[Unclenick]

Heavier bullets and slower powder spell more recoil. Lighter bullets and faster powder spell less recoil. They also spell less energy and momentum at the impact point on the target, and if you make them too light, you get into the ethics of how humanely you are dispatching the game. Also, to fire from a short barrel at reduced pressure you don't want to be using medium to slow powders like 4895. You'll just get very incomplete burning and uneven performance and a lot of extra muzzle blast and fire.

In the computer, I tried a Sierra #2120 125 grain spire point and got an estimated charge of 32 grains of H4227, with that bullet seated to 2.590" COL it fills the case about 70% (which is fine if you use a magnum primer) to produce about 2400 fps MV from an 18" barrel. At 200 yards that bullet drops to about 1800 fps and 900 ft-lbs. Set the sights to hit 2" high at 100 yards and impact will be about 2" low at 200, which will let you hold on the deer's usual 8-10" heart-lung target area without adjusting the sights to compensate within that range.

In a 7.5 lb gun and scope combination, that H4227 load will give you about 8 ft-lbs of recoil impulse, as compared to 16 ft-lbs from a full power 150 grain bullet load of H4895. Since what you feel is roughly proportional to the kinetic energy of the recoil impulse, the H4227 load will have about half the felt recoil of the full load. If you substitute H4895 for the 4227 to achieve the same velocity as the H4227 load, you have to use about 43 grains and wind up with about 10.3 ft-lbs of recoil impulse from the extra powder mass and rocket effect at the muzzle. Not to mention the extra cost of throwing away a lot of unburned powder.

I would still check with Sierra about 1800 fps being adequate impact velocity with that bullet. If you have shoulder problems or are on blood thinners or have other reasons to avoid recoil, try one of the PAST magnum recoil pads to further spread it out and reduce felt recoil.