The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - barrel pressure between different grains of bullets and recoil

Slamfire · April 7, 2012, 11:14 AM

That is a very complicated issue.

Momentum is mass times velocity. So the force felt on your shoulder is the product of mass and velocity. If you up the mass, or the velocity, you will feel more recoil if the product of the two is higher.

There may be something subjective to this as my 190 grain loads in my 308 rifles always "hurt" more than my 168's even though they are both maximum. It might be related to barrel time.

If you have a loading manual, you notice that the manual says something like "none of these loads exceed 50, 000 pounds". That is the same pressure limit for heavy or light bullets.

Gunpowder has an exponential slope to the curve and you can easily exceed safe pressures, with light or heavy bullets, by adding too much powder.

April 7, 2012, 11:14 AM	#4
Slamfire Senior Member Join Date: May 27, 2007 Posts: 5,261	That is a very complicated issue. Momentum is mass times velocity. So the force felt on your shoulder is the product of mass and velocity. If you up the mass, or the velocity, you will feel more recoil if the product of the two is higher. There may be something subjective to this as my 190 grain loads in my 308 rifles always "hurt" more than my 168's even though they are both maximum. It might be related to barrel time. If you have a loading manual, you notice that the manual says something like "none of these loads exceed 50, 000 pounds". That is the same pressure limit for heavy or light bullets. Gunpowder has an exponential slope to the curve and you can easily exceed safe pressures, with light or heavy bullets, by adding too much powder. __________________ If I'm not shooting, I'm reloading.