8 lb. 13 oz full up). Marked decrease in felt recoil. Like others have stated, don't try to shoot it off the bench first. Try off-hand, get a nice comfortable feel for it, and as you move to the bench use proper form. You'll never notice it the field, once you get caught up in the moment.

Do a lot of your practicing standing up and shooting at something easy to hit. Worrying about the difficulty of getting a good sight picture will contribute to flinching and hatred of recoil.

Get a trigger job. A trigger that breaks at 7 lb. or is gritty will torture you. Your eyes and your muscles will do all sorts of bad things. If your trigger breaks crisply at 3 lb., you won't spend nearly as much time agonizing prior to each shot. It's more like the nurse ripping a bandaid off in a millisecond. It won't hurt as much.

Also, bring your shoulder forward into the butt a little rather than pulling the butt back into your shoulder. The forward movement and muscle tension, when overcome by recoil, acts as a shock absorber.

The technique is a little like extending your legs a bit to absorb the shock of jumping off the roof. You wouldn't want to hit the ground with your knees already against your chest.

Or, if you were about to rearend another car, you might have your elbows slightly bent but extended. You would not want to press your face against the steering wheel just prior to impact.

I don't know if my description of what I do with my shoulder is really clear there. I guess the same thing is accomplished by adopting a normal shooting stance (the one that hurts) and pushing the rifle forward a bit with the shoulder it's on. Don't push the rifle forward with your other hand and leave a gap between the rifle and your self, of course.

H. C.

I'd recommend a mercury tube or tungsten bead recoil arrestor...... I had one fitted in my .500 Jeffery and it made a WORLD of difference. I have a buddy who has a 458 Lott made (I think) by Dakota Arms and the rifle has 3 seperate mercury tubes and he shoots it (brilliantly) single handed off sticks.

The other factor that affects felt recoil dramatically is stock design - you might like to explore that aspect further also.

how does the tungsten bead recoil arrestor work?

The same way as the mercury one. Blaser offer them as an optional rxtra on their rifles and (IMO) they're pretty good. The advantage of the bead version is that they don't contain mercury which is a substance that the airlines are not particularly fond of..... That said, I travel very regularly with my mercury tube fitted rifle and the airlines have never commented on it......and I don't volunteer any information.......

I had my 375 done last year. They installed a Limbsaver pad and the recoil went to a little of nothing, compared to before the pad. I also had it ported. Works great. I am not a heavy fellow. 6'4" and 180 lbs.

I think a lot is made of .375 recoil for not much reason. There has been a lot of good advice given here, but really, a .375 doesn't recoil that much in the big scheme of things. I have doen a great deal of shooting off the bench with mine, and the worst thing is the wear and tear on your elbows imho. If you haven't shot a .375 that much, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how little it actually recoils, especially from hunting positions. That said, the limbsaver pad is really good, that is all you should really need, good luck, and good shootin'

DGK

I have a lightweight .375 and it was painful to shoot off the bench. I put a Pachymar Decelerator pad on it and it made a HUGE difference, I shoot crows with it now. I HATE muzzle brakes, unless you like hunting with earmuffs on I would avoid them at all costs.

Don't listen to what a bunch of the guys are saying.

The 375 kicks. Especially if you have not shot anything but smaller rifles (ie 30-06, 270)

No it does not kick as much as some rifles but that is not the point.

I am a smaller build (5'7", 150lbs on a good day, with my coat on) and when I got my 375, I had never shot anything but 30-06 and shotgun with slugs for deer hunting.

The biggest part about shooting the rifle was MY mind. I thought it would kick, it looked huge next to a 30-06.

I went and got one of those PAST shooting pad that you wear over your close. And went and shot the rifle standing up. I didn't even worry about putting up a target. I just pointed in a safe direction and let loose. It was not as bad as I thought, but more than the 30-06.

I then continued to shoot a couple rounds at a time. Slowly building up to where I was able to shoot a dozen rounds in quick succession, with out the shooting pad. Now 2 years later, I have no trouble shooting that rifle. But it takes time.

The best advise that I can give you is as follows.

- get a PAST shooting pad
- get a good recoil pad on the rifle
- make sure the rifle fits
- work at it slowly, don't try and shoot a box of shells from the bench the first time out.
- relax and enjoy
- like others have said, reload some reduced loads to start with


good luck with the new rifle.


Graylake

Ravenr, I'm 5'7'' and weight 140 lb. I shot a 375 H&H for the first time last year for my buffalo hunt. I had some fears on shooting it at first but now I love it. I shot over 300 practice rounds before my hunt. Here's what I did too get use to it.
1. Shot a Ruger SM 375H&H, a heavy gun
2. Loaded 270gr Hornady bullets 2,600 fps for practice
3. Shot 270gr Barnes TS @ 2,700 for buffalo
4. Shot off of shooting sticks At 50 and 100 yd for all my practice.
I only shot off the bench to develope my loads and zero my rifle. I shot only 20 round per shooting session with the 375. After the first 100 round or so off the sticks, I could have shot 40 rounds per session but I didn't.
5. I wore a pst mag recoil pad when shooting off the bench and put a sandbag under the elbow of my shootin arm.
I was very lucky and my ruger shot both bullets to almost the same point of impact @100 yd so I didn't have to readjust my sights much for my hunting loads. The 270gr Barnes TS were going 100 fps less than max and still killed well. Hope this helps.

Just put a Pachmayr F990 Triple Magnum recoil pad on it and don't look back. It made a huge differance on my .375 H&H. It is much better than the Decelerator.

Good Hunting,

Bob

ravenr

If I wasn't sooooooo professional I'd just say you were a BF wussy but since I am sooooo professional I'll give you the standard answer about recoil tolerance being different for everyone and not a macho thing at all blah-blah-blah! To address your question there are a couple of things you can do without altering your rifle at all. We can discuss it when its convenient for you.

For all the rest of you reading this if you have not figured it out ravenr is my neighbor and friend so don't start kicking my butt for giving out bum advise.

Mark

You've got a friend?!!! Congratulations!!

John

Edit: I happen to know Mark and am just poking fun at him!!

A-SQUARE rifles seem to recoil less to me in any given caliber, I've shot 3 different ones.

I went shooting with retreever - Mike P. a few weeks ago.

I'd never shot anything as big as I would that day.

We went through many rounds of 450 #2 NE in a Dbl Rfl.

Also fired a number of rounds in a .458 LOTT, which clearly hit harder than the DR.

Later we shot a .375 H&H which had a brake on it that you could "turn on or off".

This was a Savage rifle, I'd never seen such a brake.

Anyway, when I shot the first round out of the .375 I asked retreever if he had the brake turned ON.

He said "NO".

I blurted, "This is like a cupcake compared to the first two!"

My point, shoot a .458 caliber rifle on one day, say 10 rounds over 45 min's to an hour's time.

Do that again a few days later.

On day three, maybe 7 or 8 days after day 1, shoot 3 or 4 from the .458 caliber rifle.

Then imediately switch down to the .375 and fire away!

I think you'll be as happy as I was.

It's great to shoot these bigger calibers.

It just feels like AFRICA is getting close for you.

Add weight to the rifle. Take the recoil pad off and drill a hole in the stock and fill it up with bird shot. Remove the stock and mortice a trough in the barrel chanel with a router and fill that up with bird shot and top it off with JB weld. Bring the total weight of the .375 up to about 11 pounds.

Reload your ammunition to around 2450 fps for the 300 grain bullets.

That should make things more tolerable.

When you practice only shoot 8 to 10 rounds with your .375 at each range session. Take a ten minute break between shots. Finish your practice session with a 30-06.

Mark, we won't hold it against Ravenr that he knows you...Hell I from Wyoming also...Former mayor of Wyoming , Pa.. Where the name came from...


Mike

Perhaps these data on recoil may help the discussion. Someone much smarter than I has has written somewhere that anything with more than 20 ft.lbs. of recoil is no fun to shoot. Granted this doesn't measure felt recoil (that's a factor of stock design and rifle and bullet weight) but it is safe to say that anyone who has shot nothing larger than a .30/06 will not enjoy a .375's recoil. Bill Quimby

.243 08.8 ft/lb
.270 16.5 ft/lb
7 Rem Mag 19.2 ft/lb
.30/06 20.3 ft/lb
.300 Win Mag 25.9 ft/lb
.300 Weatherby 32.8 ft/lb
.338 Win. Mag 33.1 ft/lb
.35 Whelen 22.6 ft/lb
9.3x62 35.4 ft/lb
.375 H&H 46.8 ft/lb
.416 Rem. Mag 52.9 ft/lb
.458 Win Mag 59.6 ft/lb
.458 Lott 66.2 ft/lb
.460 Weatherby Mag 100.0 ft/lb