rookhawk
AH ambassador
So I've been working on a dangerous game rifle with my middle kid and I'm working on every trick in the book. I'm sharing what I thought of that might help others, and I invite others to make additional suggestions that might provide additional relief.
The goal: Dangerous game rifle that can be shot properly by someone that weighs 110lbs.
I was able to pick up a nice Dakota 76 in 375HH from a fellow AH member as a starting point. The gun has 13-5/8" length of pull through a 1" factory pad. The rifle tips the scales at just a smidge under 8lbs with iron sights.
The project:
1.) I dug through the load data and was able to find 260gr solids and softs for the 375HH that were very tough, but obviously a bit lighter than the standard 300gr lead core solids and softs. By reducing the bullet weight it shaved 1-2lbs of recoil while increasing velocity quite a bit. Volumetrically, the monometals of 260gr are physically a bit larger than a "normal" 300gr bullet since brass and copper weigh less than lead.
2.) Thumbing through the reloading tables, I found that the powder that will do the proper velocity with the least number of grains was IMR4895. This powder versus 4350 or RL15 seems to reduce recoil by another 1-2lbs. It appears it will send a 260gr solid around 2450-2475fps with 62gr.
3.) I found some low rings to keep his face on the stock better. We're trading scopes, I have a z6 1-6x24 Extended Eye Relief for no good reason on my single shot 7x57. He has a z6i 1-6x24 on his other rifle. We agreed to trade so he'd have a bit more eye relief and a bit less fear of that optic coming back at him. Scope and rings should add 1lb of rifle weight.
4.) We need to shorten the LOP. Chatting with NECG, they thought the idea of removing the 1" recoil pad and replacing it with a 3/4" pad was a fine idea. They also thought I could sand .100" off the belly of the pad's hard plastic would shorten the LOP even more without diminishing recoil absorption. That should get the rifle down to around 13", maybe 12-7/8".
5.) Adding a 16 ounce Mercury Recoil Reducer to the butt of the gun seemed like a way to add a pound of weight. Net result appears to be a 12% recoil reduction for the gun overall, about 3.5lbs of felt recoil.
Add all of this up, and it seems like a dangerous game rifle can be used with a hunting load at about 27lbs of felt recoil without permanently altering the stock or using an unethical "diminished load", coming from a starting point of 38lbs-39lbs of recoil initially. I haven't run the data but I heard rumor that a 3031 load might even have less recoil at an equivalent or higher velocities so that's the next part of the journey.
For those of you that are dads out there trying to accomplish similar things, I'd be happy to share the trickery of the last two gun projects we did, a .243 low-recoil setup for 6-7 year old kids and a 7x64 brenneke setup for African plains game. We went on a similar journey for the archers in the family to get them hunting big game with their bows at 8 and 9 years old. It's been enjoyable to learn and build this stuff but it sort of surprised me how little information actually exists on the web regarding women and children hunting setups.
The goal: Dangerous game rifle that can be shot properly by someone that weighs 110lbs.
I was able to pick up a nice Dakota 76 in 375HH from a fellow AH member as a starting point. The gun has 13-5/8" length of pull through a 1" factory pad. The rifle tips the scales at just a smidge under 8lbs with iron sights.
The project:
1.) I dug through the load data and was able to find 260gr solids and softs for the 375HH that were very tough, but obviously a bit lighter than the standard 300gr lead core solids and softs. By reducing the bullet weight it shaved 1-2lbs of recoil while increasing velocity quite a bit. Volumetrically, the monometals of 260gr are physically a bit larger than a "normal" 300gr bullet since brass and copper weigh less than lead.
2.) Thumbing through the reloading tables, I found that the powder that will do the proper velocity with the least number of grains was IMR4895. This powder versus 4350 or RL15 seems to reduce recoil by another 1-2lbs. It appears it will send a 260gr solid around 2450-2475fps with 62gr.
3.) I found some low rings to keep his face on the stock better. We're trading scopes, I have a z6 1-6x24 Extended Eye Relief for no good reason on my single shot 7x57. He has a z6i 1-6x24 on his other rifle. We agreed to trade so he'd have a bit more eye relief and a bit less fear of that optic coming back at him. Scope and rings should add 1lb of rifle weight.
4.) We need to shorten the LOP. Chatting with NECG, they thought the idea of removing the 1" recoil pad and replacing it with a 3/4" pad was a fine idea. They also thought I could sand .100" off the belly of the pad's hard plastic would shorten the LOP even more without diminishing recoil absorption. That should get the rifle down to around 13", maybe 12-7/8".
5.) Adding a 16 ounce Mercury Recoil Reducer to the butt of the gun seemed like a way to add a pound of weight. Net result appears to be a 12% recoil reduction for the gun overall, about 3.5lbs of felt recoil.
Add all of this up, and it seems like a dangerous game rifle can be used with a hunting load at about 27lbs of felt recoil without permanently altering the stock or using an unethical "diminished load", coming from a starting point of 38lbs-39lbs of recoil initially. I haven't run the data but I heard rumor that a 3031 load might even have less recoil at an equivalent or higher velocities so that's the next part of the journey.
For those of you that are dads out there trying to accomplish similar things, I'd be happy to share the trickery of the last two gun projects we did, a .243 low-recoil setup for 6-7 year old kids and a 7x64 brenneke setup for African plains game. We went on a similar journey for the archers in the family to get them hunting big game with their bows at 8 and 9 years old. It's been enjoyable to learn and build this stuff but it sort of surprised me how little information actually exists on the web regarding women and children hunting setups.