Which Recoils the Least?

[parisite]

I'm going to order me a G2 barrel from MGM this week and I've narrowed my choices down to two calibers and I've never shot either in the Contender platform. They are the 30/30 and the 357 Max. Which will recoil the least and can I get some advice, as in your opinions?
Thanks for your responses.

[daniel2013]

In my opinion for what it is worth the 30/30 is not bad at all on recoil.  The 357 Max from what I understand makes a good little deer cartridge.  You can also shoot the 357 Mag. in the 357 Max. barrel.  Now I have shot at least two deer with the 357 Mag. but was not overly impressed with the damage it did.  You are not going to be able to walk into just any sports shop and pick up any 357 Max shells where you can get 30/30 shells almost anywhere.  I guess in the long run it all depends on what you want to use it for.  If you buy the 357 Max. you might also consider taking up  reloading your own shells as well.  As far as recoil I can't see a lot of difference in the 357 Mag and the 30/30, now seeing that the 357 Max is a stretched out version of the 357 Mag I would think that it would have a little more recoil then the 30/30.  I bought a 357 Max about a month ago to add to my collection.  I have some shells on backorder and have had a hard time finding any brass for it.  However this is not one of my main barrels and sooner or later the ammo and brass will fall into my lap.  If this is going to be your main barrel or one of your main barrels you might take that into consideration when you purchase your barrel.  Have you considered a 7 X 30 waters?  Brass is easily converted from 30/30 brass and it is an excellent deer cartridge.

[mcwoodduck]

I have two 30-30 barrels, on a 10" and the other a 14"  So far neither are really bad and I shoot the 170 grain bullets out of them.  But you know you shot a short rifle with either.  I can not really tell the difference between the 170, the 160, and the 150 grain bullets.
Being cheap I went with the 170s as they seem to be the most easy to find in my local stores and seem to be the cheapest compared to the rubber tipped 160's.
There are 125 grain soft points that would be perfect for deer and pronghorn and from what I remember about shooting them out of a rifle 30 some years ago they were easy on the shoulder out of an old Marlin 336. 
Now I also have a 14" 44 mag and I cna tell you the 180 grain rounds that I shoot easy out of my revolver are a handgull out of the 14" tube, even my light plinking loads are a surprise out of the longer tube. 
I mention this as the 357 Max shooting a 180 grain bullet is similar to the 180 44 mag load in speed.  and I think apples to apples the 30-30 has a little more recoil than the 180 grain out of the same length barrel (both barrels are open sights) 
The good thing about the 357 Max is that you can shoot 357 Mags out of it and the 158 grain standard Soft points are going to be more than enough for a deer, hog, or pronghorn as long as you do your part. 
Pure physics tell you that the 30-30 is going to have more recoil  170 grain bullet at 2300FPS vs 180 grain at 1700 FPS for the Max Again assuming a 14" barrel.  The shorter the barrel with the 30-30 to slower the bullet and the less the recoil, but not by much.
But change that to the lighter 125 grain bullets out of the 30-30 and I think you can swap that.  but I think is will be marginal for either  as to what has more recoil.

[shot1]

 I assume that you are a reloader because of the 357 Max in the mix. Being a reloader I would steer you toward the 30-30AI. You can shoot regular 30-30 Win it with great accuracy. That is how you get your 30-30AI cases. But the 30-30AI will really improve velocity over the regular 30-30Win without any more recoil or undue stress on your frame. Basically you can duplicate the velocity of a 20 to 22" rifle barreled 30-30Win with a 14" barrel 30-30AI. I have a MGM Shilen SS 14" 30-30AI barrel for my Contender and it is really accurate and it kills deer like the hammer of Thor. I use 33 grs IMR 4198 in a WW case with a Wolf LR primer and a 125 Nosler ballistic tip and get 2670 fps on average with consistent under 1 inch accuracy at 100 yards. Lee makes a set of FL dies for the 30-30AI that work great and they are no more expensive than their regular die set.
I have a 10" 357 mag barrel and with 13.5 grs H110 and a 180 gr Hornady XTP I can't tell any difference in the recoil between it and the 14" 30-30AI shooting the 125 gr bullet. Both have the identical scope and rings on them. Weaver 2.5-8X28 and Weaver steel base and rings.  The 30-30AI kills deer MUCH BETTER than the 357 mag does.

[Bullseye]

In my opinion the 357 Max is worse than the 30-30.  The 30-30 has more rise where the 357 Max comes more straight back and smacks your hand harder.  The 357 Max also seems to twist to me and pains my wrist.

[mcwoodduck]

In my opinion the 357 Max is worse than the 30-30.  The 30-30 has more rise where the 357 Max comes more straight back and smacks your hand harder.  The 357 Max also seems to twist to me and pains my wrist.

What weights and speeds are you tossing the 30-30 and the 357 Max

[Bullseye]

I shot 180 gr. XTP's with 18 gr's. of IMR 4227 in the Max., Hornady book shows 1,350 fps with this load.
 
I shot 150 gr. bullets with 30 gr.s of IMR 3031 in the 30-30, Hornady book shows 1,775 fps with this load.
 
I seem to be the only one that thinks this about the recoil of the Max, everyone else seems to love it.