Suppressors and reduced recoil

AKJ

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Jun 5, 2022
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I just ordered my first suppressor and want to set up a dedicated hunting rifle for it. I have hunted my whole life with a ruger m77 .270 win shooting 150 nosler partitions around 2800fps with a 22 inch barrel. Total rifle and scope weight is around 8.3lbs. This combo has taken everything from moose on down with no problems. I would like to get similar or better performance out of a cartridge with a max barrel length of 18 inches to accommodate the added suppressor length. I was thinking about going with a 300 wsm or 7 prc, however I do not want to have a rifle that recoils more than my current unsuppressed 270 win. How will recoil compare assuming overall rifle weights are similar? Should I be looking at a different cartridge?
 
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Aug 16, 2020
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I have a 20” 300 wsm built on a tikka action. It was about 8 lbs before the suppressor and was no fun at all to shoot. After the suppressor (Banish 30 in 9” form), it’s 9 lbs on the dot and super fun to shoot. I’ve only shot about a box through it, but I didn’t feel any recoil at all, it just pushes me out of the scope.
 
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Feb 16, 2021
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Using Chuck Hawk's recoil chart, this article for the 7mm PRC and a number for suppressor recoil reduction that's been thrown around (25%) you can get an idea of the expected recoil energy. Some calibers have different rifle weight, bullet weight and velocity variations but here's an idea, all rounded numbers:

.270 WIN: 17 ft/lbs unsuppressed

.300 WSM: 22 ft/lbs - 28 ft/lbs unsuppressed, or 16 ft/lbs - 21 ft/lbs suppressed
7mm PRC: 28 ft/lbs unsuppressed, or 21 ft/lbs suppressed

Rifle and bullet weights make a big difference. One extra pound on the rifle is a 12% reduction in recoil energy with the 180 gr bullet in .300 WSM. And the 150 gr at higher MV vs the 180 gr is a 17% reduction in recoil energy.

So if you build the rifle to be a certain weight and around a certain bullet you can likely get the recoil down to a similar level as your .270. But you may have to either go with a heavier rifle or a lighter bullet even with the recoil reduction the suppressor gives.
 
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