Andrew,
I think you know what the answer is here. I hate to say it but the fact that you want to hear it from 100 other people is a sign of your own insecurity of shooting small calibers. I'm not picking on you here so just hear me out please. You're a big bore, big boom, and big bullet fanatic and anything else just won't do it for you or give you the "fix" that you get from shooting the "big guns". I too am a bit of a big bore and hot rod load fan as well but I constantly think about the ramifications of heavy explosions going off in my hand time after time after time. I have been a professional guitar player for most of my life not to mention that my hands are a crucial part of my life as they are for most everyone.
If you screw up your hands any further, you're going to be sorry. You won't be able to work, do recreational things like ride a bike, play with your kid (if you have one or plan on having any), type on a computer, write a check, heck, you may not even be able to wipe your own behind as age sets in within your years to come. (ask your wife if she'll want to do that for you
) You DARN WELL know the answer here! Shooting small bores and light recoiling guns in order to save your future and your ability to use your hands doesn't make you a proverbial "sissy", instead, given your circumstances, it will make you an intelligent and responsible man. If you go for anything less and damage your hands further then you're being foolish and you have no one to blame but yourself.
If you like shooting "big lead" you might try black powder, as suggested by the previous poster. While there is recoil, it's not lightning fast recoil, rather, it is a push or shove. There is an art, as I understand it, to loading and shooting black powder. Perhaps you can become an "artist" of these loads. The other alternative, provided you don't damage your hands any further, is to shoot smaller caliber pistols at long range. I have several T/C pistols in small calibers that hardly jump when fired on a rest yet it is quite challenging and enjoyable to sit and shoot 1.5" groups at 100 yards with them. Sometimes I forget all about my bigger stuff and am completely satisfied and challenged by messing with these loads. You might try .22 Hornet, .223, 30 carbine in a T/C pistol. The 30 carbine is really great fun in a T/C pistol or a Ruger Blackhawk with a scope mounted. It's the loudest son-of-a-gun and has the biggest muzzle blast you've ever seen too!
In a nutshell, there are other alternatives to being a shooter rather than just mashing your hand until you no longer can do so. You need to look yourself in the mirror and say "it's over for the big guns", except it, and begin to explore and perhaps become an expert with some of the other avenues of shooting. There are LOTS of them!
I wish you the very best of luck.
Blackhawker
