Rem 7600 7mm-08 Recoil Question?

[noleman]

Guys,  I hate to sound like a wennie, but here goes.  I ordered a 7600 in 7-08 from Grice's a couple of weeks ago.  It has a black laminate stock with a plastic butt piece on the stock.  I shot if for the first time yesterday at the range.  I shot 28 rounds of 4 different kinds of factory ammo through it.  About half way through it began to get a little painful.  I now have a nasty bruise on my shoulder and bicep.  I have never had this problem with any other gun.  I'm not a tiny guy, about 5'10" and 220 lbs.  Maybe I'm holding it wrong, but I have to wonder if the plastic butt plate is my problem.  I was expecting pretty moderate recoil with this caliber.  Has anyone had a similar problem with this type of stock and if so what is the fix?  I thinking about getting a  slip on recoil pad for range shooting.  I don't think during  hunting season with a small number of shots it will be a problem, but for range work I may need some help.         

[Lone Star]

My M7600 has the old factory walnut stock and an afternoon of shooting .338-06 ammo through it does not cause brusing.  The 7-08 has much less recoil than the .338-06 does.  It sounds like you have two issues:

1 - The plastic buttplate is pretty hard.  A slip-on pad should help.
2 - Bruising on the bicep indicates not holding the rifle correctly.  Slip the butt into the "pocket" of the shoulder and see if this, along with the new pad, helps.

.

[Dave in WV]

I feel your pain (or have felt it).   Welcome to the world of 760/7600 rifles. They tend to have more felt recoil than most other rifles or so it seems. My 7600 7-08 gets a bit painful off the bench after a few shots.

I use a PAST recoil shield at the range. You slip the PAST recoil shield over your shoulder. It's usually cold here when I hunt with my rifles so I set my eye relief with my hunting coat on  and the recoil shield gives me proper eye relief in the summer. I like the recoil shield because it spreads the transfer of energy over a wider area than a recoil pad alone.

[High Brass]

As Dave in WV mentioned, the Remmy pumps stretch recoil a bit.  I'll tell you first hand that I've shot stout handloads in 30-06 out his (now mine) 760 pump and it hurt!   Here's what I have found:

Get the gun as high as you can off the bench.   Use sandbags, gun cases, whatever, to get it to where you are about as straight up sitting as possible.  Have the gun pulled to you and not leaning as much into the gun.   You'll roll with it more and not take as much of a beating.  The higher you sit, the less it'll bother you.  Same as being straighter up instead of hunkered down.  Make sure that the butt is well in the shoulder pocket each and every shot.   Take a 22LR with you to fool with between shot segments.   Above all, be honest with yourself.  No when you've had enough.  I'm sure we've all been there and have pushed the envelope but then you're not doing yourself any justice.  Good luck.

Chad

[.308 Win.]

  I have a PAST recoil pad, too.  I can vouch for their effectiveness.  I use it on my shoulder for every centerfire I shoot.  I've not owned a 7600 but I know which rifle you have with the black/gray laminate stocks and it's a gorgeous gun.  Try the PAST recoil pad.  You'll be happy you did.

[OLDHandgunner]

I have 2 Grice 7600's. The 7mm-08 is an older model ( bought it in 94 or 95 ) and a 35 Rem carbine ( bought last year ). I made the 7mm-08 into a carbine when I bought it. Both carbines have youth stocks on them. I prefer a shorter stock for better handling. I shoot 154gr Hornady's in the 7mm-08 and it don't kick that bad. Not like some 30-06's I've sighted in for guys. Some of these will bring a tear to your eye. My 11 year old granddaughter uses my sons 308 Rem 7600P for deer. This gun has a Limbsaver on it. She practices with 125's and hunts with 165's. She has 2 deer to her credit so far. When at the range I would go with the Past recoil pad like the others have said. Because the recoil doesn't bother or matter when you have that deer in your sights. 
It's not because anyones a wennie. It's because we want to enjoy shooting more at the range.
So enjoy that new 7mm-08, it's a great deer rifle.

[Siskiyou]

It is rather strange that I could shoot a M870 all day loaded with buckshot and rifle slugs at qualification and it never bothered me.  The M870 did not have a recoil paid.  And on the same day shoot up a couple of boxes of low base 8’s.

But I did not like the recoil of my M760 in .270 Winchester from the bench.  I went to work haying and earned enough to have a gunsmith install a recoil pad.  Problem solved.  In the field the M760 never bothered me.  But locked in at the bench it hurt.  I might have to buy a PAST recoil pad.  But over the years I have hung a gun case over my shoulder at the bench and that distributes the recoil over a large area.  Normally on a range day I will fire a number of centerfire rifles.  A quick count shows that I fired 60 centerfire rounds on my last range day.  Recoil was not and issue.

Frankly more punishing then the M760 in .270 was my Sav. 110CL in .270.  The 110CL with a Weaver 2.5X7 scope on it is about a pound lighter then my M760.   The 110CL came with a curved metal butt plate designed to transmit pain to the shooter.  I quickly installed a recoil pad on it.  It is now a favorite, light weight long range rifle.

The big difference between the M870 and the M760 was that I did not shot the M870 off the bench.

[Lone Star]

This subject of 'excessive' recoil in the 7600 bothered me, so this weekend I took the M7600/.338-06 out to the range - twice.  Shooting 200-grain loads at 2700 fps recoil was certainly there, but it seemed no worse to me than any other rifle of similar recoil - my .30-06 M700 shot the same day seemed to recoil the same with 180-grain loads.   Perhaps the issue off the bench is the sighting arrangement.   I have seen a number of M760s and M7600s with scope sights mounted way up high to clear iron sights.  I can imagine that with no good cheek weld to the stock, the recoil would smack the cheekbone hard.  My scope is mounted very low, the scope objective barely clears the barrel.   My cheek weld is almost as good as it is with my M870.



.

[cccombo]

install a limbsaver R3 recoil pad and problem solved! 

[mogwai]

  I have a PAST recoil pad, too.  I can vouch for their effectiveness.  I use it on my shoulder for every centerfire I shoot.  I've not owned a 7600 but I know which rifle you have with the black/gray laminate stocks and it's a gorgeous gun.  Try the PAST recoil pad.  You'll be happy you did.

Same here.  I never shoot any centerfire without putting on my PAST. 

[The Gamemaster]

When you take weight out of the rifle, it puts more recoil into the shooter.

If you replaced the plastic stock with a wood stock it would have less recoil.

I also have to agree with High Brass on this one.  You do not want to hunch down to shoot that model of gun.  Raise the platform of your shooting bench and sand bags until they are level with your shoulder and then shoot.

Hold the gun properly and know your limitations.

Don't shoot until you are stiff and sore.