Caliber vs. Weight vs. Recoil.

[lil' bear]

Alright, I'm hoping somebody here can explain this to me.

Let's do a thought experiment.
We take a creedmoor case, neck it up/down, from 6mm to 308.
We take 130gr bullets in each caliber, 243,257,264,277,284,308. We load each cartridge to a muzzle velocity of 2800.

Given the bore diameter in comparison to the surface area of the bullet.

The 308 should have the least amount of measurable recoil.
The 6mm should create the most amount of measurable recoil.

My question is why is it a standard response to tell people that smaller calibers mean less recoil. When the correct response is that shooting lighter bullets means less recoil.

 

[180ls1]

Should we correct people if they don't call their hotdog a sandwich?

 

[grfox92]

This should be posted in the Firearms section.

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[Steve300xcw]

Alright, I'm hoping somebody here can explain this to me.

Let's do a thought experiment.
We take a creedmoor case, neck it up/down, from 6mm to 308.
We take 130gr bullets in each caliber, 243,257,264,277,284,308. We load each cartridge to a muzzle velocity of 2800.

Given the bore diameter in comparison to the surface area of the bullet.

The 308 should have the least amount of measurable recoil.
The 6mm should create the most amount of measurable recoil.

My question is why is it a standard response to tell people that smaller calibers mean less recoil. When the correct response is that shooting lighter bullets means less recoil.

I want to see these 130gr 243 rounds. I imagine thats being ran outta a long action? You aint gettin 2800fps with a 130 outta a 243 case, assuming that bullet even existed. Thats just not goona happen.

This thought experiment (did not know that was a thing) is a fail.


Lighter caliber with a bullet heavy enough to do what we want............yes the smaller caliber is goona kick less.

 

[Quandary]

Lighter caliber with a bullet heavy enough to do what we want............yes the smaller caliber is goona kick less.

In rifles of the same weight.

 

[Steve300xcw]

In rifles of the same weight.

"We take 130gr bullets in each caliber, 243,257,264,277,284,308. We load each cartridge to a muzzle velocity of 2800."

 

[Quandary]

Also ignoring the problem of non-commercially available bullets you could load data into GRT and run the calcs. GRT has a recoil predictor built into the calculations.

 

[Snowwolfe]

My question is why is it a standard response to tell people that smaller calibers mean less recoil. When the correct response is that shooting lighter bullets means less recoil.

Never heard that smaller calibers meant less recoil. I always thought recoil was based on stock fitment, rifle weight, bullet weight, and bullet speed.

 

[Bluefish]

Alright, I'm hoping somebody here can explain this to me.

Let's do a thought experiment.
We take a creedmoor case, neck it up/down, from 6mm to 308.
We take 130gr bullets in each caliber, 243,257,264,277,284,308. We load each cartridge to a muzzle velocity of 2800.

Given the bore diameter in comparison to the surface area of the bullet.

The 308 should have the least amount of measurable recoil.
The 6mm should create the most amount of measurable recoil.

My question is why is it a standard response to tell people that smaller calibers mean less recoil. When the correct response is that shooting lighter bullets means less recoil.

It all depends on the amount of powder if you hold everything else the same. Thus the differences will be small. Recoil is momentum. Ie mass x velocity.

The more I compare cartridges, the more I can see there is no free lunch and no magic in a specific cartridge. Recoil is simply momentum and to reduce it you have to go slower, use a lighter bullet, or raise pressure (ie less powder for the same speed). If you want a high bc, you need to be long for caliber, which means heavy for caliber, and for large calibers recoil can quickly become too high for light weight hunting guns. This is why Midwest states are doing 35 cal or larger and/or straightwall (limit velocity).

 

[rabbithuntr]

Alright, I'm hoping somebody here can explain this to me.

Let's do a thought experiment.
We take a creedmoor case, neck it up/down, from 6mm to 308.
We take 130gr bullets in each caliber, 243,257,264,277,284,308. We load each cartridge to a muzzle velocity of 2800.

Given the bore diameter in comparison to the surface area of the bullet.

The 308 should have the least amount of measurable recoil.
The 6mm should create the most amount of measurable recoil.

My question is why is it a standard response to tell people that smaller calibers mean less recoil. When the correct response is that shooting lighter bullets means less recoil.

I don’t understand why the recoil would not be the same, then when you add in the efficiency you gain from using a full case on the smaller calibers it might be in favor of lighter recoil for the smaller calibers. Also the effective range would be significantly higher for the smaller calibers due to the higher bc.

 

[Bluefish]

I don’t understand why the recoil would not be the same, then when you add in the efficiency you gain from using a full case on the smaller calibers it might be in favor of lighter recoil for the smaller calibers. Also the effective range would be significantly higher for the smaller calibers due to the higher bc.

Due to the force acting on a larger diameter, larger bore potentially requires less powder to reach the same speed. This is why smaller bores of the same cartridge need slower powders. A 35 whelen uses faster powders for heavier bullets than a 25-06, also less powder.

 

[180ls1]

My question is why is it a standard response to tell people that smaller calibers mean less recoil. When the correct response is that shooting lighter bullets means less recoil.

To more correctly answer this. Its because everyone is running under the assumption you're going to use high BC (long) bullets.

Run a 110gr .308 @ 3000 to a 110gr .243 @ 2950 to equalize recoil (or whatever speed), see what range they each hit 1800fps and how they handle wind along the way.

 

[PathFinder]

This is the more correct way to analyze it. It's the least recoil to get the longest range for minimum expansion velocity. That happens with smaller calibers.

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