Here is a new chart that shows the recoil ratings of various popular big game hunting rounds. I only put one .22 centerfire in there for comparison because I am not a big fan of them for hunting purposes - but that is another thread.
One thing to note. These are the approx FACTORY ballistics and the powder charge is approximate based off an average of the powder charges listed in the books for the approx velocity level. Some of you may say, "yeah well I get 3400 fps out of that load and you are showing 3200." That's fine but I have to have a standard to start with and I picked approx factory ballistics.
This is in no way a "loading guideline" for anyone. Unlike some charts (Chuck Hawks is a good example), I have assumed an 8# weight for each rifle. Some rifles may way more, some may weight less - but we are comparing apples and apples here instead of a lightweight carbine against a 12# dangerous game rifle. Some might notice a heavy bullet has MORE powder than a lighter one. This is because there has never been an effort to capture the gas constant of each powder and some bullets take a SLOWER powder with a heavier bullet, thus possibly taking more powder than the lighter bullet. The .44 Magnum rifle and the shotgun load use pistol powders which have a faster gas constant speed than the rifle powders. This will make them "kick" slighly more than the same quantity of rifle speed smokeless powder.
Here they are sorted by name:
Here they are sorted by recoil:
You'll notice there is a good reason the 12g 3.5" turkey loads feel brutal... They are...
Recoil charts for popular hunting rounds
Linear Mode
