Moderate power firearms (Shooting/Firearms legend Ayoob advises "Everything in moderation")

Backwoods Home Magazine ^ | March 2008 | Massad Ayoob

[Stoat]

Moderate power firearms By Massad Ayoob

Robert Ruark, the great American writer of the mid-Twentieth Century, was also a big game hunter. One of his most popular books, written on the latter topic, was titled Use Enough Gun. That has proven over the decades to be really good advice.

That said, there are also a lot of people who use "too much gun." One of the last century's top authorities on guns and hunting was Jack O'Connor, a contemporary of Ruark's. O'Connor was an advocate of medium-powered hunting rifles: the .30-06 Springfield, the 7mm Mauser (also known as 7X57mm), and the caliber he is credited with popularizing, the .270 Winchester. He well understood that a gun with excessive power for the task would also "kick" so hard that many people wouldn't shoot well with it. He wrote in 1965 in his Complete Book of Shooting, "Men hate to admit that recoil bothers them. Again they feel that if getting belted by some hard-kicking gun bruises them and shakes them up they are lacking in masculinity.

[Stoat]

Please be advised that Free Republic posting rules required that I edit this article down to less than 1\ 10th of it's actual size, and so I would wish that all interested readers please click on the original article link (here again)

Moderate power firearms by Massad Ayoob Issue #110

in order to gain a sense of the article's information and focus.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

[Stoat]

Ping

[ozzymandus]

Most people who claim to love to shoot hard-kicking guns usually admit sooner or later that they don’t really enjoy it on a regular basis. The novelty wears off pretty quickly.

[shibumi]

Just enough kick for these shooters!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ged4lz_Fw2Y

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Everything in excess!
To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites.
Moderation is for monks.

LAZARUS LONG

[Stoat]

I try to always use the “can I hit the target with it, and can I recover quickly from the first shot” as evaluation parameters :-)

[Stoat]

Just enough kick for these shooters!

ROTFLMAO!!!

Thanks very much for posting that...I had seen segments of it before but not that full version  :-)

[Stoat]

Everything in excess!

If something is worth doing, then it's worth overdoing :-)

[arderkrag]

Everything in excess!
To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites.
Moderation is for monks.


Indeed. Go with the Conan maxim - live deep while you live.

[P8riot]

I can hit the target consistently with my .475 Linebaugh, but it spends most of it’s time in my safe. I regularly carry a .45ACP, but lately a S&W 442 has taken up residence in my right front pocket.

[Grut]

One ARC LIGHT mission I was on took out an elephant with a 750 lb. bomb. Elmer Keith would have been pleased.

[Sax]

On the extreme side of this idea, I used to shoot at a range where the owner holstered a .22 automatic. I asked him why on earth did he carry that on his hip with all the other choices at hand.

He said since it was so light and without any recoil, he could put 4-5 rounds anywhere he wanted to in a instant: one target, three targets, etc. He followed up with, if that’s not enough, I disappear behind that door for a second and come out with something really nasty.

Can’t say I wholeheartedly agreed, but he seemed pretty comfortable with it.

[absolootezer0]

depends on why you’re shooting. i love shooting big kicking guns- .458mag, .45-90, .444marlin, .338, etc.
but if i want real accuracy, i’ll grab something that has light kick, or has been modified to reduce kick.
also, shooting big guns on a regular basis helps build up needed muscle to the point you don’t notice the recoil on lighter guns as much.

[longhorn too]

Gosh! What caliber were they shooting?

[CPOSharky]

I can shoot my Garand all day long.

But about 10 rounds is all I can handle on the 30-06 Savage. Of course it’s only sighters and one or two rounds at a time for hunting.

[MarkL]

One ARC LIGHT mission I was on took out an elephant with a 750 lb. bomb. Elmer Keith would have been pleased.

Elmer Keith liked the idea heavy bullets... Yes, I think that he'd be pleased with a 3,000,000 gr "bullet."

Mark

[shibumi]

.577 Nitro.

The round is designed to take down an elephant with one shot.

[shibumi]

Addendum:

I’ve fired a lot of weapons, but the .577 is one I’ve never tried - nor do I intend to.

[Joe 6-pack]

Nothing succeeds like excess.

[shibumi]

Just for fun I did some technical research.

To put things in perspective, the average 30.06 rifle weighs about 8 pounds and recoils with 15 foot/pounds of rearward energy.

The .577 Nitro being fired in the video weighs 15 pounds, and recoils with 70 foot/pounds of rearward energy.